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Author Archives: Teri J Pieper

A Break in the Weather

Earlier this month I spent a few days at Pacific Beach on the Washington coast. The weather was mostly unpleasant with powerful winds, lots of rain and high surf warnings. This is the second year in a row I’ve experienced bad weather in December on the coast. Hmmm. Next year, let’s not plan to do that!

There was one partially sunny break in the weather and I took advantage of it and hurried outside with my camera and tripod and the dogs to watch and photograph the waves. I got maybe an hour out there before it began to rain again and I took my equipment inside. Too bad. I learned that I missed seeing a magnificent rainbow over the little community of Seabrook. A friend, Sheila Siden, has a place there and she was on the beach at the same time I was and she captured the photo of me and the dogs. I saw her from a good distance away in her orange raincoat. Later that day I saw on facebook that she was in Seabrook and saw her photos. You can see her image of the rainbow here.

This is the landscaping in front of the cabin. The pond just kept expanding into the grass!
This stream was more like a river.
With my tall boots, I was able to cross it, very carefully.
You can see the edge of the Seabrook community behind the row of trees in the background.
Sand shrimp sign
I like watching waves.
Me and my dogs. Photo by Sheila Siden.

More New Snow

We already have a good layer of snow on the ground – enough to last us most of the winter, I imagine. And today it’s snowing some more. We had a nice walk in the white stuff while Ken got out his classic skis to make some trails around our hill. It’s a nearly black and white world around here.

Look! I found a new stick!
Oh look, there’s Ken!
Are you taking all that home with you Luna?

Photo Encaustics at the Winthrop Gallery

Lately I’ve been working on some new photo encaustics and have been pretty happy with the results. What are photo encaustics? They are a combination of printed photos, beeswax, texture and pigments – a mixed-media alternative photo process. It’s a very tactile process compared to the many hours that I spend behind the computer processing digital files. I quite enjoy it. I have been using wood substrates – mostly lumber scraps and some cradled boards too. It’s  time consuming and fraught with all sorts of potential results and they are not always good. I have melted and scraped much wax off of my boards. And melted and brushed some more. The end results are often unexpected but always interesting. You can see some of these hanging at the Winthrop Gallery.

Frozen Falls Creek Falls

Yesterday was a lovely day to visit Falls Creek Falls. It is a short drive from Winthrop and I love to see it in any season. Never mind that the temperature was probably hovering around ten or that the sun had already descended beyond the mountains. The falls were incredibly beautiful and partially frozen and we could drive to the trail. So far there is not enough snow to close the road although there is enough that you might want four wheel drive.

Each section of the falls presented its own little vignette of ice and water. It was hard to decide where to point my camera next and when to stop. Part of the time, my feet in their warm pack boots, were partially submerged in the edge of the creek. My tripod had ice up to the top of the first section when I was done! Cold hands brought me to a finish before I was ready to be done.

This is the creek downstream from the falls at the road.
Ken made this picture of me when I was standing in the creek.

Here is another view of the falls in winter when we had to ski to the trailhead.

A Tiny Guest at Breakfast

Early last week I sat down to eat breakfast and noticed that I had a guest. Just outside the window was a Northern Pygmy-owl perched on the deck railing. So close I could almost touch the bird. These owls are very small – less than seven inches long with a wing span of twelve inches and weighing 2.5 ounces! They have false ‘eyes’ on the back of their head in order to confuse potential predators. They nest in tree cavities in conifer or deciduous forests in the mountains and move to lower elevation when the snow falls. They eat small rodents and songbirds as well as insects. This bird was watching my feeders where there were at least three types of finches to choose from – House Finch, American Goldfinch, Pine Siskins.

My breakfast got cold as I watched and photographed the owl. It didn’t mind when I moved around inside the house, trying to find a place where the windows weren’t too dirty. My camera was more interested in focusing on the dirty windows rather than the owl! Finally Sky noticed the owl and walked towards it with evident curiosity. At first the owl didn’t seem bothered by her but then she barked and the owl flew to a new perch.