I had another job interview last week, only the fourth one I’ve managed to score this year, and the answer was a no. So close. We continue to plug along. At least the toy business is starting to pick up for Christmas, so that makes things better for a bit. Still, we’ve had real estate agents out to appraise the house and talk about selling the little farm, and we’ve put in for a modification – if we can hold out long enough to get it.

To cheer myself up I did a photo session at Everyday Dog for Christmas. What could be more fun than photographing dogs on Santa’s lap? Most of these folks were our friends from training class anyway, and it’s always fun to photograph friend’s dogs, since we know them so well.

And my favorite of all the pictures was Santa trying to hang onto the wiggliest puppy I’ve ever seen!

What a great day! All proceeds went to benefit PUFA, People United For Animals, which offers low-cost spay & neuters.

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I was sitting outside with the dogs when I heard a commotion and spotted a big Red Tail Hawk heading in our direction from the trees south of us.

Then I noticed he was being tailed by a gutsy little crow

They fussed and cawed and screeched as the crow chased and dive bombed the big hawk, until the crow decided the hawk was far enough away. The crow turned and flew home, leaving the hawk to do a few lazy circles over our pasture before heading off towards the hills to the north.

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I took my new camera out to the local pond to take some pictures of the waterfowl. Unfortunately the weather didn’t cooperate, and after only a few minutes the rain started coming down hard, and I had no choice but to hide my camera under my coat and run back to the car. I got a few pictures though.

The attention-getters today was this lovely pair of Canucks.

And there were a lot of lovely red-winged blackbirds, calling to their girlfriends. Spring is in the air!

They seemed to be everywhere!

I’ll go back on a nicer day and practice some more.

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