The New Year

I hope that everyone had a nice Christmas and New Year's. Our New Year's was quiet until the next door neighbor set off some fire crackers.......which made me about jump out of my skin! The snow is melted everywhere, except on our street....can you figure that out? I still can't see our grass.

Yesterday, we decided to get out and do some grocery shopping, and we took our cameras with us. We drove out to a Bird Refuge, called Hayton Fields just a couple of miles past Conway out in Skagit Valley. There had to be at least another dozen photographers there as well. Everyone was there to photograph the Snow Geese and Trumpeter Swans. The flock is huge right now and covers several acres. When they take off, it sounds like a jet engine warming up, and it is a pretty impressive sight.

I've never seen such big telephoto lenses like these people had there yesterday! My goodness, a couple of them had to be at least two feet or longer. We just have a 200mm lens, and I thought that it was a big lens. Ron put teleconverters on it, to make it a 280mm lens, but decided that he didn't like it, and took them off so he could get some of the surrounding hills in the photo too. We only took pictures of the Snow Geese, because the Trumpeter Swans like to splash around in the mud, so they didn't look very pretty.

It was just 35 degees while we were taking photos, but during the holiday season, it got down to 2 degrees at times. That really makes me wonder how the birds and other animals can stay warm at all. The Snow Geese migrate here from the north because it is warmer here......so how cold does it really get in Northern Canada and Alaska? Brrrrrrrrrrr!

The past year of 2008 has been a tough one for most of us. It certainly is not a year that I would like to repeat anytime soon. It's hard not to get discouraged at times, because I tend to look at the "glass as half empty" instead of "half full." President Gordon B. Hinckley, who passed away almost a year ago now, was always so positive and encouraging. I miss his optimism and gentle humor. The following are two statements that he made that I think are good to keep in mind, and might help all of us with the challenges we face in 2009.

"Rise to the great potential within you. I do not ask that you reach beyond your capacity. I hope you will not nag yourselves with thoughts of failure. I hope you will not try to set goals far beyond your capacity to achieve. I hope you will simply do what you can do in the best way you know how. If you do so, you will wintess miracles come to pass." (Gordon B. Hinckley)

"We know not what lies ahead of us. We know not what the coming days will bring. We live in a world of uncertainty. For some, there will be great accomplishment. For others, disappointment. For some, much of rejoicing and gladness, good health, and gracious living. For others, perhaps sickness and a measure of sorrow. We do not know. But one thing we do know. Like the polar star in the heavens, regardless of what the future holds, there stands the Redeemer of the world, the Son of God, certain and sure as the anchor of our immortal lives. He is the rock of our salvation, our strength, our comfort, the very focus of our faith." (Gordon B. Hinckley)