No words needed...

Headache...

Ever been afraid to go to sleep because you know the headache you woke up with, that almost went away in the late afternoon, will probably come back as soon as you lay your head on the pillow?

Linked 52 - Romance...

Oh my, this one was very hard. 

Romance is so many things to me,

here are just a few...

packing a light dinner, a bottle of wine and a blanket

listening to music at Lake Harriet Bandshell

walking around the lake after the concert

holding hands

watching the sky turn orange and pink as the sun sets

listening to the sounds of the evening

sitting by the fire pit on our new patio

that we built ourselves

music softly playing

sitting side by side with this man

holding hands

Swans...

On the Mighty Mississippi, in the city of Monticello, MN, there is an area of the river that stays open year around. An area that is home to a great many duck, geese and Trumpeter Swans.

In Wabasha, which is in southeastern MN, there is another area in the river that stays open year around, and there you can find eagles.

This year there doesn't seem to be any problem with the river being open anywhere. We just live a couple blocks away from the Mississippi, and I don't remember it ever not having ice. Scary! We don't have any swans here, but we have our share of ducks and geese, it must be a tad too cold for swans.

I've been hearing people talk about the swans in Monticello for the past couple of years, so yesterday after church, we took advantage of the beautiful clear blue sky and the 40+ degree weather and took a drive up to Monticello to see for ourselves. We saw a few swans through the trees as we were driving, but no Swan Park, so we got out our trusty smart phones and relied on Google: swans in monticello mn. This is what we found.  A woman dubbed The Swan Lady lives right on the river, and feeds them nearly 900 lbs of food everyday, she has a huge deck that people are encouraged to use for picture taking. We got there a little after feeding time and the swans were all gone, but tons of ducks and geese were still there, making just a huge racket. We got back in our car, drove back to where we had spotted them through the trees, found a parking spot across the street, waded through the brush to get to the river bank, and were greeted with this...

They were everywhere, honking and quacking, flying and soaring, taking off and landing. It was pretty cool.
I took so many photos...good thing too, because most of them were completely washed out. I'll have to go back and try again. I even had it set on auto, so I wouldn't have to futz around with settings. hmmm, I apparently did something wrong.

I took a bunch of non-wildlife photos too...

Sunday turned out to be a wonderful day for a drive and some sightseeing.

On the way home, David suggested we stop for some ice cream, I suggested pie. Try to find a little shop that has either of those anymore that isn't a chain. Ha! We ended up at Perkin's. Apple pie ala mode for him and Cherry pie ala mode for me, along with some excellent coffee. Yum!!

Linked 52 - Body parts...

I seem to be a procrastinator of the worst kind.
I was thinking it would be kind of cool to take a photo of body parts of me, my husband, my dog Annie and at least one of my cats, showing the difference in say...our ears, or nose, or eye, but I procrastinated until the last minute and it just did not happen.
So, I guess I'll need to be satisfied with what I did get done.
Here are a few of My body parts...

Click on Linked 52 above to find the names of all the talented women that posted their take on Body parts.

Linked 52 - Quiet...

A fire is many things...

A fire roars when it is well built and burning hot.

A fire crackles, spits and sparks when it is burning a branch from a dried, discarded Christmas tree.

A fire is romantic with a glass of wine,
a blanket,
and that "someone special".
A fire is therapeutic when a problem needs some thinking done.

A fire can be very noisy, when it is busy consuming twigs, branches and logs.

For me, a fire is mesmerizing.
I stare at the fire and I'm drawn into it's depth. 
It consumes all my thought, sight and sound.
For me...a fire is Quiet.




(Click on Linked 52 and check out what others have to say and show about Quiet.)

Wordless Wednesday...

Simple one Saturday...

Peaceful...

I took this photo while walking the trail near the camels this last Monday, while I was at the zoo.

It makes me happy.

It's dead, yet seems alive, just waiting until Spring

when it can bring forth new life.

Linked 52: Sleep...

