Whidbey Island through my camera lens

Deception pass

I couldn't be more proud.

My honey, Mr C has been in Holland competing in the European Steel Challenge. And as you see by the photo he will be bringing home the 'gold'

Mike has worked long and hard and sure deserves this honor. To read more go HERE to his blog post.

Many more birds are returning to the garden

Grossbeak

Purple finch

Fridays dose of cute

Whidbey Island through my camera lens

Double Bluff beach

A treat from my childhood

While watching an Aussie TV show I heard them mention 'chocolate crackles. Chocolate crackles were a favorite of many of my New Zealand friends, as birthday treats when we were kids.

Place 4 cups rice Krispies in a bowl. Sift in 1 cup powdered sugar, 3tbs cocoa. Add 1 cup fine unsweetened coconut. Stir to mix. 

Melt, over low heat, 250 grams coconut oil, cool a couple of minutes then pour over rice Krispie mix in bowl. Stir to mix. 

Fill paper baking cups with mixture, then place in fridge to set up. These are not exactly low calorie, but taste pretty good.

Whidbey Island through my camera lens

There are days when I don't have much to say, so instead of not blogging at all, I will take you with me as I explore Lovely Whidbey Island.

Had a perfectly lovely weekend

Friday afternoon we drove to Ephrata where we spent the night in our RV before driving out to the range on Saturday morning, to compete in a five stage steel challenge match. After shooting the match under sunny blue skies, we said goodbye to our friends, and drove to Puyallup to spend the night before shooting another pistol match. Saturday evening was very cool, but Sunday morning once the sun came out, the day warmed up to tee shirt wearing kind of temperatures, which we hadn't felt in a long time. It felt so good to feel the warmth of the sun as we once again enjoyed the company of our friends while competing in a fun steel match.
Now we are both tired and ready for a good night's rest.
Next shooting event is this coming Sunday, but this time is here on the island.

Fishing in Alaska - don't be the bait

The photo was taken at the entrance to Katlian Bay at the end of the road in Sitka , Alaska ... The whale is coming up to scoop up a mouthful of herring......... (the small fish seen at the surface around the kayak). The kayaker is a local Sitka Dentist. He apparently didn't sustain any injuries from the terrifying experience. The whale was just around the corner from the ferry terminal , and all the kayaker could think at that moment in time was: "Paddle Man - really fast!"

The whale's mouth is fully open with the bottom half under the boat. If the whale had closed his mouth before he furiously paddled away - He might have been LUNCH!!! Look at the picture again - He is in the whale’s mouth!!!

Friday humor

The manager of a large office asked a new employee to come into his office. "What is your name?" was the first thing the manager asked. "John," the new guy replied. The manager scowled. "Look, I don't know what kind of a namby-pamby place you worked at before, but I don't call anyone by their first name! It breeds familiarity and that leads to a breakdown in authority," he said. "I refer to my employees by their last name only - Smith, Jones, Baker - that's all. Now that we got that straight, what is your last name?" The new guy sighed and said, "Darling. My name is John Darling." The manager said, "Okay, John, the next thing I want to tell you..."

There is still a lot of snow out there.

Looking across the Langley marina at the snow covered Cascades.

Pro ears ReVo

I am a petite woman who had been using Pro Ears Dimension Plus hearing protectors, but found they Were too large for my small head.
I now use Pro Ears ReVo, which is a custom built electronic version of the passive model, intended for youth, women, or those with a smaller head size.
I chose the design, Blue Cosmic, which I felt is more in keeping with my age, but there are
many other cool designs and colors to choose from.
The ReVo custom model fit snug over my ears, has an easily adjustable head band, and the
electronics are outstanding.
The electronics enable me to listen to a conversation away from the shooting line, then when I am on the line ready to shoot, they allow me to hear the range officer’s commands clearly and very effectively muffle the gunshots.
I highly recommend the ReVo with electronics for women who have a small head size, who are serious shooters concerned about protecting their hearing.

Wednesday humor

Wikipedia - I know everything
Facebook - I know everybody
Google - I know every site
Electricity - without me you all are nothing

A break from all the nonsense is just what the "doctor ordered"

Mr C had plans to drive to Moxee which is just a short drive the other side of Yakima, for a pistol match, leaving Friday sometime. I wasn't sure if I wanted to go play outdoors in this cold weather, but decided it would do me good to get away from here for a while. I was a little, ummm! lets not kidd ourselves here, I was a lot depressed about how much the repairs on my car are going to be, so getting out to the range and taking some of my aggression out on steel plates would be a good thing.

