SoRa with the boquet

Last week, Rob bought me not only sun flowers but also
this beautiful flower boquet including orange lillies.
The boguet was on the kitchen table with a card when
I was back home. Another happy surprise!!!!
To remember the happiness, I took this picture.

"SoRa with the boquet"

What a lovely shot it is!!!

Sun flower

Rob sometimes buys me flowers when he goes to a grocery
store without me. When I come back home and find the flowers,
needless to say, I am surprised and so happy :)

A few days ago, three sun flowers were on the table in the
kitchen, when I came back home.
This is the picture of one of those.
Rob, thanks a lot!

Yesterday's SoRa

She was home alone from 3 pm to 10 pm yesterday.
Sorry SoRa...
After we were back home, we played with her for a while,
even though it was already dark.
She seemed like so happy about being with us :)

Jim's backyard again

Jim's cherries

Jim's apples

Yesterday, Rob and I visited Jim's.
Jim's apples are doing excellent and his cherries are
doing fair. Because of too many apples, some branches
are bending. He removes smaller apples to prevent the
branches from breaking. However, he can't take care of
the apples that are on high branches...
He will make apple cider with his apples.
He asked me if I want to help him with harvesting the apples.
I answered, "yes!".
I hope Rob will take me to Jim's when he harvests.

Alpacas gallery

Shearing Fest 2006

Today, Rob and I went see Skagit Valley Shearing Fest 2006.
Are you curious about the animal which were shorn?
Well, not sheep... but ALPACAS!

We have been to the ranch last March.
At that time we knew that the ranch would have a shearing
fest in June. Since then, we have been looking forward to it!

The fest was very interesting.
Especially, meeting alpacas (including new born alpacas)
and watching shear demonstrations!
A man from New Zealand was shearing alpacas.
After they were shorn, they looked so skiny, tidy,
and kind of funny!
Oops, I shouldn't have laughed at them :P
They must feel embarrassed. hehe!

Today's SoRa

How is SoRa's second day going? Very good!
She put peanuts, millet, and whatever she found on
the floor into her mouth today. However, we haven't
seen her drink water yet. It's our small concern now.
Early in the evening, Rob cooked scrambled egg and mixed
English muffin, mellon, brocoli, and corn into it.
She really enjoyed the food that Rob made. She kept eating it.
She is not good at sitting on the perch, or jumping on
the perch yet. She often falls. We are worried about her
hurting herself. One of her tail feathers already got damaged...
She is still a chick really :)
Anything else?
Ah, she preens and stretches herself a lot.
I am eager to take pictures of her cute stretching!

SoRa －空－

Today, we finally got a cockatiel chick which we have
been waiting so patiently for from the bird breeder.
We named the chick SoRa. We are pretty sure the chick
is female. But, who knows!? It might be male.
So, we picked up the name which can be both boy's and girl's.
Also, Rob used to own a sailboat whose name was SoRa.
We both like the name very much.

For almost one month, we have had a empty bird cage in our
living room. Now there is a bird in the cage! How nice!

She is doing good. She ate a lot of scrambled egg which Rob
cooked with peas, some banana and bread .
Also she ate some apple. No seeds for today.
We remember HaNa ate only seeds, even if we tried to give
something else. It seems like SoRa is very curious about
any kinds of food. Awesome!

Whenever she chirps, we remember HaNa.
We are glad cute chirps are back in our house!
SoRa, welcome to our house!

Poppy at our backyard

Finally, a poppy came out at our backyard!
We have two more buds! Yey!

Also, the gladiolus bulb Rob and I buried with HaNa
has germinated! I feel like HaNa has come back to us!
I want to do my best to save the life.
I will pull out the weeds and water it.
Rob and I do hope we will be able to see it's pretty flowers!

HaNa, thanks for coming back!

A vest for my niece vol.2

お待たせ。
フロントできました。
Ｖネックベストらしくなってきたでしょ。
ここから先は、未知の世界。
毛糸屋さんに通って、教えてもらいながら、
今月中の完成を目指します。
お楽しみに。

I finished the front today.
As you can see, this is going to be a V-neck vest.
There are still a few more works to do.
I will not be able to figure out by myself.
So... I will go to the yarn shop for asking help!

Poppy

Cold and rainy Sunday.
Rob and I each worked on photography.
I used GIMP to practice at editing pictures.
This picture of the poppy is one of the pictures
I edited and was taken yesterday.
I like the orange colour very much!!

Calla Lillies

Today, for the first time, I edited a picture using GIMP,
the GNU Image Manipulation Program.
Learning how to use GIMP is what I MUST do, if I really
want to make pictures like my favourite photographer's.

For today, I just enjoyed changing the colors to make an
unrealistic picture. And I am satisfied with the result.
As I have hesitated to learn how to use GIMP for months,
I want to praise myself for finally using GIMP.

I will learn little by little how to edit pictures and
keep a record of the works on my blog.

I found a couple of calla lillies at the alley when I
went for a walk by myself with my Nikon D50 today.
While I was taking pictures, a fluffy cat was sitting
by me. I felt like I got a cute company and smiled :)

Squirrel Buddy

This is a famous Squirrel Buddy!
I have introduced him on this blog.
He was born last autumn, and is also Squirrel Mom's son.
Now he is perfectly mature though.
I took these pictures from a distance of 10 cm.
He is not afraid of us at all. Actually he is becoming
a bit shy these days. But we still can touch him easily.
I have to say, I am so lucky, because I don't have to
use any powerful lenses to take pictures of this cute
animal. You must remember that normally they are not
so friendly with people.

For sure, squirrels should be my object.
Because I can be so close to them.

Baby Squirrel

This is a picture of one of baby squirrels was
born thin Spring and which I took this morning.
Baby Squirrels started to appear with Squirrel Mom
a few weeks ago. Nowadays, they come by themselves.
They don't eat peanuts YET but they love pumpkin sheeds
we proudly offer. They are still nervous about us.
That's why I can't take close-up pictures of them yet.
But, Rob and I are pretty sure that we will be able to
touch them and they will jump on us in the near future.
Because we have the know-how.
Fun!