October!

Fall kinda sorta arrived in October though there were a lot of super warm days and not nearly enough rain.

John and I celebrated our 17th anniversary(!!) by spending 5 days staying at the Malheur Field Station in the Malheir Wildlife Refuge just south of Burns. The Field Station is really cool and consists of double wide trailers, a few houses and dorms for groups doing birding trips. We were the only people staying there and really enjoyed the quiet along with beautiful sunsets and moon rises over the deseet.

We did some bird watching and John saw his first ever owl! We drove the Steens Mointain loop and got to see the fall colors which were stunning.

Fall colors in the desert are really spectacular

I got my first digital camera mostly to tale pictures of birds. I already want a longer lens but I've been getting some decent shots.

My friend Deb and I went up to the top of Larch Mountain and both saw our first Northern Pygmy Owl. They're the second smallest owl on the planet! Just look at that little guy!

Back I'm january I started taking online watercolor lessons from the amazing Claire Giordano https://www.adventureartacademy.com/ and I did a painting from one of her Nepal lessons in October

I'm still getting the hang of the medium but really enjoying the process. If you've ever wanted to learn watercolors, I can't recommend Adventure Art enough and maybe I'll write another post with more of the art I've made this year.

Everything in the news is pretty terrible and all I can recommend is finding ways to help in your community. Write to political prisoners! Join a community ICE watch like PIRCs Migra Watch https://linktr.ee/pirc_pdx Fill your local free pantries with supplies or cook food for those in need.