Camera Critters - Marmaduke Marmot.

(Click on any image for a larger view)

On the way up to Walmart, last weekend, I happened to glance over into the empty field, that is in front of the shopping complex, and saw this face peering at me.

I immediately thought 'Camera Critters' and grabbed my 35mm SLR, fired off a shot and then realised I was out of film. Arghhhhhhh !! No worries though, as I then remembered my little point 'n shoot digital was tucked into my jeans pocket.. :-) A girl's got to come prepared, these days as one never knows what photo opportunity will be around the next corner !!


'Watcha doing? Trying to sneak up on me or sumfing??'


'Okay, what's with the inch a step closer, stand still and then repeat thing you've got going on? No wonder people walking by are giving you odd looks !'


'Okaaaay Lady, come any closer and see this stick that I have clutched in my paws? Well, I"M NOT AFRAID TO USE IT !!!!'

I think at this point, young Marmaduke decided that I'd snuck close enough, because he turned tail and scurried into his burrow.

I continued on my way, quite happy with the results of my stalking interlude, when I happen to catch a slight movement out of the corner of my left eye..


Why, it's Marmaduke's BFF, Manny, sunning himself on his favourite rock !

I think he was a tad put out, that I didn't have any pieces of carrots or apples in my pocket, because he sort of huffed at me and stalked off in disgust.

Have a great weekend, folks !!

Now go to CAMERA CRITTERS and join in the fun.

Camera Critters - Birds and a Marmot

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Took these first four shots a couple of months ago, shortly after getting my 35 mm SLR. In fact, I think it might have been the first roll of film I shot..




Such tranquil scenes...

Some of the bird life at Virginia Lake in Reno, NV. I'm lucky enough to live about a 10 minute walk away, so it's a favourite place of mine to go..

That little island, in the second photo, is known as Seagull Island and usually just resembles a large blob of gulls. I think most of them were out on the lake, the day I took that photo..



My first attempt at taking a shot of geese in flight. Definitely a tad shaky. They don't look quite as blurry on the originals, but seemed to have developed it on the upload.

I think that a telephoto lens is definitely on my shopping list .... along with a macro lens :-)

How long away is Christmas??? :-)

This was taken the other day, when I walked up to a field about a mile and half away from us. It has a colony of marmots living there, who are a source of endless entertainment.

Both photos were taken with my small point and shoot digital. I also shot two rolls of 35mm, but they're currently away being developed. Apparently, the old two day service is now a five day service!!

Sending them out to be developed, is a little cheaper than the 1 hour option.

Time to look into developing my own, methinks !! :-)


This might look like a field of rocks, but it ain't :-)

If you look about the center of the shot, you'll see the marmots head poking out of it's burrow. We spent quite a bit of time eyeballing each other !

I'm hoping the 35mm shots, will show it up a bit better..


Mr Marmot scampering around..

Well, I'm pretty sure they are marmots. Perhaps someone could verify that for me?

Now go to CAMERA CRITTERS and join in the fun.

Weighty Matters Monday #3

I had a .4 of a pound , weight loss this week.

Not great, but I'll take it. At least the scales were moving in the right direction !!

I'm still fighting the comfort eating urge. I'm pretty stressed right now, for various reasons.

J, is still job hunting. He has a job interview, this morning, that he's hopeful about. I'm trying to not get too hopeful and excited about it, but at the same time be supportive. It's a very tough job market, right now..

It's also difficult having him home all the time. Don't get me wrong, I like spending time with him, but I also like my solitary time. Most of my time is spent with people and that usually involves me doing something for them or listening to them. There is not much time when I can just unwind or be quiet within me.

I am extremely homesick. I really, really want to go home. I miss my kids and I very much miss my grand kids. I haven't been very good at staying in contact, lately. Mainly because I find myself feeling a little depressed because I'm here and not there. It hurts. It's also something that I'm going to have to overcome, because not having contact is just as bad !

I'm also not very good at letting people know how I feel. I guess it's a hangup from my childhood, where I wasn't allowed to express emotion, where I was constantly told that I was no good, would never amount to anything and needed to stop whining because there were people worse off than I was..

Boy, I didn't mean to write that much..I guess there is a bit bottled up in there !! I will admit, that I am very tempted to delete most of the above, however, that again is something that I need to stop doing. Keeping it all inside me is not helping my stress levels, which in turn is playing havoc with my weight loss and my health..

Writing this down is one way of figuring out what is going on with me and how to strategise it..

I've been doing a little reading lately, about stress and it's affect on weight. This article has a lot of interesting information and links in it, on why stress may lead to weight gain and how to begin to combat that. I'm going to work on following some of the suggestions. Interestingly, journaling is one of them and writing down some of the stuff that is bugging me, is certainly helpful..

Janine, a blogger I follow, at Journey To A Mini Me is a real inspiration to me. She has lost an impressive amount of weight after WLS. Way to go, Janine !!!

Recently, she challenged her readers to make four promises to themselves. There were four beginning statements, that were the base of these promises. They could be about weight loss or other things in your life. So these are mine. The beginning statements are in red .

I CAN lose weight and achieve my goals in life.

I WILL take steps, even if they are small ones, each day to achieve those goals.

I WANT to move forward and get out of this rut I'm currently in. I know that I CAN do this because I AM stronger than I give myself credit for.

I WON'T let myself down anymore.

I now challenge you to write 4 statements about yourself, using the first two red words, in each statement. You can also add 'I' statements, as I did in the third one :-)

Okay, now I'm off to have a shower and then I'm going to walk up to this area,


Which is about a mile and a half, from where I live and photograph a colony of marmots that live there.

What have you planned for your day ?