Teri J Pieper

Author Archives: Teri J Pieper

Winter at Home

December 27, 2014 – 12:27 pm
Posted in winter
Tagged bromeliad, dogs, Methow Valley, winter
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Christmas is done; it’s almost New Year’s; the Solstice is passed and the days are getting longer. It’s snowing this morning. The sled run is ready to go. Here are a few images from yesterday morning.

Sunrise on Isabella Ridge.

Morning dog walk

Goat Peak and the North Cascades

I wonder if I will like the dead trees better when the red needles are gone?

Our steep icy driveway

My, what a big nose you have, Sky.

Luna just doesn’t like to look at the camera.

Maybe if I have a cookie

My bromliad has four blooms coming on.

Morning

Agility with Sky

Before we went to the beach we attended an agility trial at Argus Ranch Facility for Dogs near Black Diamond. It was Sky’s very first trial. We started training last spring and gradually added more obstacles throughout the year and finally she was old enough and ready to give it a try. It was very fun! And it was a real learning experience. She and I have a lot to work on but right now she looks like she has great potential. Watching the videos it is apparent that the only thing slowing her down is me! On her first run at her first event she got a qualifying score and a blue ribbon. She had seven other chances over the weekend and while we both had a lot of fun, there were no more ribbons. Like I said, we have a lot to work on.

Here is the video from that first run:

As you can see, she was ready to go before I was!

Dogs on the Beach

Well, of course we took the dogs! And of course they had fun!

Where’s the ball

Sky wants that ball

Luna got a ball

Sky got a ball

Frida wants a ball

Frida got a ball

See how fluffy her normally sleek tail looks? That’s from the powerful wind.

Wind blows her ears back

White socks from all the sea foam

Birds on the Beach

December 19, 2014 – 10:06 am
Posted in Washington coast
Tagged bald eagle, beach, shorebirds, Washington coast
Comments (1)

I’ve never been very good at identifying shorebirds. It used to be that I birded with some experienced birders and I could muddle my way through the peeps and such but not anymore. And this time of year, the birds are in winter plumage so very few clear ID marks stand out for me. Someday I’d like to go to Alaska in the late spring and see the breeding shorebirds decked out in all their fine feathered plumage. But for now I will have to settle for wintering birds on the Washington coast once in a while.

This Bald Eagle didn’t seem to bother the shorebirds.

He finally moved on.

Two gulls.

Beautiful patterns when they fly.

Scenes from the Coast

We had a week away from home and got to spend a few days on the Washington coast at Grayland. Digging razor clams was our goal but the weather interfered with that. The locals warned us that high winds and heavy surf cause the clams to not ‘show’ and they were right. The first night of digging Ken and I got our limits but it wasn’t easy. The next two nights we did not get anymore than a small clam appetizer. It was pretty silly. At one point the wind was blowing about 40 mph and the rain was coming down sideways, in sheets. The beach had a steady stream of water running down to ocean. It was one of the dumber things we’ve ever done. I asked the owner of the place where we were staying, how often does it blow like this and he said it had been at least a couple of years. The next day it blew even harder! Clam digs were at night because that’s when the low tides occurred. Hopefully we can return in the spring when low tides are during the day! We did manage to get out and enjoy the beach a little bit even with the wind and rain and one afternoon the sun came out. I drove down to Tokeland to buy some crab and got to watch the waves from a better vantage point. A day or two after we left, some homes between Grayland and Tokeland fell into the water as a result of the high surf. The place is called Washaway Beach.