This is pale pink tree peony. I pick a few of these and a few whites, they keep in the house almost a week.

I have been a little under the weather so I have alot to catch up with..here we go.
Jim had a job up north and came back through the Skagit valley. He got some pretty close up shots of the Snow Geese. Jim L-O-V-E-S Trilliums, every year he takes tons of pictures, the only difference between year to year is....I don't know, nothing.

The Osprey are back! This one sat up in the tree a long time. The Eagles usually chase them away, or harass them until they drop their fish and high tail it off the lake. Theres only room for one fish eater on this lake.

Jim got a good picture of this very cute Douglas Squirrel. They can be very brave. Sometimes you can get within a couple feet of them. They used sit in the tree and torment Rudy.

We had a man come and grind the stumps from our tree cutting. It made a real mess. It will be a year at least before we can get grass (or moss) to grow there.

A sweet little Quail came to the feeder for a couple of days, He blends in with the dirt so well, sometimes you only see him when he moves.

We had a unique visitor to the feeder too, a "morph" Evening Grosbeak. It is not an albino, because it does not have pink eyes. Last year we had a "morph" red winged black bird. It is unusual because the "morphs" don't usually reach adulthood..too easy to see...being white and all.

Bad news. Ms. Mallard was back at the feeder today, but only 6 (of 12) ducklings left. Can you tell how much they have already grown.

We saw this years first ducklings last Sunday. Mom Mallard brought them into the back yard to munch at the bird feeders. I ran and got the camera and very slowly, and I thought quietly, slide open the kitchen window to get a picture. She got spooked, gathered all of them up and as they sprinted across the yard I was able to snap just this one shot. Not too bad, huh?

Jim took this picture, we are calling it "a study of Miss Sadie Mae with flower". We had this building built for lumber storage. It is 16x8. The back and sides are sheeted with T-111, the front is finished with old fence wood. It was sort of ironic, we had to buy lumber to build a building to store lumber. I am a self proclaimed lumber hoarder. I had piles of lumber all over the yard. I was absolutely ruthless when it came time to sort out what to toss and what to keep.

This is what we did with the trees we had cut down. Split and stack the alder to use in the wood stove in the basement. These two stacks alone with the two truck loads of wood we got from brother Al earlier this year will last us several years. I just hope we can use it up before it rots! I put a free ad on Craig's list for the rest of the fire wood we did not want and had a responce within a half hour. All totaled I had 14 responces before I deleted the ad. We had two people come today, both took a full truck load and I think one of them is going to come back tomorrow for the rest. Jim used the chips on our trail system. He first lays down branches and then tops it of with wheelbarrow loads of chips. If not for these elevated trails we would not be able to use over half of our property. We enjoy walking around the trails and looking at stuff. This is probably the 3rd or 4th time this trail has been "done".

We had a wind storm today. It was blowing from the North and when that happens it whips the lake into a white capped frothy mess. Standing on the float is like being on a carnival ride. We were lucky not to lose power or have a tree fall on our house.