Bella Dia

Monday Morning Greetings

One chilly morning before soccer,
I got to enjoy a whole flock of these little girls preening themselves in the sun on the boughs of a blue spruce.

On my bedside table:
Mind of the Raven by Bernd Heinrich
The China Study by T.Colin Campbell
To See Every Bird on Earth by Dan Koeppel
Stikky Trees: Learning to Recognize at a Glance the 15 Most Common Trees in the United States
Superfoods Rx: Fourteen Foods That Will Change Your Life

On board from Netflix:
Pollyanna
Spellbound
All the President's Men

Latest interests:
birding
a raw food diet
creating the perfect breakfast smoothie

On my mind:
a Halloween birthday party for my youngest
things I want to make for Christmas gifts

Learning:
Excel
Quickbooks for Construction
how to use my new camera

Making:
pincushions
purse organizers
something new!

Looking forward to:
weekend trip to Yellowstone
going to the World Center for Birds of Prey
receiving my first installment of Amy's Mailorder
(I can't wait to make the earflap hat!)

Enjoying:
watching the leaves change colors
cheering for my boys at their soccer games
seeing my daughter advance so quickly in karate
the new season of CSI

Little Green House

Natalie at MAKE blog included this picture of another little
house I made when she interviewed me, but I forgot to
share it with you here so I’m doing that now. The first
one I made is here, then this one, and now a little green
house. This is a view of the front. The front door is framed
by two standards in terra cotta pots.


Each side has paned windows with shutters that work
and daffodils blooming in flower boxes.


The back of the house features a vining rose on a lattice.


A close-up of the rose vine.

Birds of Idaho

Great American Pelican

One of the books I’m reading right now is called To See Every Bird on Earth. I have to admit that the first thing that attracted me to it was the cover, very cool. It’s written by a son, Dan Koeppel, about his father’s obsession with birding and "listing," where you document every bird that you see (or in some cases, hear). According to the book, there are currently about 9600 different bird species in the world and there are some people who have dedicated their lives to try and see as many as they can. A select few have seen more than 8000! I had no idea that anyone did this sort of thing but I find it really intriguing; I have no plans to pursue all the birds in the world but I did think it would be fun to see how many of Idaho’s birds we could see. The U.S. has over 800 species of birds and Idaho has close to 400. I printed off a list of all the birds in Idaho and started a photo album, instead of a list, here on my blog to document it. I’d like to use all my own photographs too. This is a long-range goal but I’m hoping that by having it here on my blog it will help to keep me motivated.

Trail Dust

We usually celebrate the first day of public school (we homeschool) by doing something special. This year we went on a trail ride in the Sawtooth Mountains, just about an hour north of where we live. “We,” here, means me and my kids and my sister and her kids, so nine of us altogether. After the ride, we had lunch at Redfish Lake then went to our favorite waterside hang out, Alturas Lake.

Unfortunately, we have a lot of fires going on in the wilderness areas so the air has been smokey really smokey. You can see the smoke in the air from this view of Little Redfish. I can’t believe this picture came out - I took it from horseback and I was bouncing all over the place.

My niece is in front of me, then my nephew, and my son...

Our favorite spot: Alturas Lake. A picture of my daughter who is now, at 14, my height and wearing my shoes.