Long nights, the moon

It's not that we are any closer to the moon but these extra hours of dark lend themselves to finding night activities, indoors and out.  I took this picture last night when I was practicing taking pictures of Christmas lights, which I was trying to figure out to be ready to take pictures of the Lighted Boat parade gracing Bellingham Bay Friday and Saturday nights.  The picture of our neighbor's Christmas lights didn't turn out so well but while I was standing out there in the dark with the camera on a tripod, set for taking pictures at night, I looked up.  This is what I saw.

Funny thing is, the sky immediately cleared up after I took this picture.  I went to bed, and when the alarm went off at 5:30 in the morning, I woke up wondering if someone had left the lights on outside.  I went into the living room, where we have a big picture window overlooking Bellingham, and the moon was casting headlights into our house.  It was low on the horizon and illuminated the whole room.

Part 3 was the sunrise, beautiful pink sky wrapping snowy white Mt. Baker, a view that I saw just as I pulled into the parking lot of Vista Middle School (appropriately named) where I am subbing.

So there, you know that I have a long term (3 weeks) sub for a computer teacher at a middle school in Ferndale, WA.  Lynne is working long days for the home health agency, driving around the countryside seeing snow geese in the fields.  I heard birds calling as they flew over our house and the man I was talking to pointed out that they were trumpeter swans.

Yesterday I went to the library and came home with an armful of books for us to read on these long evenings.  I'm disoriented by the early sunset  so I start cooking dinner early, we eat early, I wash the dishes, and then I look at the clock and its only 6 pm.  The sun set at 4:15 pm today and rose at 7:43 a.m.  Besides reading books, we are working on our house.  Lynne is painting the living room a moss green called camouflage, the dining room is acorn yellow, the trim is ivory lace (second color for the trim).  She's also cutting and installing  new wider baseboards in an effort to de-ranch the house..  We've put in new light fixtures and taken down the mirror over the fireplace. We are replaced the plain hollow closet door with a Shaker style wood door, and plan to do more as we get to it and get the money.

Here's a picture of Mt. Rainier as we drove past it on I-5 on our way south. We miss all our friends and family, but had a respite from being strangers in a strange land over Thanksgiving.  Our Kentucky friend, now a Eugene, Oregon resident, Barbara, invited us to share  Thanksgiving with her son and her partner, and our Kentucky friend, now BC resident, Cynthia, joined us there for a day too.   The trip was just what the doctor ordered...I revelled in being with these friends whom I first knew in 1977 in Lexington. (All the marbles rolled to the west.)  Winnie enjoyed having a big family again, if only for a weekend.  We shared Thanksgiving and then carrot cake on Friday night to celebrate my birthday early. Barbara and I danced our heads off in a NIA dance-exercise-music-expression class Saturday morning which was totally fun for a once dancer turned grownup (me).

Now for my other find:  I heard Sarah Jones on NPR and I love her Moth story.  Then I found this TED talk that she did, and I totally recommend it to enrich your winter evening: http://www.ted.com/talks/sarah_jones_as_a_one_woman_global_village.html

Love,

Sky, Lynne and Winnie