True grit – Pretentious – Natural

Growing up in Taiwan, I saw some legendary aged trees, but nothing like what I see here in Northwest. It takes me a long time to distinguish fir from cedar, and to determine if it is an aspen or birch. Last year our rear neighbor’s 20 feet cedar landed on our deck railing and dent our railing. That was a little scare, but our two-year old deck bounced right back.  I did not feel threatened. If not for recent snow storm incident, I have no clue what impact may cause from a 50 feet fallen tree.

Up high

Trees and greens make this region unique and attractive to people who enjoy being surrounded by nature. Nature is beautiful, loving and also dangerous sometimes. 

Two more oak trees adjoining to the fallen one can cause potential hazard in future snow storms and we were alerted to cut them down. It is quite expensive to cut down trees and I can never figure out why till I watched this logging event. 

This guy was high up in the tree for more than three hours all together.  He may have come down once to take a short break and that’s all. With my 300mm lens, he looks that tiny, you can imagine how high he was.

It is quite a dangerous endeavor. He has to climb up the tree, set up his work station between the trees with chains saw equipped, with channel of ropes (to convey the removals) and belted himself to the tree he is cutting. Then, he started to cut a few feet each time from top, tie the limb off the tree and lowered it down to the ground, re-stationed himself on a lower tier and cut another piece. 

Cowboy roper

There is quite a maneuver between each fragment of the work. He has to be a climber, a roper, a gymnastic. a mechanic and be quick to respond the unexpected hazard. 

Just by watching, I can feel my nerve is constantly restrained and I held on my breath whenever he was doing the cutting. If any section of the tree broke unexpectedly, he could easily fall with it.  

We are tiny and our life fragile in front of these big trees.

The guy is apparently enjoying what he was doing. Every time when I came out to check on him, he would put out a big smile. I adore his spirit and I prayed that all things went well and it did.....

Life on tree

Early in the morning with a hint of sunshine. I was out testing the temperature before I headed out for a walk. I opened the door and saw a commotion, the whole flock of turkeys took over our street, male and female. It was a Turk invasion. There were at least 15-20 of them right in front of our house.

Catwalk models (gals)?

Scottish pipers (guys)?

I ran back inside to grab my camera. As I came closer, they were slowly scattered,
but I was able to snap a few shots for fun.

It is spring time when all creature are active pursuing their mates. Gals were walking down the catwalk and guys are having their macho exhibits. Looking pretty funny and entertaining actually.

A friend often said, these are useless creatures. Other than pulling my flower starters from my yard and make a mess. I have to agree that I found no use for them, no, I take it back. They come around in spring and completely disappeared at Thanksgiving time. I wonder why..... I know they got to be created for a purpose.

Another pretender : Opening a drawer, I spotted a tiny SPIDER inside a divider. I have to admit that out of fear, I wanted to take its life instantly so it would not crawl into other space, but it moved so fast that I could not catch up. Instead, I quickly removed everything from the divider to isolate IT. Guess that? IT coiled itself into a ball faking death. Immediately when my finger were reaching close to IT, IT was ready to run again. A tiny spider has a brain and knows the art of war. Aren't you amazed? Instead of crushing him to claim my victory, I decided to send him down the toilet. But, if he comes back again, I won't make the same mistake twice.....

Spring is here. It is hard not to take some flower pictures. There is also a reason that I love to take flower pictures.  They are created to be pretty, but they don't go out of their way to promote it. We treat them nicely with water and sunshine, they appreciate and return with beauty for us to enjoy. They don't have to show off. We are naturally attracted to and discover them.

Calla Lily and Clematis are my favorite. They are common flowers, but I find their quiet confidence and understated beauty very appealing. For this reason, I did not want to do any post processing, no texture either. I like them to look natural and truthful.

Tree guy prompts my admiration. Turkeys make me laugh. Spider makes me sneer. Flowers make me smile, from the heart.