The mess that is Gaza

So what's the deal with the situation in the cradle of religion, anyway? I mean really. What the??? Ok, so I'm going to tell it from my point of view, and what the situation looks like to me as a complete outsider, so if I get some details wrong, please forgive me. Constructive, informational comments are welcome, flames are going to get discarded.

Lets just disregard how the situation got started - it's out of scope for the current discussion. What I want to talk about today is what has been happening since Christmas. It seems like a good day to pick, as that was roughly when everybody was making noises about a cease fire.

So, here's what it seems like from the outside... The Hamas folks are firing rockets at... who, exactly? Are they attacking the Israelki Government? Or just lobbing bombs over there shoulders in the general direction of Israel to try and make the Israel Government go away? C'mon, folks, what's the deal here? "You need to leave me alone so I'm going to hurt your cousin." Is that what they are thinking? That's what it seams like to me. "We are launching rockets at all of Israel because when they blow our rocket launchers some people get hurt." That is a really dumbed down version, but that's what the heart of it sounds like to me. Here's another from when that first cease fire was being bandied about... "We aren't going to stop firing rockets at the general population until they stop bombing our rocket launchers." Or at least that was the way it came across to me at the time.

Now, I don't think Israel is in the right either, don't get me wrong. They haven't been very nice either. This whole thing is really a pretty bad deal for everyone. From Israel's point of view, the Palestinians in the Gaza strip are all squatters on Israeli property (which, I concede, is what it really looks like to me...) But that land has been a free-for-all for 2000 years, and I'm not surprised it's still a mess. There's just to much juju associated with that little strip of sand. So now the weapons have gotten bigger and messier. The people that really want to cause problems have an outlet through which they can cause bigger problems than ever before.

Now all we need is for someone, somewhere to say "Enough!"

Disarm everyone in that area, set a clear boundary, and get people to abide by that boundary. Split the difference between whatever 10 feet of sand everyone is arguing about. find the people that are causing issues, find out specifically what their real issue is, and see what can actually be done to try and appease them. There's got to be some way to get the problem cleared up to where everyone can at least live as neighbors.

I know, I know, there are extremists out there that just want all of us infidels to die. Well, that's not going to happen anytime soon, so figure out how you are going to live with that. There's just to many of us. That's about all I have right now... the news is on...

Happy New Year!

As I get ready to go out for dinner to celebrate Wendy & my 11th Anniversary, I leave you with one last hummingbird picture for the year...

A Male Anna Hummingbird...

We bought a second hummingbird feeder, and set the other one up closer to the house, hoping to get more attention and more birds. We did see a pair posturing a bit, and since then there's been a male Anna's hummingbird hanging around, and letting me get pretty close. The color on his face is just amazing when he looks at you in the right way...

He didn't like the mirror at first, and spent some time trying to scare himself away. Sorry for the blur, but you can see how he's puffing his neck out...

Here's a good shot of him feeding...

Here he is sitting on the huckleberry bush as the snow is falling:

And finally, just about as close as I could get, maybe 4 feet? (Using a 70-200+doubler, so 400mm focal length.)

 

I cut about 150 frames down to 19, click here for a gallery of the 19.

Watching the icicles grow

Kind of a continuation from yesterdays post of the icicles on the eaves post...

The odd, orangey colored photos are at nice, and I haven't twiddled the light balance yet, but it'll give you sort of a sense of when these are being taken. First, afternoon and night;

And then, landscape to show the full extent of the gutter...

 

I'll try and continue this set as they grow, but am having to slowly zoom farther and farther out (shorter focal length) as they grow.

Here's one of the planters from last night:

The news says that's all the snow until Thursday, Wunderground says it's supposed to rain on Wednesday, snow more on Thursday and Friday...

Icicles on the eaves

These lovely items are growing off the second story eaves outside Wendy's office window.

The Anna's Hummingbird

Since it's been hanging around so much, I have been able to shoot a lot of pictures of this amazing little creature, and have been able to get a couple of really nice images. Yesterday as it started to snow again, it perched just a couple feet away from the window. Combine that with a 70-200mm zoom and doubler for a total of 400mm, and I was able to capture this image.

That was the first time for me that the bright chin plumage reflected the color just right. Before this, all the pictures made it look like just a darker green. Also note the very small specs of white on her forehead and on the iron bar - those are snowflakes as it had just started to come down again.

This morning, after an overnight snowfall of extremely dry, fine snow of about 5" we then had a thin shell of freezing rain fall. Today, the hummingbird has been perching in one of our huckleberry bushes that has a nice thin coating of ice. Shortly after I took the following picture Wendy went outside to add some warm water to the birdbath to keep it liquid as the juncos have been drinking from it quite a bit. The hummingbird stayed on it's perch until after Wendy passed, and then returned almost as soon as she had closed the door again.

So, those are the best images from this mornings collection. I hope everyone is staying warm!

Stephen

More news (or What I did on Sunday...)

Wendy has been playing in a Bell Choir organized by one of the players/conductor from Bells of the Sound for about a year now. The group occasionally plays during Sunday sermons at the Tibbets United Methodist Church here in West Seattle. Today was to be one of those days. When The forecast began calling for snow, I volunteered to get Wendy to church on time, and also get her home afterwards.

