27 December, 2020 Since I don’t know where to begin… 

I’ll begin with this picture Evelyn took of Dash on Tuesday: 

Evelyn fixed a fantastic dinner Christmas day and our friend Ariel (Yuki’s owner) shared it with us. Yuki came too! We should have gotten a picture but alas. 

My friends Sue and Marcia and a few others get together every year for Christmas but we couldn’t make it happen due to the pandemic. But Sue is the most talented and prolific baker I know and she always brings lots of treats to our Christmas gathering. This year she dropped them off at our house! Evelyn and I have been eating them for delicious dessert ever since. 

Dash and Ev stayed at the house this morning. Mackey and Turner and I picked up our old friend Luna and took her to the river. A very kind person named Mike took our picture. Thank you Mike! 

I wanted to make this the opening image because I loved it so much. The owls I normally see were not in the spot where I normally see them. We had a nice hike then headed back up the creek. I saw a “football in a tree” at the edge of the creek – and it was an owl! But its back was to us, and it was in shadow. We hiked back down the creek and up the other side until I just knew we were directly across from the owl. But it was invisible. I finally found it. Then I’d look away to see a cardinal or something and look back – it would disappear again. You can see why: 

Tuesday was a nice day and Mackey was a little lame so I snuck out and took a little hike at the river myself. It was a pretty day. My favorite picture from that day was this Cedar Waxwing: 

I hadn’t seen a deer in a while. I was grateful to see this pretty girl Tuesday: 

I saw a Hermit thrush Tuesday also: 

I haven’t been flying much lately but yesterday my instructor Joel was free and I reserved a plane. We met at Hanover airport at 11:00 and I preflighted the plane and we flew to Ocean City, MD. Here’s our plane tied down at that airport: 

I’d put a picture of the crab cake sandwich here – the chunks of crab were cartoonishly large – but it is a distinctly unphotogenic food. IMO. Go out some time and get one yourself! We went to Waterman’s Seafood Company – go get one yourself! It comes with my strongest recommendation. 

We flew home west (toward the setting sun) and it’s difficult to take what I regard as a good picture. Looking forward, anyway. But I was on the pilot’s side (left side, just like in a car) and I asked Joel if he’d take the controls for a couple of minutes so I could snap a picture. We were at 4,500 feet going around a hundred knots when I took this picture a bit before 4:00 PM yesterday: 

Finishing up in a rush again! The final Sunday of 2020! See you next year! 

All best, 

Jay