Thursday, April 30, 2009

Hummingbirds

If my bird book is right I'm pretty sure this is a Calliope hummingbird.  They took a little longer to get here than the Allen's & Rufous hummingbirds.


The birds are already getting quite numerous as well as brave.  They are starting to ignore anyone who walks on the deck or even the open window where I'm snapping pics.


I love how they twist and turn.


And how their wings reminds me of angels.


Other times they sit so still.


But I do like to catch them in motion.




This one has it's landing gear down and is coming in for a landing :)


Touchdown!


Now how did that little cutie get in here :)  Lexi, my granddaughter, enjoying sweet potato with her brand new front tooth!

Friday, April 24, 2009

April Showers...

After the snow in the last post I thought I'd show some spring activity :)  Let's hope that snow will be a distant memory until the end of the year!

The chrysanthemum Grandma bought me for my birthday, it's not looking too great and I'm hoping that by planting it outside it will spring back to life.










A bowl of grapes and strawberries hits the spot.




Have a great weekend everyone!

If you'd like to see how I set up these shots check out this video at YouTube.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Zipped to Kamloops

Dallas and I zipped off to Kamloops early this morning.  The insurance expires on my truck tomorrow and, for reasons I won't go into here, I won't renew it in Lillooet, although I do get it from the same company over in Kamloops.  It wouldn't have been such a hard hit on my wallet today if I didn't have to pay for six points on my license!  I blogged one speeding ticket I got back in May but didn't have the heart to blog that I got another one just four months after that one (blush).  By getting two tickets in one year that's six points, so besides paying the ticket fines (roughly $350.00) they send you a bill for (hang onto your hats) $300 dollars for penalty points!  Two tickets, 2 fines, & 6 points = $650.00, yeesh that would have bought a nice lens for my camera!  Needless to say I've been sticking pretty darn close to the limit when I drive :)  But now that my birthday has passed I can get one speeding ticket and not pay any penalty points as long as I don't get two... I should have floored it on the way home today! (kidding, I'm kidding!)

I had to drive into Lillooet to pick up Dal because she was scared to drive out this way due to the Big Slide.  We had a heck of a windstorm last night and there were quite a few rocks down in the slide... actually some were actively coming down when I drove through and I'm pretty sure the guy behind me might have gotten hit.  When I drive through the slide I really try to time it (speed up, slow down) to avoid the active rocks but sometimes you can't help but get hit.  The other key thing is to drive fast and at the same time dodge the rocks that have already come downThe less time you're in there the less chance of being hit :)

The weather was okay this morning but when we hit Pavilion we were in for a shock!  Dallas grabbed my camera and snapped a few pictures from the truck.


Can you believe snow in April?  Heck yesterday we just got our first hummingbird at the Ranch and I hung up the feeders!  Pavilion must be quite a bit higher than Lillooet to get this much snow.  All the snow was gone when we came through heading for home so it must have mildly warmed up during the day, but it wasn't exactly what I call hot.

Dal took a photo of a waterfall and it's frozen solid, brrrr.


Just before hitting Pavilion Lake I hollered at Dal that there was a coyote near the road.  She managed to get a quick couple of shots and this was about the clearest one.  I didn't have the right lens on my camera so I think she did pretty good getting a pic of the coyote at all :)



After shopping at Costco, Wal-Mart, and Michaels we headed for home.  About 15-20 minutes out of Kamloops we stopped at the "Balancing Rock."  The lake in the photo is Kamloops Lake.




A closeup of the rock.  One of these days I'm sure that rock is going to come tumbling down but it's been there ever since I can remember so you never know ;)



On the Lillooet/Cache Creek highway we stopped at Pavillion Lake and I snapped some pics of the only island on it.  I have no idea who owns it but it's quite a quaint little place.  It's a very tiny island quite close to the road and you can practically throw a rock across to it.  The water is so clear you can see the bottom and at the right time of year you can see schools of fish swimming by the shore.

Left side of the island.



