Around here I am getting back in the groove and rhythm of life after the time warp that was the week between Christmas and the New Year.
During that time I took down all of our decorations and put everything away, and it felt really good to come into the new year with a clean house. This hasn’t always been the case though. Many times in the past it’s been halfway into January before I get my life back together post-holiday.
Sidenote: If you’re feeling overwhelmed or stressed because you don’t have your shit together on January 1st, it’s 100% okay. You’re not falling behind. There is no expiration date on a fresh start. Amen.
Around here, my daily photography practice a big part finding my rhythm, and golden hour walks are still one of my favorite ways to wind down after a day looking at my computer screen.
Around here my amaryllis finally bloomed! The past several years, they bloomed right around Christmas. But I’m not one bit sad about having these gorgeous flowers on my kitchen table in January.
In other exciting news (obviously using that term very loosely lol), around here we’ve had a new visitor to the backyard! Please allow me to share with you a terrible iPhone photo of this impressive creature.
A little backstory for you…about a month ago, out of the corner of my eye I saw a large bird or hawk flying by the fence along our driveway. When I told Tripp about it, he said he had seen something like that too. Then right after Christmas, I was standing at the kitchen sink and noticed this huge hawk-like creature standing on the fence! I grabbed my phone which was sitting on the counter next to me and took a dozen photos through the kitchen window. I also grabbed my camera and took another terrible photo of it on the ground beneath the bird feeder I have hanging on the fence.
Naturally I had to consult my Birds of Oklahoma Field Guide that I keep in the kitchen to determine exactly what kind of hawk was visiting our backyard. Please…I know…don’t say it.
I couldn’t get a good ID from the descriptions in my book so I turned to the interwebs for more information. According to the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation, this appears to be either a Cooper’s Hawk or Sharp-shinned Hawk!
Apparently both of these raptors have a reputation for targeting areas around backyard bird feeders since they both prey on small songbirds like cardinals, sparrows, and doves. All three of which regularly feed at my bird feeder. <<yikes>>
At any rate, I didn’t see it for a couple of weeks, and then yesterday, when I was coming home from my walk with Daisy, I saw it gliding past the front yard to the driveway. I hurried inside to grab my camera and managed to take this terrible photo of it flying off.
It flew up into a tree in the backyard so I quickly changed lenses in hopes of getting a better photo, but I had trouble getting it in focus.
Based on its size (more like a crow versus a blue jay) I’m going to guess that this is a Cooper’s Hawk which is a year-round resident in my neck of the woods. Maybe someday I will be able to share a decent photo lol.
Other than the excitement of my hawk sighting, life has been pretty quiet the past week or so. Something that I have come to appreciate after the hustle and bustle of December. And I am grateful for this slow, gentle start to the year.
Love, Kelly
Well, that would be excitement for me to see that in my yard! Here we are heading toward the end of January and I am just figuring out what type of memory keeping that I am going to do for the year.
As always, thanks for sharing. Happy New Year!