Of Rabbits and Hares

This was among the first photos taken with the new Nikon P500 camera, which arrived on the 8th. I stepped out the back door on my way to take pictures and this little fellow was sitting across the alley. I got two shots off before he darted away. This is not a cropped image...





This jackrabbit, also known as a hare, was seen in Mountview Cemetery in Billings on the 13th. At first I thought it was a grave decoration, albeit not near a grave, but then I noticed its eyes were moving.





A close-up shot, at the full 36x magnification of the zoom lens.



It was a little wobbly in the hind legs when it stood up – a lot like my legs after I've been sitting for too long!





It looked back at me, then jumped off – literally – covering a distance of five feet or more with each hop as well as a foot or more in height. And it was fast! Sure was fun to watch too. (In a search for info on jackrabbits I found out that they can leap up to 10 feet and reach speeds up to 40 mph. Their young are born furred and with their eyes open.)

Copenhagen panoramic views from Christianshavn

Confession time. I do not really like heights. I mean, I appreciate panoramic views but an open-air setting, in a balcony or a tower on top of a very high building? Oooooh, that makes my knees wobble. Nevertheless, I still push myself every time because I have the gorgeous views at the end of the climb in mind.

You can see the architectural wonder, the Oresund Bridge that connects Denmark (Copenhagen) and Sweden (Malmo) from the top of the Church of Our Saviour in Christianshavn. The tower and spire stretches to 90 metres.

So when I stopped over at Christianshavn my goal was to really just explore the area quickly and then go to Christiana, the infamous autonomous enclave in Denmark. However, while walking around I saw the beautiful tower of the 17th century ‘Vor Frelsers Kirke’ (Church of Our Saviour). The spire on top of the tower I believe was finished half a century later.

I love the black colour of the impressive corkscrew spire against the eye-catching gilded railing and balusters of the external winding staircase that leads to the top. The gold colour flutter playfully against the sunlight. The spire looked so pretty from afar so out of curiousity I decided to inspect it closely.

Climbing the church’s tower wasn’t really in my plan but when I looked into my cOPENhagen card booklet, it states that it’s one of the free attractions. Well, it is not free to the general public but if you buy the cOPENhagen card your entrance fee to climb the tower is waived.

I was tempted. Soooooooooo tempted. And before I knew it I was climbing the stairs to the top!

Come follow me and see the beautiful views of Copenhagen from the top of the Church of Our Saviour in Christianshavn through my pictures below =)

There are 550 steps to the top of the tower, the last 150 steps are the external gilded staircase.

I did not really go all the way to the top because the human traffic was dizzying me. Plus the fact that the more you go up, the more you realise that there is nothing up there anymore except for that spire and the golden ball. I was probably just a few steps away to the golden ball! But the thought just kind of stays with you especially when you look around you, and uh, below..... ugh help! Haha.

Why do I keep torturing myself from these height-related activities?

The climb is highly recommended because the views up there were just amazing. You cannot get this higher in Denmark I believe, plus it is open-air!

Do take note that it can get crowded. I was quite lucky as I did not have a mass following when I went up, however, when I went down, the narrow wooden staircases were packed. Children and adults were queued up and moving slowly to go up the tower.

Mount Catherine ..

Scott had the day off and wanted to ski before Thanksgiving. I wanted to burn the calories that I was about to consume, so I happily obliged. The plan if there was good snow was to go yo-yo somewhere and have fun in the powder. However, it looks like we have hit the El Nino segment of our dark months with higher temps. This meant rain at the passes the day previous and a 10000' freezing level on the day of our trip.

Skinning up the slopes of Hyak

So we headed for Mount Catherine with the hopes of a summit. Chad joined us at the Mercer Island Park and Ride and we were on our way. The weather was clear and we saw a beautiful sunrise before arriving at Snoqualmie Pass to low clouds and fog. Instead of taking the Sno Park and forest road in as it seemed tedious. We opted for the skin up Hyak and over the other side. We followed forest roads (Nordic ski trails) down the other side a bit before leaving on a bearing across the North Face. After endless traversing through trees, we got to an open area which we confirmed with the map was the east end of the summit ridge. There were cliffs and no obvious way up, so we traversed more and more which reminded Scott and I about the Ski Patrol Race we had done back in February.

Heading into the trees

We occasionally crossed open slopes and contemplated trying to gain the ridge to the summit but we were having little luck. Our difficulties were exacerbated by the constant fog which made seeing ahead not easy and gave us little incentive to try and head up only to be confronted by cliffs. So we maintained a fairly level traverse and then we started seeing flatter terrain. We finally made it near Windy Pass and eventually saw a sign with an arrow pointing in that direction. There was a weather monitoring station there too, and some blue diamond trail markers. We stopped for lunch. (It was around 1pm.) The sun just barely came out briefly enough for us to see our shadows. Then we deskinned for a short ski down to another road. At this point we had forsaken our summit attempt and were content with a circumnavigation.

