Sparrow

I think I have a special connection with birds.  Why or how I can't explain yet.  I am drawn to them, and I think they are drawn to me.  As a child and throughout my life I've almost always had a pet bird, a parakeet.
Last year a raven came in our back yard.  I am sure that it was someone's pet because it was so friendly and stood on my arm.  We spent a whole afternoon together.
A few days ago our cat brought in a baby sparrow.  So OK this bird didn't willingly come to me, but I was there to rescue it.  It was after midnight when the cat brought in the bird.  I had just gone to bed after working till midnight.  I heard my husband calling me and chasing the cat.  I ran downstairs and the little bird fluttered, trying to hide.  I picked it up and nested it in my hands.  It calmed down quickly.  I checked it out to see if it was hurt.  There were no visible wounds or blood.
I decided to keep it overnight and placed it in a box, with a little towel to keep it warm and cozy.  I kept the box in my craft room with the door closed, away from harm.
In the morning it was still alive.  I knew I couldn't keep it and raise it.  I try to feed it, it wouldn't eat. So I placed it in a little bird house I've had for a long time.  It was made of a small gourd and the baby sparrow fit in just right.  I took it out and tied it up to a tree where I have another bird feeder.  It took several hours for the baby sparrow to get the courage to get out of the nest, but it did.  It perched itself on a near by branch.  It sat there silently for another couple hours and then it was gone.  I hope it found its flock.
This picture my husband took of the sparrow in my hands.

100 Day Project

So I decided to participate.  A challenge is the best way to force yourself to do something that you have been meaning to do more of, but you've always found excuses.

I recently learned of an artist who is an inspiration to me.  Her name is Elle Luna, and I read a post for a 100 day project.  In other words, what will happen if you did something every day for 100 days.  Choose a project and do it.  I chose 100 days of letter writing.  So if somehow your address has ended up in my address book, you may be receiving something from me in the next 100 days.

Here is the first one, a postcard I made.  This one left today and it's going locally here in Phoenix.

Hawaii

It has been over two weeks since we came back from Hawaii, and finally tonight I found some time to sit down on the computer and document our impressions and our adventures.

It was the first time for all of us to Hawaii.  We went to Kona, the Big Island, the island of Hawaii.  And it was perfect all around: not to crowded, beautiful nature, and beautiful weather.

We went whale watching and ocean kayaking.  I couldn't get any good pictures of the whales, and I couldn't take my phone along when we went kayaking.

We didn't spend too much time laying on the beach.  We all love the beach, but we are not really beach vacationers.  We like to play for a little bit, but you won't find us laying on the beach all day.  When we did go to the beach, we went outside of town, where there were few or no people.  Here are some corals that I really wanted to take, but couldn't.

And we went to a beach with black sand.  Psst...I did take a little bit of sand back with me.

Although the island of Hawaii is the biggest one of all you can drive around it in one day.  The bio diversity is amazing.  You can see beach, fog, rain and snow in one day on the same island.

One day we drove to the southern most point of the island, which is also the southern most place of the USA.  It was very windy, but not cold.  The cliffs were high, and there were people jumping off them down in the ocean.  In the short hour or so that we spent there exploring and enjoying the scenery, I must have had a hundred anxiety attacks trying to keep track of two little kids running and jumping.  I got them to sit still, only feet from an abyss, ha ha ha.  Here they are:

And this is the southern most tip of the USA.

The day we drove up to the volcano, Mauna Loa, my son got sick.  He mostly stayed in the car, while we took turns going out and experiencing steam vents and rain and marveling at a real volcano.  

The east side of the island, the side where Hilo is is mostly covered in lava.  The first time we drove through it was dark.  It was also foggy, and rainy, and it felt eerie.  We had just left Hilo, and the weather was nice.  So the sudden fog, and darkness were not expected.  And then out of no where there was the military base.  

The next time we were on that side of the island it was the opposite, it was rainy in Hilo, but once we left it, the 'scary' area we saw only a couple of days earlier was bright.  Except for the lava...and nothing but lava.

And the sunset was beautiful illuminating the lava.

The clouds were epic almost every day.  One thing that I didn't expect to see was scenes like this one below, with small hills and yellow grass.  This is what I expect to see in Nebraska, not in Kona.

On the east side of the island, near Hilo there were two waterfalls.  The picture below is of Akaka waterfalls.  It's a beautiful 30 min walk if you take the long walk, only 5 min if you take the short walk.  We took the long walk.  We also saw another waterfall. Rainbow Falls.  But that time my phone was dead.  However, the experience there was even more interesting because you can walk up (very carefully) on almost the top of it.  There too trying to enjoy the views and the experience while trying to watch two very energetic kids was a lot of work.  

I saw this plant during our waterfall hike.  At first I thought it was some kind of stake because it was just on the side of a paved trail.  I thought it was some kind of marker, a stick, a stake....until I noticed it's alive and real.  And I don't know what it is.  Do you?

Aloha!

Post cards

Post card practice from a month ago.

Ghost town near Jerome

The sun was still up high when we left Sedona, so we decided to make a quick stop in Jerome.  This time a year the town was full of tourists, so we drove right past all of them, all of the small shops and attractions, all of the art galleries and we stopped at the end of the road at the ghost town.  

There we saw junk, rust, gears, chickens, goats and a donkey.

Sedona

I have done a lot of traveling this year, and it's only two months in.  The photos below are from a day trip we took about a couple of weeks ago in Sedona and a quick stop in Jerome.  Sedona is about 2hrs from Phoenix, and then you can make a loop following Hwy 89, stop in Jerome and wind back down to the valley.

These trips are good, the fill me in with experiences, ideas, feelings and sometime that is what I need to keep on going.  

We stopped at Slide Rock State Park and explored.

These marks were on a rock, a sort of stepping rock and the markings were on the vertical wall.  They looked interesting so I took a picture of it.

And then I noticed several wood trunks where the bark was gone and all that was left were these markings that bugs had made.  A sort of designer bugs.

These greenish/gray marks on rock are lichen.  I really love the grunge like look.

Before we left the sun was high up and was illuminating these weeds that probably otherwise I would  have not noticed.

I will catch you up to our quick stop in Jerome on my next post.  I am quite a bit behind I know.  And I have a trip coming up tomorrow.  Hawaii!!  Yes, I know....I will be even more behind.

Needlefelted hearts

A couple of weeks ago I was near by the yarn shop where I learned how to needlefelt.  I stopped by, and walked out with some pink wool.  And now...some of that pink wool, is pink hearts.  I added a pin in the back to make them wearable art.

Balboa

Before we headed back home from our Legoland trip we stopped at Balboa park.  One can spend days hopping from one museum to another.  But with kids, we only visited two.  The Museum of Man and the Railroad Museum.  Patrick likes trains, most kids do I think.  And....a nice surprise, there is a lego room with lego trains at the Railroad museum.

And you can't skip the rose garden if you are at Balboa.  So we had to stop, and smell the roses.

This fountain caught my eye and I took a picture of it.

We saw these huge balboa trees (I think that's what these were).  Their bark was carved with names and love notes as high as people's hands could reach.  A bit sad.

And where it was not touched by humans, age and nature had left its marks.

And last, this beautiful plant called Candelabra tree.  A bit of a monster-looking cactus...