Let me cheer you up!

This is one of the strangest Thanksgiving many of us have spent in our lives, don't you think? We usually get together with family and friends and have a huge party - but not this year.

This year, our dear friend and her daughter came to feast with us, since they are in our "family pod". We haven't seen very many people since the pandemic hit, but we do spend time with a few select "family of choice" folks.

I think this Thanksgiving was one my favorites ever, because it was quiet and sweet, with lots of nature.

I would love to take you by the hand and show you what we encountered on our walks in this beautiful area we moved to.

This barn is not on our property, but we look at it every day out of our back door. Isn't she gorgeous?

 

It can get super windy here, which I love. The bird life is INSANE. The Skagit Valley is famous for its bird watching opportunities, and with that, also hunting. When we walk, we hear lots of shots from hunters shooting ducks and geese.

Good thing they can't shoot swans, eagles and herons, because I love them.

 

In the afternoon, we went for a walk to Padilla Shore Trail, an area I adore because the view is gorgeous, the wind can be vicious (which I love), and wildife watching is a treat.

We "ran" into playful otters, lots of eagles, herons, an owl and hundreds of other birds. My naturalist-nerd friend was in heaven, and our girls got their feet wet.

 

 

The next day, we hiked to Samish Overlook. This is a spot we see from our kitchen and dining room windows, and it's also a place that holds incredible significance for me.

It's the place my host family took me when I came to the United States from Germany for the first time. It was 1992, and I was an Au Pair for a doctor's family. On the first weekend in America, they took me hiking, and I watched hang glider pilots launch themselves off the mountain.

Little 20-year old me was awe struck by this adventurous sport, and I struck up a halting conversation with the daring hang glider pilots. My English wasn't very good back then, but I must have been charming enough to have one of them offer to take me on a tandem flight the next weekend.

Of course I took him up on this, and my life was changed forever! I spent the next two years training to be a hang glider pilot. (I never did a solo flight. It's a long story which I might tell one day).

Anyway, when my friend and I went hiking on Thanksgiving weekend, we ran into a guy I used to fly with and now had switched to para gliders. Fun memories!

I hope you liked our little walk just now and felt yourself inspired and your spirits lifted by the pictures. Nothing like a little natural beauty to cheer you up, eh?

How was your Thanksgiving?