Photo Surprise

I am just overwhelmingly surprised! Awhile back I had a photo published in the magazine Mother Earth News. Then, in the next issue I was just as surprised to see another one of my photos! I thought, "What luck!" and was just really pleased. And then in the mail I received a package informing me that they had picked a third photo of mine. (These are all in the CU readers' photos section of the magazine.) I was totally shocked! Of course I'm flattered and pleased. It feels good to know photos you took to reflect your love of nature are appreciated by others.

The Turkey is Dead

Well, awhile back I wrote about this pair of turkeys that nonchalantly crossed a busy highway on the crosswalk and disappeared. I've seen them again. A couple of times, actually. The latest I saw both was when trying to cross the road at the treadmill factory and half block from the river. The cars honked and swerved and the turkeys finally stuck to the sidewalk until they could cross. Turkeys on a sidewalk? Seriously, these birds are suburbanized.

Anyway, today was sad. I was driving myself and my son home from an errand and turned south on that same highway with the crosswalk. There on the side of the road not a 1/4 mile from the river lay a jumble of feathers. Turkey feathers. One poor bird had finally been branded as roadkill. What a sad way to go for such a proud, carefree bird. He wasn't even a Thanksgiving dinner where there were people sitting around admiring him and enjoying and appreciating his gift of life. I suppose that's just the fate that wildlife are forced to pay for encroaching development of civilization. I hope his mate will have a better fate.

The Wandering Homestead

Well, in just about 2 months we'll be packing up and moving out east to Maryland. I'm not kidding when I call this a wandering homestead. I've moved over 25 times in my life. It's not something I like to do, but just one of those things that life throws at you - and I didn't even grow up in a military family. Luckily, skills and talents are portable, you know?

I'll admit I had a really hard time transplanting to Utah. Being born and raised in Indiana, I'm a midwestern girl through and through (though I do really like the ocean). Mountains were a totally new thing to me, especially these big, bare, dry mountains here in the Rockies. Over the years I have grown to really appreciate the beauties of the west, however alien they seemed to me at first.

I have really missed humidity and green - two things in abundance in Maryland. Where I live in Utah it's actually quite green compared to the rest of the state. When my husband and I took a trip out to Maryland for job-related stuff we were blown away. I had totally forgotten how green it actually is out there! The seemingly never ending expanse of trees and forest filled me with excitement and joy like I was coming home, but my poor husband who is used to sharp, craggy mountains and being able to see for miles in a valley was a little put out. I hope he'll learn to love it like I do. I keep reminding him that we'll be in the Appalachians! Woohoo! He wasn't too comforted. They're like little bumps compared to his western Rockies. Aaah, well. It'll be a new adventure for both of us.