Blue Jays Eating Peanuts (Blogging from A to Z Challenge)

Last year, I set up a little critter corner in our backyard to feed the wildlife that stops by.  We also set up a camera so we can see our visitors. 

Recently, we had some Blue Jays stop by to eat some peanuts. (The date and time on the camera are wrong because it messed up when the batteries died and we haven’t reset it.)

Enjoy this video of the Blue Jays enjoying their peanuts.  

Photography Practice

 Early on in the pandemic, I thought I would get a lot accomplished.  It seemed reasonable with so many things being canceled, and being at home so much.  That was definitely not the case.  I didn’t accomplish much of anything in 2020.  

I bought myself a real camera toward the end of 2019.  One of my coworkers has an art degree, and does some professional photography.  He was going to give me lessons.  Like so many other things, that got put on hold.  

I did some practice with the camera around this time last year, but never got around to posting any of the pictures.  We went to a park so I could play around with the camera.  It was so cold that day!  It was the first time I used the camera by myself.   The park we went to used to be a golf course, and it’s really pretty.  

I know these aren’t the best shots, but I think they’re the best ones I took that day.

The park has a trail that loops around the perimeter.  I’ve always enjoyed taking pictures of streets and trails.  I like how it kind of looks like they don’t end.  This is one of my favorite pictures from that day. 

There isn’t much foliage this time of year.

There’s a pond with a bench.

And here’s the pond from a distance.  I think I probably should have centered the pond in the shot.

This is where the park backs up to a neighborhood.  The trees are the border.  

And this is the tree border from a distance.  This is my other favorite picture from that day.  I’m not sure how “good” of a picture it really is, but I like the pops of green.  Of course there’s the green from the evergreen trees, and I tend to like trees against sky pictures.   But there are also some patches of green grass in the field.  Almost everything is brown and dormant, but those little patches of green are there.  It’s like they’re defying winter.  Winter is my least favorite season, so I like the look of anything springlike coming in.

Do you enjoy taking certain kinds of pictures?  Have you found a way to improve your photography skills? 

Happy New(ish) Year!

You can still say Happy New Year in January, right?  Even if it’s the very last day of January?  Anyway, I hope 2019 ended well for all of you, and that you’re all having a great start to 2020.

I meant to do at least a few posts in December, but as usual time got away from me.  I had a few projects at work to finish up, and the usual holiday stuff just seemed to take over beyond that.  Here
are the highlights since the last time I posted:

An oldie but a goody:  Howard the meerkat.

We had our holiday meal at work.  It was a lunchtime potluck in mid-December.  I really like how the new job does it.  There aren’t many nearby options for lunch so almost everyone brings their lunch almost every day.  So bringing food to work and eating it there wasn’t really an inconvenience for anyone.  And I loved that it was during the workday.  It’s so much better than trying to fit in yet another event after work or on the weekend during the holidays.  And the food was awesome, which I’m sure contributed to my good opinion of it.  I got a few new recipes I’m looking forward to trying.  I brought macaroni and cheese, which went over very well. 

Nick and I went to my sister’s for Christmas.  It was just the three of us this time.  Nick’s mom and step-dad weren’t able to come because one of their cats was extremely sick, and they couldn’t leave him.  Fortunately, he’s doing much better now.  Our friend Alex ending up going to Florida to be with her family.  It was a little odd without our usual group, but the three of us still had a great time.  We’re working on putting together a second Christmas so everyone can get together to see each other and exchange gifts.

I bought a camera.   A nice one.  I’ve been toying with the idea for a long time.  I took pictures for a Realtor for a couple of years while I was going to school, and I fell in love with taking pictures.  I’ve never had any formal classes or training, but I love it, and I’ve dabbled with trying to improve my skills over the years.  I’ve never taken the plunge on a good camera, though.

One of my coworkers, Doc, has a degree from an art school and has done professional photography.  He was nice enough to look at some of my pictures (taken with a cellphone) and offered me some pointers that have been helpful.  He also said I have a good eye and have potential.  One really good Cyber Monday sale later, I was the proud owner of a new camera. 

Doc showed me a few things with the camera, and has sent me out into the world to practice.  He has promised to look at my pictures and tell me what’s working, what isn’t, and how to get them to turn out how I want them to.  I haven’t had as much time as I had hoped to experiment, but I think that will change now that the holidays are over.  You’ll probably be seeing more pictures from me.  Hopefully you’ll also notice an improvement in the quality. Just FYI, the pictures in this post are the usual cellphone pictures.

Nick’s mom sent the cats some catnip bananas for Christmas.  All six of the cats absolutely love them.  Tara loves them, which made me so happy.  Tara was a few years old when we adopted her, and had an extremely hard life.  She’s still very skittish around people.  Some days seem better than others, and lately she seems to be really coming out of her shell.  She loves the bananas so much that she came out and played with them, and even let me get some pictures of her playing with one.

Tara

 It snowed today.  It started off light around mid-morning, and then started coming down heavily.  We have the option to work at home during bad weather, so I panicked, took my laptop home, and finished up my work for the day at home.  I’m a South Carolina native, and we don’t handle snow well!  It’ supposed to get warmer this evening, so the snow should all be gone by tomorrow.  I certainly hope so!  Nick sees this as a dusting.  I see it as accumulation.   I think most of you who read and comment regularly live in colder climates, so I suspect most of you will see it as a dusting like Nick does. 

The view down our street. 

In my defense, it did snow some more after this picture was taken.

We had a Crock Pot cooking competition at work last week for a fundraiser.  I entered my macaroni and cheese.  I came in second place.  Obviously, first place would have been great, but I don’t think second place is too bad. 

Duke had surgery a couple of weeks ago.  He had two cysts on the top of his head that needed to be removed.  He also had some broken teeth that needed to be pulled.  The vet thinks he probably broke the teeth chewing hard on something.  Given everything Duke gets into, I think that’s an excellent explanation.  He did well with the surgery, and is recovering nicely.  Duke is pretty popular at the vet’s office, so I know he was treated very well.  He insisted on going around to tell everyone bye before we left.  He did manage to look very pitiful the next day, and convinced us to give him quite a few treats. 

Duke

Nothing else is really coming to mind that merits posting about.  It always seems strange to me how the end of the year seems insanely busy, but whenever I try to list what we did there’s just not much.  Does that happen to you? 

So how has 2020 started off for you?  Was the end of 2019 insanely busy?

Of course, no catch up post is complete without random cat pictures, so here are a few more for you to enjoy. 

Charlie & Mortimer

Howard

Mortimer

Caroline