The Story Continues

February 22, 2026

Sunrise, February 16, 2026 - does anyone else see a face looking straight at us and a huge heart above her head?

Friends, it’s 11:45 AM on Saturday, and I still have no idea what to write today! I do have lots of photos with their own story to tell, so today I’m going to add just a little and otherwise let the photos do the talking. I used to try and write every Sunday, but more and more I’m realizing I dont need to force anything. A story is a story, regardless of the balance between words and images. And I’ve gotten that backlog down to 7000 photos, so I’m making progress!

There sure has been a lot of energy this week! Sunrise, February 18, 2026

I miss having the ducks up close! The goldeneyes are still in a large pack in the middle of the lake, so let’s celebrate them with a video. It’s really intriguing to watch them dive as a pack. It reminds me of a popcorn machine. If you are counting goldeneyes, how many you count depends on when you look!

If you’ve been here long, you know how much I love American Coots, whom I affectionately refer to as cooties. All that time we spent avoiding “cooties” as a kid, and it turns out these squeaky water chickens with giant, green, dinosaur feet seem about as sweet as could be. Here is one of my cootie friends taking a walk across the ice in front of me:

I mean, THOSE FEET!

Long strides for such short legs. I watched one coot walk all the way from the pond the geese had out in the middle of the lake to the pond at the marina. I wanted to say, “dude, you have wings!”

Taking a bow, and there she goes back into the water.

We interrupt the duck parade with a song sparrow who just wants you to know there are little birds here in the cold, too.

You can see song sparrow was insistent on being included.

Common mergansers look so comfortable hanging out on the ice in below freezing temps. It’s nice to have a warm, fluffly undercoat, the original version of a “puffy”.

Ms. common merganser just throwing herself at the pond. They must love to make a splash.

I didn’t even see the gadwalls among the mallards until they took off!

Just a quiet winter day at the ole’ fishin’ hole.

She was right there before he even came out of the water with that fish!

Hooded mergansers, funny from every angle!

There is some serenity in the midst of chaos. I’d like to be able to find this the way the mergansers do.

Even when the flyby is quick, I’m amazed to see how strong their bodies are and all the detail that is revealed in their patterns.

Blue is a little ruffled.

Fortunately, he has wings to steady himself.

The tell that the hoodies are about to take off.

She was quicker than he was, which I notice is usually the case. Female leadership.

Nice of him to give me a couple extra seconds.

And just like that, he’s gone too.

A reminder that there is always light in the darkness. Even in the ice.

I’ve seen so much talk about the “Fire Horse,” most of it unsurprisingly taking a very masculine view of the horse. In my quiet space, I’m feeling her very differently. I’m feeling how connected horses are to everything, how attuned they are to the truth, how they sometimes sense our emotions better than we do. I’m seeing the fire horse as an energetically sensitive and aware being, full of life. Perhaps that is the version of the fire horse I hope to embody this year.

Maybe the fire horse sprinkles golden stardust everywhere she goes?

May the week ahead be full of golden stardust sprinkles for everyone.