Celebrating Birthdays, Anniversaries and Special Blog Entries for the Year~

A very Merry Christmas from our home to yours~

I celebrate my birthday today, December 21.

 Bill celebrated his on Tuesday and we shall celebrate our 43 rd wedding anniversary tomorrow, December 22~

Meaka with me, and Meaka with husby Bill~

I am linking up with Mary for:

"Mosaic Monday"

at:http://dearlittleredhouse.blogspot.com

and

I am linking up with Stewart at:

Wild Bird Wednesday

(http://paying-ready-attention-gallery.blogspot.com.au/)

One of the highlights of this past year, was in traveling to Tennessee and viewing thousands of Sandhill Cranes...Amazing!

Our precious, precious family~

We have lots of Blue Jays in our area, but this turned out to be one of my favorite images for this year~

Meaka turned 5 on December 2.  Here she poses in front of the Christmas tree~

The female Cardinal to me, is a gorgeous as are the all red males~

Our oldest daughter and her husby Andrew and twin sons Cullen and Kerrick~

Male Cardinal and female above, were also some of my favorite shares for this past season~

Twins Cullen and Kerrick, will turn 4 in March. 
They are full of energy, and quite smart for their age, even knowing the US President, Vice President and Secretary of State's names, among other fun facts~

As many know, one of my favorite birds, are Swallows and the images below, were most assuredly 2 of my favorites shares for the year~

Our middle daughter Brittany, for whom many have been lifting up these past few weeks, and her husby Dale and new pup-cub Lexi. 
Brittany continues to recover, very slowly.
It will take another good month for full strength to return.
Thanking each of you so very, very much for your wonderful comments, thoughts and prayers. 
We have felt them~

I just really, really liked this mosaic when I created it, and still do~


This is Brittany and Dale's oldest son Thomas 9, with our Meaka and Survhee cat. 
He is so bright and loves math and being big brother to his 2 siblings, and part time care giver to their new pup-cub~

Last winter the European Starling population brought news crews from all over the US to film, and I had to get in a series also~

Brittany and Dale's youngest son is Braden 4. 
He called this cloud his "little boy cloud";')~
Braden can explain all kinds of big machine facts...like his daddy, he knows his cars and big rigs~

More from the series on European Starling invasion last winter~

Our first grand-daughter Maci was introduced to us on November 19 and she is absolutely adorable and so adored by all~

The husby and I had driven to the "big city" and I was trying to get some interesting snow images...

thought this one was interesting then and now~

We had our first German Shepherd growing up briefly in Portland Oregon.  His name was Silver, and when the family moved to Kentucky, Silver was given to the Post Master there.
My father would many years later get another German Shepherd and named him Silver also. 
My husby got our first German Shepherd when he was on the Sheriff's department back in 1972, and her name was Belit'. 
Then came Vanda  11 years later, who grew up along side our 3 daughters.
Our first Long Haired German Shepherd was Muschka and we now have our second one of the Long Haired breed...and of course her name is Meaka.
With this all being said, it was not a huge surprise, when one of our daughters chose this breed as their own...Enter Lexi~

Many of you may remember the amazing encounter that I had with this gorgeous hybrid raptor. 

It is a cross breed of a Red-Shouldered Hawk and a Red-tailed Hawk...evidently quite rare~

About 6 weeks later and a few miles away as a bird flies, I came across a male Red-Shouldered Hawk, in copulation mode with a Red-tailed Hawk...the above may have been a past seasons's offspring. 
After photographing this rare pair, I went to location a couple of days later and the male had been accidentally hit, or flew into a vehicle and was blinded. 
He survived for several months, but finally had to be gently put down. 
This is one encounter in nature that was all so very incredible, as well as heart wrenching~

Sometimes what we see in nature is not always beautiful and yet, we accept it, as nature at it's best. 
That was what I felt when I took the captures below of another pair of Red-Shouldered Hawks with a Blue Jay and a Skink~

Our youngest daughter Ashleigh...full of fun, adventure, so very bright...
a delight to be around. 
She is home for the holidays from her home of LA, and hopefully will stay on a few months beyond the season~

I had a lot of comments about this Canada Goose collage when I first shared it...

What a cold day, that was too~

I have also had a cat most of my life. 
My first growing up was Smokie, and then as a young lady out on my own, I had a Siamese. 
In between, there have been many, all inside cats. 
The black Spencer Ivy is now 16 and the fluffy survivor cat, I named Survhee Pipka is

approximately 18 months old now. 

They get on swell with Meaka, but not so much each other. 

Spencer is too old, for Survhee's antics~

I took the image below of the American Robin as spring tree buds were beginning to open, always a sign of hope to me~

I am especially thinking today, about the special time of the season, but also for those precious lives lost a week ago today in an act of total evil. 
I pray for peace to come to those families who are grieving...

The last favorite image share for this past year is the juvie Red-Tailed Hawk below.  The branches may be in the way, but there was something really very natural about this share. 

I probably like it as one of my best for this past blogging year~