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The First Book of Sky

Those who have read this blog for a while know that we got a new puppy back in October and her name is Sky. She is now seven months old and was spayed yesterday. She is a great puppy – the staff at the vet clinic was very impressed with her mellowness. We love her to pieces. She’s very trainable and pays attention as long as there is food or a ball involved. She will be a good hunting dog and she will start agility training this spring. She was ten pounds when we brought her home and now she weighs 52 pounds!

Last month I started a puppy book for her and I called it The First Book of Sky. It is a handmade book. Several years ago I took a bookmaking workshop from Door #3 Print and Book Arts Studio in Twisp but I confess, it’s been nearly three years since I made any books and I am out of practice. So I made a few mistakes with this one but it looks pretty good anyway. It’s an accordion book. All the pictures came from my Instagram stream. Here is the book and images I used in it.

The finished project
Was she ever really this small?
Let me in the garden. Now.
She loves her walks
She takes after her big sister
I could use a boost
Do you see the owl?
Aren’t we just the cutest?
Tired dogs are good dogs
LOL!
Her and her shadow
Look over there!
I got a pine cone
Ready to drive. Where are the keys?

Hot Air Balloons in Winthrop

During the first full weekend in March, Winthrop’s Morning Glory Balloon Tours hosts a Balloon Roundup and hot air balloons from all over the Pacific Northwest show up and launch (weather permitting) next to the river three mornings in a row. It’s a fun event and certainly one that all photographers love. Colorful balloons, blue skies, snow-covered mountains – what else could you want?

Getting started
The basket
Waiting for the air
Testing the flame
How does it look in there?
Holding on
Rising off the ground
Almost vertical
And there goes the first one – our local balloon from Morning Glory Balloon Tours
A flock of geese goes by
I like the moment when they go from horizontal to vertical
What’s not to like about this?
Almost full
This one is not round
Up, up and away …..

Spring Skiing

In March we are often blessed with bluebird skies and great ski conditions. This year is no exception, in fact it might be better than usual. With all the new snow last month, MVSTA will probably be grooming miles and miles of ski trails throughout March. Cold nights make for firm trail platforms and good crust skiing and bluebird skies call you to leave the computer behind and go outside.

Yesterday MA said that Big Valley was being groomed and we ought to go and take the dogs. Her dog, Frida will pull her for a real skijoring experience. I think Sky will be trying that next winter when she is full grown. That puppy is now well over fifty pounds and almost seven months old. At the river yesterday she had her first swimming experience! That’s a red letter day for any Labrador. She took to it just as I expected – with vigorous energy. Now we know why she has such big feet – they are her paddles.

Sky
Frida
Luna
Dogs just want to have fun
I can get it!
Is she part seal?
Quizzical

 

There and Back

It was nice to be able to visit friends both coming and going to and from the beach. We saw old friends and their dogs. On the way we stopped in Olympia and had five black dogs altogether! Going to the beach I was lucky to have perfect driving weather with blue skies and no rain or snow. Coming home was a different story. Snoqualmie Pass was closed for avalanche control and opened shortly after I got there. Most cars had to put on chains. Lucky me with my AWD and traction tires, I could skip that tiresome step. Still, the going was slow with bumper to bumper traffic all the way over. A drive that normally takes half an hour took two hours! I was greatly relieved to arrive in Cle Elum and take a break. Blewett Pass was not in bad shape – just compact snow but folks were driving too fast or too slow and it took longer than usual too. What a relief to arrive at Kim’s house. The next day, it was snowing hard in the Wenatchee valley and we enjoyed a walk in the orchard before I left. It weather improved as I got farther north and across the Columbia for the last time. Sadly there was a terrible accident and the highway was closed for three hours and I had to backtrack and take a longer detour through still another snow storm. I can’t tell you how good it felt to get home. The dogs were amazingly patient with all that car time.

A bad picture taken from a moving car but compare it to the photos from the return trip.
Brenna (12), Ty (2), Ella (11 months), Sky (6 months) and Luna (7).
Stopped just outside of North Bend
A walk in the orchard before the last leg of the trip
Luna!
Zur, in the background and Ziggy – Luna’s oldest dog friend.
Ick
The last snow storm on the way home

Peeps on the Beach

There are a few species of small sandpipers that are often lumped together as ‘peeps’. The three species look similar and can be difficult to identify. I used to look at lots of shorebirds and got so I could remember the key things to look for but it’s been so long that I’ve lost much of that info. Groups of shorebirds are fascinating to watch as they run back and forth feeding and leap into the air and do it all as one big mass. I found this large group that had hundreds of birds at the Ocean City beach access a little south of where we were staying. We saw smaller flocks on our beach. The dogs stayed in the car while I watched and photographed the birds on the incoming tide. I stayed in one place and the birds came ever closer with the waves. There were other people walking and fishing and driving on the beach and nothing seemed to bother them. I think these birds are Western Sandpipers but I may be wrong.