It has been a beautiful weekend. The weather has been perfect - with sunshine, blue skies, and warm temps. The overnight temps have been on the chilly side, but the days are warming up quite nicely. I wish it could stay like this for another month, but I know that won't happen.

On Friday, I had a lovely lunch with my friend Karen. We ate at Lavelle's. I've never had lunch there, and decided on a salad with grilled chicken. It was very good. Mostly I enjoyed the company. We'll definitely have to do it again soon.

After lunch, I had to run a few short errands, but had my camera with me and plans to go to Creamers Field to see the sandhill cranes. It's that time of year again: the fall migration of the cranes and geese before winter hits. The fall always brings more birds than the spring does, and the fields are alive with flapping wings and territorial squawking. It's really a beautiful time of year, even though their appearance signifies that summer is indeed in its final stages.

		"Cranes carry this heavy mystical baggage. They're icons of fidelity and happiness. The Vietnamese believe cranes cart our souls up to heaven on our wings." ~Mitchell Burgess~ Northern Exposure, The Bad Seed, 1992

I have blooms on my sunflowers plants! Finally! I thought for sure they'd never get the chance to flower before frost came and killed them, and I'm glad I was wrong. There are still many more buds that have to open, but I have three fully open flowers, and one which is half open. What a joy it is to look out my kitchen window and see these bursts of yellow dotting the green and brown of the yard. I go out almost every day to take photos because I am so happy to see them. The birds and squirrels did an awesome job landscaping my yard for me. Next spring, I shall have to help them out.

I'm still putting seeds out for the voracious chickadees and sparrows who seem to know that our yard is the place to stop for a meal. The birds appear in record numbers and flit on and off the back deck. They clean out the small trough every single day. Sometimes a squirrel helps, but mostly it's the gluttonous birds. I love to hear their songs when they're perched on the BBQ or the flower pots waiting for their chance at the seeds. Sometimes a ruckus will break out, and it's apparent that there is some sort of pecking order. Airborne lays for hours in front of the screen door watching them. I think this will be an ongoing chore for me, as the chickadees stay almost as active in the winter months. Their appearance will be welcome during those cold, dark months.

I started belly dancing lessons on Friday night. I knew I was out of shape, but didn't realize just how much! *grin* My friend Carmen went with me. Dianne was also supposed to go, but she got busy and couldn't make it. It was a fun class, but I hope I improve as time goes on. I felt like I had two left feet.

We started the class with some aerobic exercise to warm up the muscles and get the heart pumping. Then we did a few yoga positions to stretch the muscles. After that, Souzana taught us a few foot and hip movements. I was using muscles I haven't used in a long time, and I felt a good ache the next day. It was a lot of fun and I look forward to the next class.

Yesterday (Saturday), Steve and I decided to go to Chena Lakes and walk the Nature Trail (3 miles). This is the same walk I took with Hannah on Monday. It was a beautiful day, with blue skies and a slight breeze. I took my camera so that I could take a few photos along the way. We also took Sedona with us.

We were about halfway through the walk, with Sedona running ahead of us off of her leash, when I caught a brown shadow running across the path about 75 yards in front of us. In that brief instant, I recognized it as a cow moose. I stopped dead in my tracks and alerted Steve, who quickly leashed Sedona. Thank goodness Sedona isn't the type to go charging at wildlife.

Not 10 seconds later, a second brown shadow ran across the path. There was no missing the rack of antlers on the second moose. He was a big boy, and his rack was a good size - bigger than anything I've ever seen while out walking! It was very exciting, but also a little nerve-wracking. I felt my heart pounding in my chest. I've never had an angry encounter with a moose, but there's always a first time. I didn't want him (or her) to feel threatened, so we stood where we were for a few minutes so they could get used to our presence. They nibbled on birch branches, but their ears were turned in our direction.

We started down the path slowly, and stopped every few yards so they could get used to us again. When we were parallel to the two of them where they stood deep in the trees and bushes, I snapped a few photos of him. The photos didn't turn out all that well (slightly blurry) because of all the foliage surrounding him and difficulty getting a good focus, but this one shows his velvet antlers fairly well. We don't know why he was with that female. She appeared to be only a yearling. The rutting season doesn't happen until mid September or early October, so it's a little bit early for a male to be shadowing a female. I don't know a lot about moose behavior, so I'm clueless as to why we saw them together.

Here are some photos I took during our walk:

Later on last evening, we went to Hannah's house for a "Fire pit Party". She built a bonfire in the yard and there were fixings for s' mores and doughboys (campfire eclairs). I saw a gal I haven't seen in months (another military spouse), and met a few new people. Conversation was good and the air was nice and cool. We stayed until after 10pm, at which point Steve was feeling the affects of not sleeping very well after two days on night shift. (Thanks for the invite, Hannah!)

After Steve went to bed last night, I set my camera up on the tripod to take a few photos of the night sky. We're now having dark skies between the hours of midnight and 3:30am. It is so nice to see the stars, and hopefully I'll see the aurora borealis sometime soon. The aurora forecast for next week shows that there will be activity from tonight through Friday morning, so I'd like to stay up as late as possible and try to catch some photos. We'll see how that works. I always have these well-intentioned ideas to stay up until the wee hours of the morning, but never seem to make it past 10pm.

I took a few more photos of my sunflowers this morning. I really cannot wait until the remaining blooms open!

(Black digital background)