This post was originally written by Anna Vera Williams on Anna Vera. Original post: The Eagle at Hidden Falls.

I am experimenting with integrating Twitter with this blog.  Since I sometimes do have 30 seconds to update my Twitter status even if I don’t have time to write a full post.  (Which is, after all, why people love Twitter so much.)  However I think I will turn of the Twitter comment integration, it doesn’t seem to really work.  If you would like to follow me at Twitter, you can find me @annavwilliams.

In any case, since I last posted on this blog, I have:

• Added several photos to my new photoblog, Anna Vera’s Photos.
• Begun to exhume old photos from my hard drive and post them, and am gradually chipping away at the backlog.
• Put up my poetry blog, Anna Vera’s Poems.
• Attended the Reach the Beach event in Pacific City and watched the bikers come into the finish line.
• Hiked to Cascade Head and then to Hart’s Cove, where I photographed the forest and the coast, but also underestimated the length of the walk to Hart’s Cove, was hours late getting back, considered spending the night in the forest, and could barely walk for two days.
• Got my shoes drenched twice, once in mud-water, once in the sea.
• Fed the rabbits behind the Internet Cafe.
• Visited beaches at Bob Straub State Park, Cape Kiwanda, and Neskowin, and worked on my photograph collection.
• Coined a new acronym – YAHRP, which means “Yet another Haystack Rock Picture.”
• Realized that it is nearly impossible to get a photograph anywhere along the coast, between Cascade Head and Cape Lookout, without Haystack Rock appearing somewhere in that photo.
• Started sorting through YAHRPs and choosing my favorites so that I could stash the rest away, out of sight.
• Attended my niece’s theatre performance in Portland.
• Found an amazing “secret beach” which has a very climbable rock and its own sea cave, near my home but relatively hidden.
• Attended the June 6 Blessing of the Fleet in Pacific City, and paid tribute to 14 fishermen of the dory fleet who lost their lives at sea this year, amidst songs and prayers for better safety of the fishermen in the months to come.
• Worked on dozens of other websites and Internet Marketing projects (the details would bore you).
• Completed three lessons of the New York Institute of Photography Course.
• Drank a lot of coffee and tea.
• Extended my running habits past the mailbox and down the street.
• Found a long and virtually car-less road up the hill and into the forest, very near home.
• Have found the increased sitings of coyotes and their tracks near the house to be disturbing.
• Practiced the portrait photography I am reading about.
• Contributed photos of my local area to the Chamber of Commerce website (you can see them there at Pacific City Chamber of Commerce – but you sometimes have to refresh the page as a different photo loads every time).
• Oh – walked down the cliff beside my bedroom, to visit the waterfall, twice.  The second time I got completely lost and stuck between river and cliff, and almost could not get home, surrounded by grasses taller than me, stinging nettles, spider webs, unstable ground, brambles, branches (rotting and otherwise), bees, and lost trails.
• Journeyed to the other side of this property, via the land of two neighbors (now that our Bridge was washed away), and would have photographed the waterfall from that side, except that I forgot my camera (though not my camera bag).
• Played with my sisters cat.

There.  I could tell you a lot more but I think this should suffice.  I hope you feel somewhat updated.  I will try to increase the frequency of my posting.  In the meanwhile, thank you for visiting my blog and I hope to see you again soon

This post was originally written by Anna Vera Williams on Anna Vera. Original post: My Monthly Post.

Almost every morning the robin redbreast tries to break into my bedroom window.  He flies at the window, backs up, and charges it again.  I’m not sure what he is trying to do – maybe trying to get me out of bed.  If I sit up and yell at him he goes away.

My mom says they do it on the upstairs windows as well but she has no idea why.  They act like a bird trying to get out, not like a bird trying to get in.  Continuously flying at the window over and over.  Its so funny!  It reminded her of the joke about the drunk man.  There is a tree with a fence around it.  The drunk man comes and shakes the fence, yelling, “Let me out!” And then keeps circling the fence shaking it and looking for an escape.

I love how many animals there are here.  If you first drive up the driveway it doesn’t seem like you are entering a zoo.  But if you live here, particularly if you work 12 hours a day at a laptop in front of a window which overlooks the valley, you see a lot. I have seen bald eagles fly by many times in the last few months – and the last time there were two of them,  flying maybe 25 meters in front of my window.  The white on their heads and backs is so bright!  Several nights of the week I hear coyotes howling.  And once, a couple of weeks ago, we saw one run by and cross our driveway in front of us, when we were on our way to Pacific City.  I found their tracks too – wasn’t sure what animal it was but when I looked it up online I found it had to be fox or coyote.  And since I haven’t heard any foxes, I can assume its coyote.  The vultures come more frequently, and sometimes a hawk.  But they aren’t as exciting as the eagles.

In the beginning of Spring time, the bats came out.  They surprised me because at twilight they were dive-bombing (probably for mosquitoes) in front of my window.  And then gallivanting around outside the dining room windows as well during dinner.  I am glad they eat mosquitoes although I wouldn’t mind if they ate more of them.  Its hard to recognize them at first and I didn’t know what they were when I first saw them.  They looked like shadows of falling, flapping birds.  Except in this case the birds would have been falling in the same place and in the same direction, over and over.

