boolie

High Hopes

For a car to work as my daily driver, it needs to do well in two situations:

My commute to work
The auto tour at Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge

I’m in the midst of a long vacation so I (thankfully) haven’t had the chance to test our new Crosstrek on the work commute, but Christmas was lining up to be my first chance to test it at Ridgefield. It’s become a bit of a tradition for me to go to Ridgefield first thing on Christmas morning as sometimes I practically have the refuge to myself, a nice time for quiet contemplation during a hectic time of the year.

Late on Christmas Eve after my wife had gone to bed I went out into the garage and just looked at the car for a while. I was nervous, for the next day would prove whether my high hopes for this car would pan out at the refuge. I sat in it for a while and read the owner’s manual enough until I figured out how to quiet the beeps when you lock the car. My nerves settled, I headed up to bed and set my alarm to wake me before sunrise.

I love photographing in the rain and Christmas delivered the wet in abundance as I drove in the dark to the refuge, giving me a quick feel for how the little Subaru would handle the heavy rain compared to its bigger sibling (thankfully, it handled the soaked streets and big puddles quite well, I was thankful not to be in the Civic).

I was relieved to see the car did well along the auto tour too (the icing on the cake would have been if it had been a hybrid so I could drive more quietly around the refuge, but it was not to be). At this time of year you can’t get out of the car except in the parking lots, so I took a quick picture beside the sign in the entrance lot.

I’m definitely still in the honeymoon phase but so far I’m just loving this little car.

I’ve been back to the refuge and it’s gravel road a few times since Christmas, each time in the rain, and it’s starting to feel less and less like someone else’s car and more and more like mine. But she’s not quite as white as she used to be.

Bird Bath

A couple of years ago we started a hummingbird garden in memory of my mother-in-law. Many of the plants were chosen specifically to attract hummingbirds, while others were selected to expand it into a wildflower garden, plus we added a young dogwood to round things out. We also picked up a pretty little birdbath since we hadn’t had one for years, not since I accidentally knocked over our cheap one and broke it. A number of birds, such as this American robin, have been enjoying the bath ever since.

A-ha!

Purple coneflower is one of my favorites in our garden and we have a vigorous patch at the edge of our back patio. I deadhead them during the summer to encourage new flowers but at the end of the season I leave them be as I knew birds were eating the seeds in the dried-up cones during the winter — I just didn’t know which ones, as I had never seen any birds on the dead flowers. I had assumed my seed-eaters were finches but just discovered their true identity: dark-eyed juncos.

Junco plumages vary across populations, this is a female of the Oregon race which we commonly see in our backyard, she’s perched on one of the coneflower stems.

The Wait Is (Actually) Over

It’s going to be a white Christmas this year! A white Crosstrek Christmas!

The dealer called late this afternoon to say our car had arrived and thankfully they were able to squeeze us in so we could pick her up right away. This is going to be the best Christmas ever!

Will I be too excited to sleep tonight? I never could as a kid. We lived in Michigan in my younger years and one Christmas Eve with relatives in my room I ended up in the bottom bunk of my brother’s bed. Unable to sleep I contented myself with watching the snow fall outside his window. Suddenly there was a big gust of wind and snow as the bottom of Santa’s sleigh flew past, and just as quickly it was gone.

The over-active imagination of a kid who loved Christmas? I know what I saw! Even today in my memory I see his sleigh flying by.

Technically speaking the Crosstrek isn’t a Christmas present. And besides, as much as I love the car, Sam and Emma were far better presents. But yes I am excited, and yes I have a lot to be thankful for.

So too do Sam and Em, for I put up our artificial Christmas tree this afternoon. They were both sleeping under it before I even had time to spread out the branches and I don’t think they’ve left it in the hours since. Woodland cats, these two. Emma even tried to climb it while I was setting it up, but we know how that turns out.

The Wait Is (Almost) Over

We started looking for a new car about a year ago, and ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner!

Our list of potential new cars had shrunk to one, the Subaru XV Crosstrek, and pretty soon we’ll have one of our very own. They’ve been in short supply and high demand since they arrived on our shores a few months back, but our dealer emailed me yesterday that a black one just came in so we went down today for a test drive. We loved the car and while we’re not interested in black, fortunately a white one is due to arrive in one to three weeks so we put a claim in on it. I’m not normally a fan of white but I think the XV looks great in it.

We’ve decided to replace the Civic first even though it has less miles than the Outback, it’s been a great little car but it just doesn’t fit our current lifestyle very well. So for the first time in over twenty years a Civic won’t be my daily driver. And the first time I won’t have a stick shift, which I’ll miss at times but not so much on my current commute with it’s heavier dose of stop-and-go traffic, and not at all at Ridgefield where the stick was downright obnoxious at the slow speeds I drive on the auto tour.

I’ll certainly miss the moonroof but not the several inches of headroom it robbed me of.

Not there will be any tears shed when it comes time to hand over the keys, these next one to three weeks can’t pass quickly enough!

A Mystery

This is one of my favorite bittern pictures as it shows the way I often wind down a day at Ridgefield, watching bitterns near the end of the auto tour before I have to leave to beat the closing of the automated gate, the setting sun leaving the bittern to hunt in shadow. These last moments always make me wonder — what do bitterns do in the dark?

Birdwatcher

One of my favorite pictures of Emma, she was watching the scrub jays and flickers and hummingbirds that are regular visitors to our wildflower garden. She spends more time watching the garden than the rest of the household combined. While redecorating my office I tried to figure out a way for me to sit there instead, but access to the closet behind her was a sticking point I couldn’t get past. The cat tree fits in that space quite nicely though.

Besides, how could I deprive her of her favorite non-string related activity?

Cat Signal

Like Batman, I can be summoned with a signal cast upon the heavens. He with a silhouette of a bat, I with cat ears. He to fight criminal masterminds, I to evict trespassers in Scout’s bed.

We all have our roles to play.

Suddenly Salmonny Sam

Sam and Emma get a serving of Tiki Cat wet food in the mornings. We’ve alternated flavors over the years, sometimes even getting a variety pack where they get a new flavor every couple of days. That was all good and well but now they’re hooked on Wild Salmon and won’t touch anything else. Emma I can kind of understand, she’s always been a bit picky, but little Samwise was a surprise as he’ll eat anything that isn’t a vegetable.

If they ever discontinue Wild Salmon, may God have mercy on our souls.

Even a Dog Likes To Be Comfortable

I don’t normally pose my pet pictures but I must confess to draping the blanket across Ellie for this shot. I would have preferred that she be asleep but it was a hot day so I only left the blanket on for a few seconds. The pillow, though, she sought that out on her own.