Eagle Watching

Last Sunday, while my nieces were visiting, Mom and I took them on one of our many expeditions to Lake Wilhelmina to watch the eagles. Eagles winter in this area and they are such an exciting bird to spy in the wild. It was a brisk Sunday afternoon with strong wind gusts. We bundled up and armed with cameras and binoculars we traveled to our favorite viewing spot on the northeast end of the lake. It was an amazing day!! We saw six eagles soaring above the lake all at once. Two of the birds eventually flew to a pine tree across the lake where they sat side by side and viewed the shenanigans of the remaining four. Suddenly, one of the airborne eagles paused in mid-air, suspended for several seconds with talons extended before dropping to the water so fast I could barely keep tracking it with my binoculars. The eagle hit the water with an audible whop then rose with a glint of silver in his talons. The four of us watched in awed silence. What a fantastic event to witness!

Can you see the eagle? It is at the very top of the tree closest to the center of the picture. I crept closer and closer trying to get a good shot with my limited photographic equipment. To be honest, the bird made me a bit nervous. It was really keeping a close watch on me and it kept ruffling its wings. Still, I crept closer until I got this shot.

I felt like I was standing right beneath the tree and I was closer than I've ever been to an eagle in the wild. My nieces were waiting for the eagle to attack. I was pretty much thinking along those same lines myself.

We saw quite a few ducks, cormorants and other water fowl including a kingfisher. We were lucky enough to observe the kingfisher diving for a tasty morsel several times. He completely immersed himself in the water before flying up to a stump to chow down. It truly was a wonderful day. I wish I had taken more pictures, but I was too busy watching. The picture below is from a Christmas card that my brother sent me. Beautiful, isn't it?

Why I Love Where I Live

I love where I live because this is where my story began. This county in Arkansas has been home to my family for over one hundred years. This is my home. This is my history. This is my heritage.

My part of Arkansas has hills, mountains, rivers and lakes. This land has a visceral pull that reaches to the very core of my soul. It strengthens. It sustains. In this land, I find peace.

I love the feel and smell of spring in the Arkansas air.......

I love the lush greenness of an Arkansas summer.....

The blaze of autumn-dressed trees and the frosty breath of an Arkansas winter.

I love where I live because I belong. I know my neighbors. We share past, present and future. We are a community. We are self-sufficient yet we share deep concern for each other. There is security. There is safety.

I've lived in five different states in large metropolitan areas that have populations of more than the entire county where I currently reside. Each place had its own beauty and its own good people. But the urban landscape no longer holds much appeal for me.


I am Southern born and bred. I was raised on God, greens and gracious living. I love where I live because I can spend an entire day sitting on a porch, sipping iced tea and visiting. And that day is considered an accomplishment of great merit rather than a waste.

Thank ya'll for comin' by. I surely enjoyed our visit. Come back soon and in the meantime, head on over to Marnie's place to find out why some other folks love where they live.

Snow Day

The alarm went off before daylight. I turned the radio on just in time to hear the happy news, "No school today!" I snuggled back down beneath the blankets for another two hours of sleep. Later, when I got up, I looked out my bathroom window and this is what I saw. I really think it is a prettier view than the one from my front door!

The garden is beautiful in a blanket of snow. Mr. and Mrs. Chickadee build a nest every spring in this little house in the corner of my garden.

The view from the Chickadee's front door. Coneflower heads stay in my garden until spring to provide winter food for the birds. I bought the porch rails in the background at an auction. They provide stability for the flowers that grow around them in the spring.



The view from my bedroom window is beautiful in any season. The spirea on the left and the forsythia on the right erupt in fountains of white and yellow fowers in the spring. On this snowy day, their bare branches are decorated with snow frosting.

The dogs and I walked through a cathedral of trees to our nearest neighbor's house for an afternoon visit. Our neighbor is 81 and doesn't even attempt to get out in snowy weather. We had to make sure that she was cozy and warm.

Late in the afternoon all that remained were snow shadows and the promise of spring daffodils soon to come.

The View From My Front Door

Here it is!! The view from my front door. Not the world's greatest photography, but certainly not the worst either. The top picture is what I see when I stand in my house and open the front door. I have a screened porch that runs the entire length of my house so you are looking through screen, not a dirty window. Looks real green outside for January, huh? What you are seeing is pine, cedar and a lot of honeysuckle vine. The little willow gate in the center of the photo says "herbs" across the top. My porch is crammed full of collectibles. I have wind chimes hanging from the beams all across the front of the porch. That is a hickory tree on the right and you can see one of my three bird feeders outside on the left.

This is the view from the front door of my screened porch. There is the backside of my snowman banner, my storage shed, my very wet drive and lots more pine, cedar and honeysuckle vine out in the woods. I tried to get my dogs to pose out in the drive for you, but they said, "Are you crazy?!!! It's raining and too cold!"

I Couldn't Wait!!

I want to get some pretty fall pictures posted, but the leaves aren't turning fast enough for me. These pictures were taken last year in the Ouachita Mountains which surround the area where I live.

Mom always takes her binoculars when we go exploring. She was watching a hawk in the shot above and didn't even realize that I had taken the picture.

This shot was taken at the same vista as above, but I am facing the opposite direction. The colors in the distance seem to lose some of their vibrancy in the scanning process.



This shot was taken at a different location than the two above. The colors scanned a bit better. You can see we have a lot of pine in Arkansas along with the hardwood.



This picture didn't scan well at all, but you can still see some color in the foliage.