A more open area

Unfortunately due to the poor sloppy snow conditions and the ungroomed state of the road, going downhill on the road took almost as much effort as going uphill. We worked hard to make our way out and after it seemed like there would be no more downhill, I gave up on the skinless skis and stopped to put my skins back on as it seemed they would offer me better propulsion. They did, but Scott and Chad were out of site, and I did not catch up with them until the final downhill to the parking lot in the Hyak ski area. (Which was in more disappointing slop.)

Boulder field

Overall, I was happy to get out. The weather wasn't great, but that wasn't really a big deal. We knew going into it that the snow wasn't going to be so good for skiing, but it was more about the journey. Even though the road out was tiring and tedious, it was still better than being on snowshoes. Plus I think this is the first time I have circumnavigated a peak. Cool.

The road out

Visiting My Family in Jackson

Most of us headed over to Jackson to see my family today. Nathan has been sick, so he stayed home. I have an insanely large family, so to get us all together is a big task. We did pretty good this time. I was so touched that everyone scrambled at the last minute to come and see us. My sister Traci and my Mom cooked us all a great steak dinner and we got to chat some. And we even got a group picture! Not all of us are in it, but we at least were able to get a group shot of some of us.

I wish I'd have grabbed more pictures while there, but it was pretty hectic and the time flew by way too fast as it was. I'm grateful to have days like this since I don't get to see my family very often anymore.



We left Ashleigh and Elijah in Jackson. The RV will be extra quiet without them. We really enjoyed our visit with Ashleigh so much. I am especially grateful for the time with her this past week. I didn't know exactly how it would go, because we don't really have company stay with us in the RV very often. And we haven't been around Ashleigh day in/day out for a few years. On top of that, we've had some hard years that were painful for both us as parents, and for Ashleigh who was going through hard things. As the oldest child, she has had to forgive us as parents far more than the other ones. She's been vocal at times about that fact. Within ten minutes of her being around, it was just like she'd never left. Which was really cool to me.



It was so moving to me to see the person she is growing into and that she is still Ashleigh, with a huge heart, even after going through rough things. Just a more mature version of Ashleigh! We love you so much, Ash, and you still crack us up. Get your RV so you can join us on the road!



Living the life in Michigan!

Starring Nobody

I took on a touch too much this weekend. Huge group at work, cooking for 150 hungry black belts, rush out for a lap on the project with Lee and Sam, dash to Brissy for photos with The Red Phoenix Style team (AKA my twin daughters), back to work for Ethical Pickles production team (Yaana and Sandra) and more.

Let's just say corners were cut. Things were compromised. Mistakes were made.

But the results were fab.

Celebrity blogger "Starring Nobody" AKA Kirsten Morrison modeled some stunning threads by some totally important designers.

But this is not one of them. Lotus picked up this sparkly number in the op shop for 10 bucks. That's immersion quality clothing. And in she went.











The whole shoot was for the client "The French Peg" a sweet little Paddington boutique.

But this is not that.








Climbers, it's possible you are getting a pre-release peek at The Red Phoenix Emporium collection of necklaces and earrings "Nature in Neon"

This cowboy blogger never checks permissions. No time.








Adrift.































The style team at jjobrienclimbing are totally and utterly impressed with the new collection, seriously I don't know how those girls keep hitting the trend bang on.








Kirsten looks superb in this rig, confirming the fact that an RPE necklace will make a $10 dress look a million. That's a fact.








Snapped between shivering bouts. Kirsten is die hard dedicated to style.






Is the collection online yet? Keep checking Red Phoenix Emporium or drop into The French Peg


2/237 Given Tce, Paddington Brisbane.








There is nothing this girl has not covered in style on her blog starring-nobody.blogspot.com

Thank you Kirsten, Lotus, Willow and all for another amazing shoot.




jj

My Cat Loves Bicycles

We thought it was cute when our cat showed an interest in the Pashley Roadster. But that was nothing compared to her reaction to the vintage Raleigh!

According to the Co-Habitant, she was "all over it" immediately, sniffing the bicycle and trying to lick it. She went into some sort of ecstatic frenzy and could not be pried away!

So apparently my cat loves bicycles! -- or at least quality English bicycles? -- We will need to conduct some research to determine the extent of her attraction.

Thunderbird Dream Catcher