Yippee! Tina offers us a chance to look through the archives at all those snaps taken along the way, that never quite made the cut for a post, and now have a chance to be seen.

How many mossy stumps have I photographed over the years?! There’s just something about the textures of bark, shrubbery and velvety moss that attracts me every time. So, today I open with a beauty taken near Princess Creek Campground in the Deschutes National Forest.

Cee Neuner got me started looking for and snapping photos of unusual signs along the pathways I wander. This one cracked me up, from the Lavender Lady’s Gardens near Ilwaco, WA.

Juxtaposing nature-made with man-made forms is another of my particular fetishes. These pretty little Oxeye Daisies reaching to the sun next to a hogwire fence is a prime example!

My family has a long history with Priest Lake, from when I was in high school, to the present. Before retiring and moving to Corvallis, OR, my parents had a vacation cabin at Priest Lake, which they sold when they moved. Though I visit the area rarely now, my niece and her family take summer vacation there yearly. It is a beautiful lake surrounded by woods coming right down to the shoreline. This bumper sticker shows the shape of Priest Lake from an aerial viewpoint.

For two winters I have seen this bird and added it to my weekly Project FeederWatch count as a Snow Bunting. Although Vancouver is way out of its range, that was the only bird I could find in my field guides of this size and so white. This past February, I participated in the Great Backyard Bird Count and included this bird in my count. Subsequently I was contacted by a volunteer from Cornell, who informed me it actually is an albino Junco. I’m always learning, and love it!

We are out at our condo in Long Beach, WA this week and next. Max and Daisy are adjusting well, and love my big purple barrel chair as much as I do!