We made it

We made it to the shortest day of the year. Like a lot of other days in 2025, I spent part of it looking at birds. Today I went out to Raccoon Point on Sauvie Island. I watched a massive flock of Snow Geese hang out on the water and occasionally lift off en masse, likely because of a Bald Eagle. I saw a juvenile Red-Tailed Hawk scratch its head. I heard a very out of season Common Yellowthroat call from the blackberry brambles. The Sandhill Cranes were enjoying the farm fields - flooded from our recent heavy rains. The moments of quiet and not so quiet - listening and watching has been one of the best things of 2025. It pulls me away from the worry of whatever horrible things are going on in the world and the pull of looking at my phone. Despite all of the horrors, nature continues on, doing its thing and it's wonderful. I'm thankful for all of the other birders I've got to meet over the last few years. So many nice people sharing the knowledge and I'm getting to a place where I can share what I've learned with others. Today a few people came up to the point and I offered to let them look at the geese through my(new to me) scope. They were so excited to get a better look at them flying around and it made my day to see that excitement.

I've also loved doin tons of trail work this year and recently saw this photo of our crew that spent several days working to clear tons of downed logs off the Herman Creek Trail.

And I'm already dreaming of the warm weather season and more backpacking trips with a saw team. My crosscut saw certification expires in 2026 and my hope is that I can move from my A cert to a B which means I can help supervise cuts and lead saw teams.

I made some more art this month and will hopefully finish a few more paintings before the new year. My art class has been yet another space full of amazing people, rooting for each other to make good art. I was kind of feeling like I didn't make all that much art this year. Then I started cleaning off my work space and realized I made seven full paintings(plus anything I finish in the next week or so) plus a multi-part intro to watercolor class and a three week ink sketching course. I actually made a lot of art!

The powers that be want to convince everyone that AI is the future, that no one wants to make or learn anything anymore. But there's so much power and connection to be had from sharing the things we love and creating and learning with other people.

May the light returning bring you joy!