Creature Bug

Hope Springs in Lilacs

Although tulips are my favorite flower, lilacs are a close second. There is a lilac bush outside Jules' bedroom window, and I can't tell you how many nights I have been in that room, gazing at the moon illuminated shadow of the lilac leaves. On spring mornings, I open wide the window and breathe deeply the smell of lilacs. That bedroom may be the smallest in the house, but the dreams are full of white, moonstruck lilacs. Lovely.

I was afraid the lilacs weren't going to make it this year. The weather hasn't been kind to them, and due to their eastern exposure along the side of the house, they don't get a lot of sunlight. Jeri and I have been trading emails back and forth about our lilacs, keeping our fingers crossed that they will survive. Her flowering purple lilacs are committed to flowering; my flowering white lilacs are waiting. They bloom after purple lilacs anyway, so I'm hopeful they will bloom eventually. See all those little buds? They have to turn into flowers, don't they?

My lilac bush has also given me an opportunity to put some newfound photography knowledge to use. Ree, that sassy Pioneer Woman, has had some nifty tutorials going on at her Photography site. I picked up a thing or two from her "Blue Branch": Step by Step and applied it to this picture of my lilacs. Although I'm still working with Photoshop 7.0 instead of the snazzy Photoshop CS3, it manages for most of what I want to do. Especially in the area of making my photos appear more as I see them in real life, instead of all muddy like my camera makes them appear.

Here's the before and after:

First photo? Not so hopeful. Second photo? Bloom on, little lilacs. You're going to be just fine.

Stay tuned for tomorrow's update on Operation Backyard...

*****

(c) Creature Bug 2008. All rights reserved.

Oh, Spring! Where Art Thou?

My brother-in-law called the other day and told me it was 80 degrees in Rhode Island. It's so unfair. It's not even close to 80 degrees here. In fact, on Saturday the coldest place in the 48-continental states? Redmond, Oregon. Oregon is definitely not the place to be this week for spring weather.

Today was my last day of teaching classes (hello summer vacation!), and when class ended, my students had to wander out into the pouring down rain as I called after them, "Have a good summer!" They didn't think that was very funny.

I'm not the only one who thinks it's too cold around here. A little visitor this morning confirmed my suspicions that, despite it nearing the end of April, it is far too cold outside.

Hello there, little bird! Come to try on Sydney's winter boots?

What's that? You had other ideas for the boots?

Yes, they are quite warm! Why do you ask?

Oh, I totally understand. Take all you need.

*sigh* Hang in there. I'm sure warmer weather is right around the corner.

Happy summer vacation to me!

*****

(c) Creature Bug 2008. All rights reserved.

Week 201: Spring Broke

Dear Mother Nature,

Here's the thing: when we talk about "Spring Break" what we're actually referring to is a break from activities during the spring. Not--as you clearly mistook the directions--a break in spring weather. I'm not talking about the rain. Sure, sure. It's Oregon, we get rain, fine. I wasn't asking for a miracle of sunshine or anything. But to give us hail, to give us frigid temperatures, to give us SNOW is just unkind. And then to give us all that repeated, over the course of several days? Seriously. It was the most craptastic weather week ever.

If we lived on the East Coast, or Alaska, or even Minnesota...I'd understand. Snow happens. But here? SNOW?! The end of March? I think you've got yourself all turned around and upside down. Clearly this must be the case because I see that global warming is affecting Antarctica, what with part of the Wilkins Ice Shelf collapsing and all. I'm just saying, why don't you give Antarctica and us Pac NWers a break and warm us up instead of those poor drowning polar bears. (Or rather, as my geography-smarts husband pointed out, poor drowning penguins. Polar bears are North Pole; penguins are South Pole. Meh.)

I'm even doing my part to help you out. Just last night we observed Earth Hour, albeit with a few minor changes. Obviously we couldn't really be expected to turn the tv off at 8 pm, not with NCAA games going on. But the lights were out, I was reading by candlelight, and to make up for getting a late start on the whole affair, we kept those candles burning until almost 10 pm. See? I'm trying.

