Sunset And Hummingbirds~

   The last few days have just been so magical for me. :) There was a sunset that seemed to particularly speak to me. I have adored watching sunsets ever since I was a little girl...but sometimes there are just certain ones that stand out. <3 And sunrises...those have become very special to me over the last year or two. ^_^ I will mention those in a later post, however.

    And in addition to this sunset, I have had the absolute delight of sitting in close proximity to a group of hummingbirds and just watching them. :D It has brought me...an almost childlike wonder. It has just been so exceptionally magical for me to watch and interact with them! ^_^ I...I do not really know what it is specifically about hummingbirds. They are just so...so...enchanting, almost! I've very much enjoyed observing their behaviors.

    I've noticed that they are very aggressive...maybe that isn't quite the right word. They are very intense with one another when feeding. If they get closer than a few feet to one another when feeding, and they spot one another, they fly up to one another and start chattering, bite at each others' beaks and then chase one another for a few minutes before both return to feeding - on opposite sides of the bush, of course. :) But I got to see a mated pair feeding together today. They stayed very close to one another, and when a third hummingbird came and started chattering at one of them, the partner immediately chased the third one off and didn't return from the chase for several minutes! They are very protective of their mates, it would seem. <3

    Oh! Can you just imagine how tiny baby hummingbirds must be?? <3 <3 Aww! <3 I would love to see that someday! <3 I bet they are adorable! <3 ^_^

    And then I love it when they fly up to me, several inches away, and watch me. They will fly to a few different angles, tilting their head certain ways, trying to decide what to do with me. Most of them return to feeding, not seeming too bothered. Usually, directly in front of where I am sitting. Sometimes, more to the side. But there was one that flew closer in a very aggressive manner. I couldn't help but lean back a little bit in alarm. It flew closer, and I leaned back some more, which encouraged it to fly closer still! After this third time, it decided it had succeeded in intimidating me into leaving it alone and promptly flew to the very top of the bush to feed. ;) They are very interesting little creatures!

    Sometimes we'll have a hummingbird fly up to the back window and look between whoever is in there before flying off. They seem to have a natural curiosity about them. :D

    Anyway, that is enough rambling~ Pictures:

Sunset. <3

Sunset. <3

Hummingbird diving into a flower. :)

Hummingbird, mid-flight. <3

Hummingbird, perched. <3

    With that, have a spectacular night, dear reader! <3

Remember to look for the little wonders in each day. :)

Love,

Bryn

Red Dragonfly~

    I think this amounts to me being lazy, but I'm just going to share a picture I caught of a red dragonfly during irrigation. :) I have like 3 or 4 other posts I want to do...but I do not wish to think at the moment.

    The picture is a little blurry. Not super great quality. I was not able to get close enough to the dragonfly to get a better picture. :) Nor would it hold still long enough! If I got more than 2 feet (61 cm) close to it, it would fly off. So I had to use my zoom, and I didn't have my tripod to stabilize the camera. But...I still liked how it came out. ^_^ I loved the lighting when I got it! Definitely a lucky shot on the lighting; the previous attempts had come out darker.

    I very much enjoyed watching these dragonflies (there were two of them). <3 They were so beautiful and so interesting to watch as they interacted with each other and other insects! They are very territorial. They finally seemed to agree to divide the yard in half between them, and then bully off other insects, such as wasps. :) I loved the way their wings shimmered in the sunlight. <3

    Anyway, here is the picture:

Have a wonderful day, dear reader. <3

Love,

Bryn

[Super LATE] 4th of July (Official) Post.

    I know. I know. I did it again. I forgot to post! Well...it took a day or so to get my technical difficulties worked out. And by that point I half-forgot. :) The other part is that I've been an emotional wreck lately and have not felt like posting about anything, because *dramatically* the world is just too awful..! No, I'm kidding. But...I will not bore you with my apparent emotional instability. (I am a woman. Is that a good excuse..?) Which, it isn't really. We all have hard days that make us feel like punching a mirror (I didn't, promise) one minute, scream the next, and cry hysterically for a few hours, followed by wanting to punch a hole in the wall of the room that has to have replacement walls anyway (again, I promise I did not do so~). Right?? You guys understand! Right..

    So my 4th of July was for the most part pretty great. :) I had junk food that I hadn't had in a few years. Allergy-friendly junk food, but still junk food. It was marvelous. I say that I "indulged" that day...but I don't think I really did. XD I had a bowl of chips, some goat cheese (<--Not totally new anymore), some hamburger patties (no bread, of course) with MUSTARD (<--Translation: I love and adore mustard. I will honest-to-goodness put mustard on anything), a very small bowl of potato salad, and the next night: S'mores. <3

    Indulge, I think means to stuff your face until you puke. For me, this is what I...sort of did. To a lot of other people I know, I practically ate nothing. >///> And, this was not all one meal, mind you. This was throughout the day.

