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.

Farm Animals and Birds

Growing up as a city girl, I barely had any experience in a farm or ranch. I have always been interested in flowers and vegetation, but not animals. I wonder why.

When I was six, our neighbor took me to their country house for the weekend.  There was widespread of tea growing on the hillside. Women from the house are all out working in the field harvesting tea leaves. I was sent by the grandma of the house to deliver the lunch to our neighbor, a young woman of 20 something.

As I walked up the hill, I heard a meeh- meeh- behind me.  I looked back and saw a goat, it was my first time to see a goat.  I was a bit scared and tried to walk faster. The faster I walked, the tighter the goat followed me.  I started to run, and so did the goat.  I did not know what to do except screaming and crying all the way till I saw the adults.  The moment when I buried myself in the crowd, the goat left. I was told the goat followed me because I wore a red dress.

Don’t know since when petting zoos become popular.  My girls had petted farm animals in the zoo many times when they were little. Why could they immediately come close to the animals without any fear and I was so scared by a goat? I think it is the unknown and solitude create the fear.  How lucky our kids and grandkids are these days when the environment is catered to make them feel safe and comfortable?

Many years ago when I was in New Zealand on business, I visited a sheep shearing facility. It is amazing to see how much wool can be sheared out of a sheep. By the time when the shearing is done, they look like newborn babies.   Here at home I saw them grazing at the field along the freeway, they look like cotton balls from distance, soft and fluffy. When I finally got my 400 mm telephoto lens, I stopped by a farm and took some pictures.  People said sheep are dumb, are they really? They certainly looked alert and protective to their minors when I had a long lens pointing at them.

We are usually so busy in living or enjoying what we do. I wonder how many people actually spend time to monitor wild birds and domesticated animals around us. Birds come to our feeders and go.  Large herd of turkey family is around most of the time and some neighbor may have lodged some chickens in their backyard for fresh eggs.  I spotted them every once a while.  But they are just being there, I did not know what these creatures are also spying on us the Big Beings.  They kept their eyes on us for fear that we might attack them or one of the chickens may eventually become dinner on the table.

Smart or dumb, these animals and birds also have feelings and they are alert to their surroundings like we do. I have often wondered what are they thinking when they are looking at us? Is rooster afraid that he has come to his life end, I saw fear in his eye. The goose looked cautious while he was slowly moving his steps. I bet he is trying to decide when he should open his wings and soar to the sky. Mr. Turkey has been strolling around with his full costume displayed. "Look at me" is the message that I read from his eyes.  Male is dominating in animal kingdom and they usually look more stunning than females. Male turkey may have an outstanding crown and colors, but I think they are one of the ugliest creatures.

Animals and birds are so protected in this country vs China where many creatures are living in poor condition or being used for commercial purpose.  Just to give a few examples that I witnessed. Cormorants in China are fisherman's aid. China fishermen put a clip on their throat in order that they would not swallow the fishes upon capture.  The cormorants I saw here are freely catching fishes as their food.  They can swim on the river or porch on tree limbs, nobody bothers them.

A peacock was injured in my neighborhood years ago. People called 911 to send the bird to the animal hospital for treatment. On the other hand, when I was touring southwest China a few years ago, I saw two beautiful peacocks were tied on the wood poles. A farmer was carrying them on his shoulder and show them around to the tourists to collect money. Even though they were created equal to start, but where they landed do determine their lives.  I am only talking about animals here. You can imagine how diversified our human's lives are in different parts of the world. Some day I like to address this subject....