It was bound to come out, and thank you Sonja for this challenge, that let me give myself permission to release the flood of feelings. :giggle4:

You checked at the bank to see out if our monthly checks had cleared. It was such an unsettled time. Trump came out against NATO and our allies of the past 70 years, and when Canada met his tariffs in kind, a lot of people that voted for him were very unhappy. He talked about WW3.

Thanks for the challenge! I was going to fade out those birds more, but chickened on it. Very much the story here. :giggle4:

The mahonia needed pruning and what a difference as soon as you took it out. More light & more selfies. You passed the camera dozens of times a day and never noticed. I tried to get us a selfie and as soon as I could I added one with my other favorite photos to create a composited page.

The swarm of cranes lasted a long time, many thousands of birds in the air at the same time, and I had seen blackbirds thick like this. These huge birds behaved the same way, and they seemed disorganized, but we think their flight was highly impacted by the 50+ mph wind gusts.

On Tuesday there the most visitors we'd ever seen, and by far the most cranes. I was excited to be at MVNWR an hour before sunrise, even in wind and frigid temperatures, to set up my tripod and GPro for the first time. My unique idea turned out to be perfect for capturing the scenes.

Thursday, the last day of our March trip, again had to be a rest day. We looked through photos from early in the week. Not only was the sky filled with thousands of cranes, but they were also thick in the fields. We hoped at least some might stay into April so we'd see them again.

Thank you. Our US National Parks just have had so many visitors they couldn't keep up. And now with funding cuts, it's even worse. It's a shame, because they're all beautiful. :)

On Monday of our week in Alamosa, there were about a half dozen other visitors but it was already crowded. It was a much nicer morning than we expected, although the sun came up behind clouds. At least the sky was pink and there were thousands of sandhill cranes.

A look back 10 years. We'd never go back. I remember huckleberry ice cream and a long fire drill in the cold dark wee hours. I remember there was never that space where it's just you and the universe. I remember too many people. But I'm glad we got to see these iconic views on a gorgeous morning.

I woke up because of night hallucinations after an anesthetic from the dentist. I thought a woman opened my window to give me flowers. The next night I heard fighting, and in the darkness I saw it was raccoons. It was hard to go back to sleep, as right after that were the bunny screams.

Thanks for the challenge, Vicky! Here's the main story from today's road trip. :)

We were in between late winter storms and the roads were dry. At the top of La Veta Pass, I suggested we take the time to explore an old road that showed on the map. Not easy to find with my phone, but we found the road, snowed in, and noted it for a future summertime adventure.

I made a book like this one time, published on Blurb and gift for friends, that created paper dolls with lots of wardrobe changes. Crazy hard to get it all lined up. :giggle4: Then they didn't want to cut it up because it was, a book! I'll have to think. The doll has been on my fridge all these...

MARCH 2025 Challenge Layouts Links: Challenge 1: Journalling {insert gallery link} Challenge 2: Heritage {insert gallery link} Challenge 3: Border Only {insert gallery link} Challenge 4: Web Inspiration {insert gallery link} Challenge 5: Letter Art {insert gallery link} Challenge 6...

It had been down below zero for more than a few mornings, and I didn't expect I'd think it, but I was enjoying winter more than ever. My fingers froze as I opened the latch on the camera, and when there were 1,550 videos it meant we had fed a lot of very cold critters around the clock.

The tiny bunny sat next to my 4" slice of agate that I turned into a tiny feeder, and they were the same size! I saw one of them this size in the dark in the wee hours when it was below zero and snowing. He shivered and actually fell over, and burrowed under deep snow to find food.

I hope Jenn adds more to her incredibly creative metal collection, but she has a fabulous start, and I have now joined the "Eye Heart" movement myself. Social media has changed me, that's for sure. I wanted to make a freebie cluster so more people would try to say more with emojis, and of course...

When I saw this preview for the video, I gasped. My reaction was so strong you thought something was wrong. This was during one of our coldest days with temperatures close to zero. We were so glad we were providing food, but I never expected a fight like I saw, for access to it.