I no longer have cute, darling little kids to take sleeping photos of, (they're the absolute best!)
I have two cats and a dog that can be cute and darling when they sleep, but I didn't really want to use them for this project.
I have a husband that sleeps..All.The.Time, but he sometimes reads my blog and I didn't think he would appreciate me showing a photo of him sleeping...it's not really cute or darling. (sorry sweetie)

Soooo, I took a trip to the MN Zoo to try and get a great, good, okay, decent photo of the Grizzly Bears sleeping (hibernating). It seemed like a really good idea, until I got there and noticed they were sleeping in a big clot. A clot of grizzlies, Big, furry, grizzlies.

Well, as you can see, it's hard to tell there is even a face there, and the glass (on their side) was filthy from their slobber and who knows what else, so I had to try and dodge the slime marks and focus in a relatively clean area, which wasn't working and they all kind of blended together, and there was no focal point, and my idea was squashed, if I couldn't get a decent photo of grizzly bears sleeping, I had to think of something else. I continued to wander the zoo and was able to get some pretty good photos of other animals that I posted yesterday (if you want to take a look) then decided I'd had enough and should probably head on home and try to beat the rush hour traffic. On my way out, I had to walk past the grizzly exhibit and thought I'd try one more time to hopefully get a decent photo of those sleeping bears.

WELL, Did you know, bears (of any kind) that hibernate can be woke up??
They don't really sleep the entire winter.
They don't really sleep the sleep of the dead.
They just sleep...a lot!!

This is what I found when I stopped by a second time to get a photo of sleeping grizzlies.

They were awake and having fun. They were supposed to be aSLEEP.

They were moving pretty fast for bears that were sleeping just 1/2 hour ago, and I've seen how fast they can move when it isn't "sleep" time, so I really believe that if I came across a grizzly (actually any bear would do) out in the wild, I wouldn't have to worry about needing to "play dead" if it decided I was a threat and came after me, because I would die of fear first! They are very large animals and very beautiful and very playful. They are my favorite exhibit to visit, followed very closely by the tigers, bird show and gibbons.

If any of you every come to Minnesota, please set aside a day and visit the MN Zoo, you won't regret it.

Maybe my daughter could show you around because I Believe she will someday be a MN Zoo zookeeper.

Be sure to click on Linked 52 on the top bar to see all of the other talent and their interpretation of Sleep.

A look around...

 Every so often I simply Have to go to the zoo, and  I'm not exactly sure why. I love seeing the animals, their personalities are so different and the expressions they make and the things they do always makes me and my family talk for the animals, it get hilarious, depending on which family member is doing the talking. When I go by myself, I still make the animals talk, I just don't do it out loud.
The bird show is something I rarely ever miss. Kira does something similar in her job as a zookeeper at the Phoenix Zoo, and it's my hope and wish that someday she will get a job at the MN Zoo and finally move back home...where she belongs! ha! I would be soooo happy to have another of my chicks at home.

I love sitting in the 'fly zone', either inside or out. I've seen the show so many times and even though it is changed every so often to liven things up, they still have birds fly down to the stage from up behind the audience. When that Great Horned Owl flies right over my head, there is no sound, but there is a sort of whoosh as his body just sails over my head. It's so cool.

The Minnesota Trail is getting a Black Bear exhibit this fall that I'm pretty excited to see. Right now that area is sealed off so we can't even see the progress. I guess I'll just have to be patient, and satisfy myself with some of the other animals found there.

Like the wolves. The female is very light and the new male they've had a few months is quite dark. 

The female is in heat and the keepers are hoping they will mate, but as of this last Monday, they have had no luck.

The aquarium is my least favorite part of the zoo, even though I always take a look, I can pretty much take it or leave it. I did get some good photos of the sea horses though.

I ended the day by wandering the outside trails and this is what I found.

As I neared the Tiger Lair, I heard roaring and huffing...how COOL! He just kept roaring as he walked back and forth in front of the glass viewing area.