happy spring from my hummingbird friends

I've been hanging out with these two in the evenings... Well, more like sitting very still for long periods of time, waiting till they grace me with their presence for a few seconds while I frantically adjust my manual focus. ;) My fingers get cold hovering ready to press the shutter when the sun starts to go down, but it's good to be out in the fresh springtime air hearing the chickadees sing their mating song and catching oh-so-brief glimpses of these little flying jewels.

untitled

 

It’s odd to think that on February 21, 2014, I stood next to this man at my wedding rehearsal thinking I loved and knew him—when, almost fifty days later, that love looks like a childish fancy compared to how much I love him now. I can hardly imagine what fifty years might bring—but I’m excited to find out. :)

christmas day snowstorm

 

It’s not very often that we get a good snowstorm on Christmas Day, so awaking to three or four inches of accumulation and flakes falling down fast was thrilling—especially for me, knowing that it’s not long until I return to the Sunshine State and don’t see any more snow for the rest of the winter. Trudging through unbroken expanses in pursuit of pictures, catching snowflakes on my tongue and eyelashes, watching my brothers build two huge snowmen, loping my horse over the snowy gravel roads—I don’t want to forget anything about my short winter in Washington this year.

I am so blessed to have grown up in a beautiful place like this.

for larissa, with love

My friend and classmate, Larissa, has lived in Florida for nearly her entire life and has never experienced snow—which, in my opinion, is a tragedy. Never heard the deafening silence that comes when the world is blanketed in snow? Never felt the lightness of snowflakes brushing against her cheeks? Never seen the way a thick white flurry closes in and dims out the horizon?

If I could bring snow back to you, Larissa, I would! But I’m afraid these pictures are the closest I can get. We don’t have much snow yet, but if we get more, I’ll post more for you. :)

florida in the fall

 

Today I smelled fall.

It almost smelled like a mid-September day at home, but with an ever-so-slight difference in flavor. Distinctly fall but distinctly Florida, with enough similarities to a Goldendale autumn to give me flashbacks, but enough differences to make me appreciate a new kind of November.

Mild temperatures… clear skies… a glowing sunset. Squirrels playing tag in the trees; grackles bickering over scavenged food in the park. The subtle scent of moist Florida air. The sound of ripples on the lake lapping at the shore.

This was one of those nights that I want to remember.

melbourne

 

At my Bible school, it’s part of the curriculum to do something called the “Bible Experience.” You can’t really do an in-depth year-long study of a document that you haven’t read in full, which is what the Bible Experience is for—we read the Bible from cover to cover in ten (or fewer) days. And to do so, we got to spend the last week in the beach city of Melbourne, Florida. I’ll post beach pictures soon, but for now, just a few from our neighborhood itself. :)

Isn’t it pretty?