The Conclusion of the Month of MarCollum

August is over. The wedding was amazing and thank you SO much to everyone who helped out. It would never have happened and gone so amazingly smooth without you. Thanks also for those who put in requests for good weather, we got the 1 hour we needed.

Maine was awesome, luckily hurricane Bill didn’t really effect the weather too much up there. Just a bit of rain and some awesome waves! Here are a few shots from the trip including a little Goldfinch who was pulling out thistle fluff, presumably for his nest; a close-up of a little sailboat named the Cricket; a ‘dancing’ seagull during a feeding frenzy on a boat; a nice sunrise picture; and some beach stones collected in an old chocolate box. The sun has the star shape going on, but I really liked the birds in the photo.

Now we are into September. I am back to work, but in my new classroom of toddlers. I love it, it is a wonderful change from the 4 and 5 year olds. Don’t get me wrong, I loved pre-k, but I feel that I am more meant to be with toddlers right now. Things are settling down in our new apartment, we are ’setting up house’ and getting back into a normal routine.

Let me know what you think about the photos!

Much Needed Update

It’s been over two months and I think it’s about time to add some more photos. I feel like summer hasn’t really started yet, and it’s already half over. I will be done with work for the summer in two weeks. I am moving in either one or two weeks. I am getting married in one month and two days. My plate seems pretty full right now, but full in a good way.

I edited a bunch of photos and then found a lot more I had gotten ready to upload and forgot about! It’s going to get exciting folks!

First are some pictures from Mid to Late May(!) up in Northfield, MA and Stoddard, NH.

Next are some from a few more recent trips where I got some great opportunities to see birds. I saw this Scarlet Tanager on one of the trips and he was nice enough to model for me; as did these swallows feeding their young. Oh, and a butterfly and other bug (of which I can’t remember the name).

Lastly are some pictures from the highland games and also from the Peace Pagoda.

Phew. That was a lot. Note to self: update this more often! Enjoy and let me know what you think!

Springtime!

The leaves have really exploded out this year.  We have had a strange spring, with a few days up in the 90s followed by days in the 60s. It was unusually dry to during the hot weather, which I have to say is amazing, I’ll take dry heat over humid heat anyday.

I got a few photos recently, Mike and I took a lovely walk over to the UMass campus on one of the super warm evenings. Reminded me of summer.  Here are some of the photos from the Umass walk, including a cardinal! I have been trying to get a photo of a cardinal for going on two years!The squirrel was dashing off somewhere and what I thought would be a worthless blurry picture, actually turned out to be a neat blurry picture!

Also, here are some photos of flowers and such from our yard and the exploding springyness.

Yay for spring!

Dearest Ray.

I have been wanting to write this for a while, but I couldn’t seem to find the right words. So rather than spend hours thinking about how to find the ‘right words’, I am just going to start writing and see what comes out.

It has been 24 days since you died. It is still hard for me to believe that you are really gone. I still feel like the next time I go up to Estes Park I will swing past your place and we will grab a bite to eat. I know that the community of Estes Park will miss you dearly.

I have only happy memories of you. I have never seen you without a smile on your face. Ever since I can remember going to the Longs Peak Games, you were always there; laughing and telling jokes. I remember helping you carry your oxygen tank when we would walk around. Not that you needed help carrying it; I just liked doing it. Going up to Estes was always exciting for me because I knew that I was going to see you. You were always so happy to see me. I always felt that even though we didn’t see each other very often, you and I had a special connection. An unspoken love and appreciation for each other. You told me that I was like the daughter that you never had a chance to connect with. I was sorry that you and your daughter never really knew each other, but deep down I was a little bit glad because I loved being that daughter.

Your life story was a never-ending stream of stories that could keep me entertained for hours. I really think that at one time or another you actually did every job you could ever imagine; and it always sounded like an adventure no matter how mundane it might have been. I remember stories about your rock climbing and biking. Your hiking and kayaking. About when you kayaked the Grand Canyon with a friend at night to avoid the fees during the day.  Mostly though, I remember your stories about your truck driving. Like the ping pong balls. Picturing a giant vacuum on reverse blowing thousands of ping pong balls into the empty trailer of a semi still makes me laugh. Or the fresh corn or cantelopes you sometimes gave us when you got extras from a load. Once you dropped by our house after a trip and surprised us by driving up in the cab of your truck! You gave me a ride around the block at 9 o’clock on a Sunday morning (I was still in my pajamas!).