We left Whidbey island around 2pm and headed up over Snoqualmie pass, and even though the roads were clear of snow, they were wet and in some places slushy. It wasn't a fun drive having to deal with all the spray kicked up by the semi-trucks and other vehicles ahead of us.

About here on our drive, I looked across at Mr C and asked, " are we nuts, or what" he replied "it is going to get worse"
" oh! goody" I said, and lapsed back into my tense silence.

We finally left the pass behind us and started our decent towards Yakima and the truck stop where we always stop for the night. We both were tucked nice and warm in our bed by around 6:30pm and had a fairly good night's rest.

We could park our little RV inside one of the semi-trucks and there would still be plenty of room left over. *chuckle* I woke up a couple of times during the night and could barely hear a semi-truck pull into park alongside of us. They idle very quietly in, then all you hear is the whoosh of air brakes, then silence.

Next morning the blue sky was a welcome sight, and we pulled out shortly before 8am to drive about half an hour to the range.

Even though the day was sunny at times, the wind was very cool and we were wrapped up warm against the cold gusts. It was a fun match of five stages of steel challenge, and I shot fairly well considering this was only the second match I had competed in since last September. I finished 5th out of 13 in rimfire optics Not too bad Eh?

What is going on? if anything.

Very early this morning as I was enjoying my first cup of coffee of the day, I heard the sound of a helicopter. We often hear them fly over and don't pay too much attention, but this time the noise grew louder and louder, but did not fade away.

Curiosity got the better of me so I put my coffee aside and went to look out the front window.

I saw that a coast guard helicopter was making passes over the marshland, then circling around to come back to hover over the shoreline in front of the houses.

The coast guard helicopter approaching the shore.

The wind was ferocious this morning, as you can tell by the whitecaps on the water of the bay. I am sure the pilot of the chopper had his hands full keeping the craft stable in the gusting wind.

The helicopter hovered here for some time before turning and circling around again. This happened about three or four times, before it finally turned a final time and flew off over the bluff. Makes a person wonder what on earth was going on down there.

Breathtaking sunset

Winterscapes

So much snow and there is more to come

My New Zealand visit, part one

On December 3rd I left Seatac-Tacoma international airport on the first leg of my journey to visit my family in New Zealand.

I only had a couple of hours to wait before boarding the plane for San Fransisco, so spent my time reading a book and wondering what news I would hear from Mr C when I called him on the following Tuesday. Many of you know he had a biopsy to determine if there was cancer present, and you will now know that the good news on Tuesday was that he did not have cancer, so I was able to settle down and enjoy my time with family.

As the Boeing 737 gained altitude and headed south toward San Fransisco, we had a wonderful view of the snow covered Cascade mountains surrounded by a blanket of clouds.

Arrived in San Fransisco around 3:45pm and thought about how I was going to kill some time before my next flight left at 7pm.

I wandered around the duty free shops but was not interested in buying any thing, so bought a cup of coffee and headed to the departure lounge where I settled in to read for a while, before boarding the Boeing 747-400 for the 13 hour flight to Auckland.
We left San Fransisco about 30 minutes later than scheduled and by this time I was ready to get on board and have my dinner. I knew it would be an hour or two before dinner was served, so I tried to be patient and spent time watching a movie until dinner was served.
After watching all the movie while eating dinner and drinking a couple of glasses of wine, I reclined my seat as far as it would go, pulled my blanket up under my chin closed my eyes and drifted off into sleep. I usually have a difficult time sleeping during a flight, but this time I was surprised to wake up after sleeping for about six hours. I know it was a combination of lack of sleep during the past few weeks, and the two glasses of wine I drank at dinner which allowed me to 'go out like a light' It didn't seem that much longer when the cabin lights came on and an announcement was made that breakfast was going to be served. Evidently I had dozed off again

Auckland at last. I was a weary traveler by this time but not too tired to admire this beautiful Tomokanga. (carved gateway) The magnificent Tomokanga provides a uniquely kiwi welcome for international travelers when they arrive in Auckland. Standing 2.8m high and 6m wide, the carving symbolises a spiritual portal from one realm to another, a journey from the dark (the outside world) into the light (world of the living).

As the traveler approaches the Tomokanga a traditional Maori recorded welcoming message is heard.

I am not shy about asking someone to take my picture to record my journey. I have passed under this gate on a couple of occasions, and this is the first time I stopped for a 'kodak' moment.
Whenever I hear the traditional Maori welcome chant, I feel I have arrived home. Even though I have been living in USA for 30 years, I will always feel, as I am sure others do, that New Zealand is my home, at least in my heart.