Then there was this funny and stupid little dear.  I was coming back from my daily run/walk to the mailbox (I’m such an athlete.)  I was in the “walking” portion of my journey.  A little dear came out of the forest and started to munch at bushes about 10 meters away.  Between him and me was nothing but grass and I couldn’t believe he didn’t see me.  He kept walking closer to me, munching away, so I walked closer to him.  It didn’t effect him at all.  So finally I said, “hello.”  The little dear looked up and looked all around, searching for the sound.  But not looking at me, even though I was smack in front of him!!  So then I said “hi,” again and finally he found me.  He stared at me for about 2 seconds, and then turned away and trotted into the forest.  Stupid little dear!  So lucky for him that I wasn’t a hunter.

I haven’t seen an otter yet.  My mom says she thinks an otter ate all the fish in our pond.  She said it was so big it was almost the size of a small seal.  So now I regularly have dreams with talking seal-sized otters in them.

This post was originally written by Anna Vera Williams on Anna Vera. Original post: Alarm Clock on Wings.

Feeding Celery to a Rabbit in Pacific City, Oregon

When you say the word “rain forest” to many people, they instantly get the concept of a tropical rain forest.

Not all rain forests are tropical. I live in a rain forest in the Pacific Northwest. Its very non-tropical, and its very rainy.

Living in a forest bears many advantages. My Internet connection is not one of those advantages. The connection is via satellite, and it is not fast. It also goes dead under certain atmospheric conditions – like rain.

Yesterday I fought with my connection throughout the day, struggling to get or stay online. Finally I saw it as futile, and decided to spend my time on more fruitful pursuits – its not like I don’t have plenty to do offline as well.

Late at night, when I was almost asleep, the silence of the house was suddenly broken by a creaking sound. My bedroom door was suddenly moving, for no reason. Then the wall beside the outside door would creak, as if someone were standing right outside my bedroom, leaning against my house. That was what it sounded like!

I tried to convince myself that no one was really standing outside my door in the rain, occasionally leaning against my wall. But it really sounded like it. And sometimes when you are alone in a room, in a stormy dark forest, in the middle of the night, logic evades you … well, if you are not a girl you probably have never had that problem, or would never admit it if you did.

I was just falling asleep, you see … I was nearly asleep, and then the door just moved. And after a long silence, it did it again. And … again … creek … but there was no ghost in the room. That was obvious. Which was almost scarier than if there had been a ghost.

Of course I know it was the wind and the rain causing the house to fuss and fidget. But it just really sounded like a man standing outside my door. And leaning.

For a while I couldn’t move. I was just frozen in the bed in terror, like a rabbit in the road. I just lay there.

Finally after what seemed like … a long time, I managed to get up and check my lock. A few times. Then I went upstairs to the kitchen, and stood there. In the middle of the kitchen. Because it felt a bit safer in the kitchen. But I realized I could not stand in the middle of the kitchen all night. I had to go back downstairs to my scary bedroom with the creeking door and the man leaning against my wall.

Back in my bed, I lay in silent terror. I thought about just starting up my laptop and going back to work. But alas, that would just put me in front of the window, with the light on and all … an easy target. At least gun fire through my window would likely miss me, if I stayed in my bed.

I swear to god, sometimes I think my late-night logic reminds me of being in kindergarten.

I don’t know how, but I finally forced myself to reason.

First of all, if there were an intruder standing on the grass outside my bedroom door (occasionally leaning against the house), the motion detector would have turned the lights on. Secondly, this person would not still be standing there, doing nothing (other than leaning against the house occasionally) for hours. But above all, no one in their right mind would choose a night like tonight to besiege my bedroom. It was windy and raining like crazy. The person would have had to drive down a long windy road into the middle of nowhere, and then walk up a long driveway, in the wind and rain, only to then come and stand outside my bedroom door and occassionally lean against my house. The probabilities were against it.

Therefore I finally deducted that the creaking sounds and the occasional movements of the door were not being caused by a strange man standing outside my bedroom and occasionally leaning against my wall. But more likely, by the wind, the rain, the condensation, and the changing temperatures, which were causing the house to unsettle and shift. With that in mind, I finally forced my mind to other thoughts, and went to sleep.

The next day when I woke up, the sky was blue with white clouds, and the weather was pretty. Not dark and rainy anymore. I got a ride to the Internet cafe by the beach, where I could watch the waves crash, and get some work done. The speed of the Internet connection was astounding, in comparison to what I was used to at home.

In the evening, just before getting in the car to go home, I fed the rabbits. Behind the cafe there is an RV Park and campground, and in this campground there are wild rabbits. But they are tame. When you approach these rabbits, they don’t run away, they run toward you. Or they hop. They want food. I brought cabbage.

I handed a bit of cabbage to the first taker. He ran off with it – and the rest of the rabbits followed him! To fight over his cabbage. Instead of getting more from me. Finally they came to their senses and they came back to me for cabbage.

They were very eager to get the cabbage. I was kneeling in the grass doling it out to them, one by one, and they would hop up into my lap to get that cabbage. I loved feeding the rabbits.

This post was originally written by Anna Vera Williams on Anna Vera. Original post: Rain, Rabbits, and a Creaky House.