I miss you and I will always miss you. Through all the years I spent time with you, I knew that some day your lungs would grow too tired. Despite its truth, I tried to deny that I would ever have to go through losing you. Despite your daily life getting more and more difficult, I never remember you complaing about any of it. You were always thankful for everything and everyone that was close to you. I always admired that quality in you. When you talked about your own death, you did so with such acceptance and calmness. You kept your humor up until the very end. You were not afraid of death. That bravery is inspiring to me.

I am not upset at your death. I am sad that I won’t see you for a long time. I know that your choice to let your body finally rest was a good one. Your lungs took you longer than you ever thought they would and I am thankful for each breath you took. You had a good, adventure-filled life and you brought joy, laughter and smiles to everyone you met. Now you are happy and free of your oxygen tubes, spending time with past loved ones. I can only hope that you save a few laughs for me when I see you again. I love you.

Donald Ray “Rags” McCollum

1 March 1943-7 March 2009

It’s about that time again.

I figure that 4 months is long enough and it is time for another update. Looking through, I have not actually taken too many photos (I have been on a major knitting kick), but here are a few I really liked.

A Candle in the window
Frozen Fungi on the tree
Dinner for the road
Mr. Blue Jay
A close-up of some of my yarn.

Pumpkin Fun

I take pumpkin carving seriously. Last year I did the wild thing from Where The Wild Things Are. This year, I did Calvin and Hobbes. I must say, I think it turned out quite well! Mike did a neat raven from the cover of the book Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell and our housemate Amanda did a giant happy face!

And drawing too?

Well, apparently I decided to stop updating this for a while.

I also decided that although I was going to use this as a place to post my photography pictures, I am also going to post some of my more recent artistic drawings. I have started drawing again and I am proud of some of the pictures I have drawn. I have also taken up knitting again and with that realized that I have too many hobbies.

Anyway, I will use this time to post both photographs and drawings. To start, here is a pencil drawing of my pet Cockatiel, Rosie that I did a few months ago, a felt-tip Popeye, and a graphite Pooh and Friends.

Return from the Far Off Land

After a long drive across the thrillingly flat mid-western states, we arrived in Colorado. All was well. Things were fun. Then we drove back. The mid-west is still flat.

There are so many photos that I can’t post even a fraction of them, but here are just a few.

We saw a lot of wildlife including this elk

(he also had a friend, but he didn’t make it into this picture)…

…and this little chipmunk, who was very anxious to join in our snack.

The views were OK….

Enter Gertrude

We saw who we think might be Edgar’s sigoth this morning. She has been named Gertrude. Apologies to the beavers if the genders have been confused. Naturally, she came quite close to us because I chose not to bring my camera this morning. Figures. Many thanks to Mike for taking these lovely pictures.

She was quite pensive…to nom or not to nom..

Those plants look so inviting….but the calories….

Ok, Ok, just a few for the road…

On a different note, I saved a cat from running in front of a car this morning. Mike and I were walking down the road and this cat appeared out of nowhere, running across the street to us. It stood at our feet and as a car turned down the road it started to walk into the street. I actually had to pick it up and hold it until the car had passed, it was pretty determined to get into the street. Things could have gotten pretty ugly for that surprisingly fatalistic cat.

Morning walks

We have been taking walks early in the morning for the past few weeks now. We walk around a nearby pond and so far we have seen quite a few animals! Some bunnies, lots of birds, squirrels, ducks, chipmunks, heard lots of bullfrogs, and Edgar the Beaver!

Someone lost a noodle in the pond and Edgar decided to check it out…turns out they aren’t too interesting.

It’s kind of far away, but our best guess was that this was a baby woodpecker of some kind.