Staying Put (for a while)

Hello friends – I’m back! I landed in Cleveland last night after spending a week in Connecticut. It was a lovely visit. You would think that by now I would be used to missing my loved ones – I moved to Colorado at age 22 (Air Force training) and since then have lived in six different states, never any closer than 500 miles from my parents. Never close enough to “pop over” for a visit or a Sunday dinner or even a quick weekend catch-up.  Most of the time I am so caught up in my own life that the “missing” is well in the background, but then a visit like this one brings it to the forefront and heightens the feelings, making me wish that everyone I love could live close by.

Lest I get too maudlin, let’s switch to the subject of this post’s photos. 

On Friday my sister Paula brought Mom and me to Harkness Memorial State Park and she and Mom waited in the car while I walked the marshland trail looking for birds. There were two man-made nesting platforms for ospreys at the park, and both of them appeared to be in use. As I was walking along, I saw three large birds having an altercation of some kind whilst airborne – I was too far away to be able to see much detail, but it seemed like one of the birds was holding a fish. I just assumed that they were all ospreys and clicked away. 

It wasn’t until we returned to my sister’s house and I downloaded the photos to my laptop that I realized one of the birds was a bald eagle! Amazing. I feel like I was given an incredible gift to have been there to see it, even if I didn’t quite know in the moment what exactly I was seeing!

Tomorrow I am back to work and my normal routines. I’m staying put for a few months, concentrating on my photography (I’m starting to learn how to use the photo editing software Affinity), this blog, getting our garden looking neat and tidy, and some other projects that have been on the back burner. 

My next few posts will look back on my New Zealand trip. I still have so many photos and experiences I want to share with you!

Happy Easter to those who observe the holiday!

Love,

Michelle xoxo