This is the right side of the island.


In the winter the owners can walk to their cabin because the lake is frozen solid.  Lots of people go ice fishing, and seeing skidoo's (and the occasional truck) on the ice is quite common.  It looks like there used to be a wharf because old timbers lay under the water. I guess this time of year, and all summer long, they go by boat or raft now that the wharf is gone.


Well that was my day, I'm beat and heading for bed, have a great night all :)

Monday, April 20, 2009

Clouds over Lillooet & Lytton

We had two power outages today/tonight but the power was pretty quick coming back on the second time around.  When the power is down I check in on the BC Hydro website to see updated stats.  Sometimes they are pretty good about the time the power is going to be restored, but other times they are waaaay off.  At least the power comes back on long before they say it will because I don't like it when it's the other way around.

Tonight the sky was spectacular so I grabbed my camera and snapped a few shots.  All of these shots are SOOC (straight out of the camera) other than being resized for the web.

This is looking towards Lillooet.
7:29 PM


Lillooet
8:04 PM


Lillooet
8:10 PM


Towards Lytton.
8:09 PM


Lytton
8:12 PM

I think we are in for a very hot day tomorrow.  It certainly was t-shirt weather today and even now, at 10:45ish PM, it's 18C/64F. I don't think I'm going to light the woodstove tonight even though it might be a bit chilly in the morning but I don't want to sweat it out all day waiting for the thing to burn out... on the plus side the kids will move fast in the AM :)

Saturday, April 18, 2009

More Portraits

With no rain in sight and Pops not doing anything with the cows/calves right now it looks like I'm outta luck for getting a portrait pic of him.  I asked Sydney if she'd be into doing a photo shoot and she was happy to oblige.

I wish I could send them all in because one by itself doesn't say much but all of them together sort of tell a story.









Friday, April 17, 2009

A Portrait

What does a portrait mean to you?  Is it a posed position of a person in a studio setting?  Is it a candid photo of a person's face?  Or would an animal do?

Would you consider this picture a portrait:


I'm stuck in my photo course, and I'm asking for your help again :)  They've asked for a portrait picture and I don't want to send in the standard posed pic.  Last Saturday we took the kids up the powerline road and on the way home there were quite a few sheep at the end of our driveway.  I caught this one looking right at me and thought that I would send it in.  Any thoughts?

The last time we were up at the powerline there was still snow but things are greening up a bit.  It looks smokey because of all the fires in Lytton and surrounding area.  Most are controlled burns but a few have gotten out of hand and the smoke is quite thick on days with no wind.
The Ranch:


The kids decide to go for a walk up the hill.  Jevan and Sydney are in the center of the pic and if wasn't for Sydney's pink pants and Jevan's white shirt I think I would have lost them!


Jevan overlooking the Ranch.


And one last pic of Teddy Bear.

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Just a Swingin'

After the chocolate was eaten and the eggs were found Hubby decided to prune the willows in our yard.



The willows have been overgrown for awhile and we are losing a lot of grass, it's was time to go :) Hubby's idea of pruning is using the chainsaw. He doesn't care what time of year it is, April a good time to prune? I have no idea, but there's lots more sunlight on our lawn now.



Even Billy was fascinated and quickly ran up a tree for a closer look.



Sydney was dragging her bottom lip and was pretty much in tears when she saw what Hubby had done to the trees. She whined about not being able to climb them anymore and things got worse when she had to help pack limbs to the road.



Jevan was happy to help. (Ignore the Easter sticker on his arm, and I'm glad you can't see his badly ripped pants).




I suggested to Hubby that maybe we could hang a tire in one of the trees. Well you would have thought that I told Sydney we could do Easter all over again! She quickly helped her Daddy grab a tire & some rope, and scrambled up a tree.



She waited patiently for Hubby to attach the tire, a wee smile back on her face.



First try on the tire.



Not quite sure about getting on!



She runs to get Jevan.



And Jevan isn't scared of anything... :)