And while this week there was more of this...

than this...

no matter what you threw at my man (sleet, hail, snow, torrential rains), you couldn't keep him from doing this:

That's right, no thanks to you, my becoming-handier-by-the-day husband finished a fabulous railing around the patio. So there.

Of course, the weather didn't prevent me from going to see The Other Boleyn Girl with Rachel on Tuesday. It didn't keep Sydney from returning to the farm on Thursday to visit her grandparents, and it didn't keep Jason and I from having a nice relaxing evening on Friday watching 3:10 to Yuma. There's only so much you can do to dampen our Spring Break.

Just for future reference, however, school ends for me the first week of May, and so I fully expect some sunshine around that time. Otherwise, there will be serious grumblings going on around here. Thanks much. Don't think it doesn't go unnoticed that next week is supposed to be nicer weather, which coincides quite nicely with Washington's spring break. Why do you have to go and be all unfair like that?

Well, that's about it. Sure, spring break was more like spring broke, but any week that none of us is working is pretty good week afterall.

Later gator,
Stephanie

PS: Give my regards to the Easter Bunny and the Toothfairy.

*****

(c) Creature Bug 2008. All rights reserved.

Humming Along

A few weeks ago, the girls and I decided that what our backyard really needed was a hummingbird feeder. I wasn't quite sure if any hummingbirds would actually appear, but our friends who live a few miles away are right in a hummingbird migratory path. They have four feeders and have to refill them every day. That is some serious humming going on around there.

So, off we headed to the store to find an appropriate feeder. There's a fabulous bird store downtown, but not knowing if any birds would actually come visit, I thought I'd start with a small, generic, $5 feeder from a non-bird store (ie: Walmart).

Our motto: If you hang it, they will come.

It took a couple days for the hummingbirds to figure out that we had food for them, but eventually they found it. Even today there was a bit of a fight over the feeder between two little guys. They were quite agitated at each other. Have you heard hummingbirds fight? It can't repeat it here. Frightful.

Jules loves to stand by the window and wait for the hummingbirds to come. When she sees them, she yells out, "Buhr! Buhr!" and we all scamper over to the window to see. Naturally, it didn't take her too long to figure out that whenever she says there's a bird, we move, regardless of whether or not she's actually seeing a bird. She's truthful about 50% of the time. Fibber.

Today I managed to catch a few shots of a bird making his way around the feeder. My lens was zoomed out as far as it would go, plus I was standing inside, taking the shots through the sliding glass door. Still. I was pretty happy to get any pictures at all considering how fast those little hummers move.

Humm...I love nectar. Hummm...Sweet, sweet nectar.

Since the hummingbirds have shown themselves to be faithful visitors, I'm thinking of getting a couple more feeders, maybe even ones that have little resting perches on them so they can take a breather when they get tipsy from all that nectar. I've also noticed we have dozens of finches that hang around our yard, looking longingly at the hummingbirds getting food, whilst they go neglected. My conscience pangs me greatly over this, so I suspect I'll be getting some finch food too. Maybe even a birdhouse. Ooh.

I'll draw the line at pigeons though. That's all I need is for the neighborhood kids to start calling me the Bird Woman.

*****

(c) Creature Bug 2008. All rights reserved.

Let it snow

I find it interesting that exactly a year ago, the first snowflake fell on our little town (or rather, mid-sized town) but melted as quick as it landed.

And today, Syd and I woke up to this:

It continued to snow off and on all morning, much to my delight (since I had nowhere to go anyway). Two inches are sitting on our deck.

Even though Sydney has seen snow before, she evidently didn't remember it.

"Look Mom! White rain!"

We would have gone out to play in it, but Sydney would have nothing to do with it. When I opened the door to go outside to get the mail, Sydney promptly closed the door and said, "It's too scary!" I insisted on going, and she insisted on crying. I'm not too worried about her panic: There will come a day when she'll look longingly at the sky and wish for snow. Maybe next year.

As for the snowfall, it was nice for today. It'll be gone tomorrow...just as well since we Oregonians aren't always so talented at driving in snow.