While the sermon was going on, I went and had a cup of coffee a few blocks away at Hotwire (see previous post). One of the Baristas there was working on a Holiday Project of making artistic lattes, and after taking a picture offered it up to the people that were in the shop at the time. It was delicious... here are Before and After pics from my phone's camera (not great for close-up work) - I was very careful about drinking it...

 

I then headed back to the church after toodling around the neighborhoods seeing just how poor traction was and to have just a little fun swinging the tail around corners where there was enough room and visibility to do so... Drifting just a little, and at extremely slow speed...

When I got back to the church, I stashed the laptop under the seat, and as I was standing up, my lower back twinged in a not very pleasant way... It was kind of scary, to tell you the truth,  but I was able to stand up, and walk into the church lobby without pain, so I wasn't to worried about it then. Just a little, and it made me much more cautious there rest of the trip home. We stopped at the Farmers Market which was fairly short on vendors today (I can't imaging why, really...) and got some veggies and a little bacon for the week.

When we got home I carefully extracted the laptop from under the seat, and then as I was trying to stand up again, another twinge... this one a little bigger... Since then (about noon, or a little later) I've been sitting on ice & heat, and trying to ignore the pain in my lower back.

So, I'll be making a trip to the Doctor tomorrow if I can get in, and not doing much of anything else for a little while.

:`(

More wildlife

Here are some more wildlife pictures, since the deck is hopping with little Juncos and the hummingbird was visiting... And one or two shots from earlier this month of a Chickadee.

First off, a series of shots of the hummingbird. I didn't have the motor running, so the motion isn't quite as smooth as I would have liked, but it still gives you an idea of the movement the hummingbirds wings go through. Click the image to see the movie.

A couple still shots of the hummingbird...

The Chickadee I captured earlier:

An Oregon Junco in the snow with a sunflower seed

West Seattle Winters

Well, over here in the little part of Seattle called "West Seattle" the snow has fallen, and then the temperature dropped into the 20's. So we have a great deal of ice on the roadways making navigation a tricky business. There are some drivers that know what they are doing, and others that have no clue what to do.

Having dedicated snow tires is a definite plus. Traction exists as long as I can keep tires on stuff that isn't wet-topped sheet ice. If there's any roughness to it, and it isn't in the sun, then navigating it hasn't been to much of a problem yet. There are areas where you have to be REALLY gentle, and use the brakes rather than back-pressure to slow down, otherwise the tail tries to overtake the nose.

I've heard that there were supposed to be plows out, but I haven't seen signs of any plows yet. There was one lane of the downhill run on 35th that was sanded, but it didn't look like the uphill run had been sanded. Hopefully it will be better by the time we are heading uphill after Wendy is done with her bell choir this morning. If not, I'll be putting the chains on the car to get home. I think we should go to the Farmers Market first though. Since a bunch of the vendors have shown up, then we should do our best to make it worthwhile for them.

That's all for this morning, I'm just relaxing at a little coffee-house called "Hotwire" here on California Avenue north of the Alaska Junction. The West Seattle Blog had a coupon book, so I got a free coffee to enjoy while Wendy was busy with bells.

4pm Update - here are a few photos from our evening walk in the snow. These were all from the first few minutes, as it started to come down quite heavy, and I packed the camera into my coat to keep it dry.

Wendy & Sophia, ready for the walk:

A few neighbors porches:

A couple of snow-laden bushes:

Western Washington Winter Wildlife

The last few days it's been getting colder and colder around here. Recently the mercury has been dropping into the range of freezing overnight frequently. This weekend, the Northwest is getting it's first major winter storm of the year, with snow in the higher elevations. Even here in West Seattle there are rumors that we may see some snow tonight, and possibly tomorrow as well. With all the changes that go along with colder weather, the birds have been behaving a bit differently as well.

More and more of them have been visiting our deck feeders, and spending more time sitting around nearby. We've had Chickadees for quite a while, and I previously posted about the Red-Shafted Northern Flicker that's been paying us a few visits. Now, with the extra cold winter we are also getting a flock of Oregon Junco that have been hanging around. They like to eat off the ground more than the feeder, so they spend a lot of time in and around the pots, getting seeds that get dropped by the chickadees.

We have also been seeing a lot of a little tiny thing that likes to come and perch in the bamboo or on the feeder hanger, a Hummingbird. I can't tell if it's an Anna's Hummingbird or a Rufous Hummingbird, but it sure is a cute little thing. It comes and parks a few minutes making sure the coast is clear of other birds for a moment, then buzzes down to the feeder for a little nectar before going back to perch for a few minutes more. It's been a lot of fun watching it today while catching up on a little TV, getting a few series programs out of the way on a lazy Saturday.

But, enough with the chatter, here's a couple pictures of the little flyers at rest:

 

OK, looking at the picture again, it's looking more like an Anna's Hummingbird by the dark wings and the light eye bands... I'm going to be trying to get pictures of this little beauty buzzing about the feeder as well, so stay tuned for more.