    I am someone who doesn't like to eat a lot of food. But...I get a lot of people who tell me that I don't eat enough, so...I eat more than I would otherwise. Which is nothing compared to other people. Oh, and the fact that I live in the United States might make a difference on the portions. America is fat~ Don't try to deny it, Americans. We are, and everyone knows it. ;)

    But anyway, the particular state I am from does HUGE fireworks every year! The 4th of July is for America's birthday. :) The fireworks are symbolic of canons and explosions from the war that was fought to earn America's its freedom from the mother country, Great Britain. My state technically was not in existence at that time, but we go nuts for the 4th of July, nonetheless. xD I react to the firework smoke with all of my allergies, to be perfectly honest. But I don't let that keep me from celebrating. I very much enjoy fireworks. :) Anyway, so there is a college stadium not too far from where I live that does massive aerial fireworks every year. Last year small aerials were legalized for public use, plus the ground fireworks.

    I am always on super high alert when fireworks get started up. It...it always sounds like a war zone. To me, at any rate. This activates some kind of high-alert survival instinct in me, and prevents me from 100% enjoying fireworks. But my family went on top of a mountain to watch this year, along with tons of other people who had the same brilliant idea. :) It was lovely. I enjoyed watching the fireworks everyone in the valleys were doing. I think we were able to see 3 valleys from where we were. Definitely 2, but maybe 3. It was very cool to see all of the small aerials going off all over the place. And then it was amazing to watch the massive stadium fireworks. They usually look so huge, but this year they seemed so much smaller! And the sound took several minutes to travel up to us, it was so interesting! :D I also got to observe on the opposite mountain ridge that the all of the smoke from all of the fireworks in the valleys caused chemically-induced orange and red lightning! When the stadium fireworks started, the increased amount of smoke increased the frequency of the lightning. It was such a cool thing to watch. :D And, of course, there were thunder and lightning storms all the next day as a result. :)

    Then the next day, me and my dear friend, Jo, hung out. ^_^ We went to a park, took some (A LOT of) pictures, made s'mores when we got back...and then I wound up crashing on her, so she read some of my Vampire Knight manga and crashed not too long after. XD And then we had a delicious breakfast the next morning~

    Hahaha...oh...and, I failed to realize the sugar content of the s'mores. I haven't had those in years. It was allergy-friendly, mom said, so I just didn't have the good sense to check the sugar content. And I got a sugar-induced rash the next day. Followed by a sugar coma. >///> I-I don't recommend having that much sugar when you don't eat sugar normally. Even if it is "safe" sugar. That will teach me to check the labels next time, haha! But it was tasty, so maybe worth it~ ^_^

   So, that was my 4th. :) Not a terribly exciting post, my apologies. I will actually be making a new post here shortly, haha.

    And now, pictures (please note, I did not get any terribly good firework shots this year, haha) :

I know, I know. This was in my last post too...but I really love this picture for some reason. :) I usually hate pictures of myself, even though I take a million. So...that is saying something for me. xD

Dad and mom. :)

Me, dad, mom. :)

Does anyone else thinks this one looks like a Pokeball?

Jo! ^_^

Jo. :)

Me. :)

Me. :) I don't know why, but I like the pose of this one for some reason.

Smiley Jo~ I caught her while either talking or laughing. Or both. :)

Love Jo's expression! :D

Me and Jo. ^_^

Jo and me making s'mores. :)

My allergy-friendly s'mores that had WAY too much sugar. ;~; But they were delicious. And I have hated graham crackers and marshmallows my whole life, so that is saying something for gluten-free and kosher. ^_^

Jo reading manga and petting my boy kitty, Archer (or, "Mr. Man" as he seems to prefer, haha). :)

Aaaand: Breakfast! ^_^ Tamagoyaki (Japanese rolled omelet), Gohan (steamed rice), and some pickles~ 

For the omelet recipe: http://j-simplerecipes.com/recipes_us/egg/rolled-omelet.html

For the Gohan recipe (make sure to use Japanese rice if available in your area. <3 American rice is the worst!) : http://j-simplerecipes.com/recipes_metric/rice/steamed-rice.html

Aaand...the pickles were made by my mom. I think she posted the recipe on her Blog, let me see~ Ah, here it is: http://cornfreegoddess.blogspot.com/2011/08/recipe-time-quinoa-salad-home-canned.html They are pretty delicious. <3

    Anyway, so that was my 4th of July. :) Simple, but fun. ^_^ I enjoyed spending time with my parents and Jo. <3

Have a lovely day, dear reader. <3 I shall update again shortly! (Add-on: Tomorrow.)

Love,

Bryn

Reactions (4th of July Outfit).

    So...I am having a hard time with my camera connecting to my laptop at the moment. I will post about how my 4th of July was a bit later when I get that sorted out. :) So this is not my official 4th of July post.

    But! I kind of loved my outfit yesterday, and wanted to share it. :D I loved all the reactions I got when I went out! I realized in the morning that I didn't have a "red, white, blue" outfit. I have a few blue blouses/shirts and a red dress...but I had forgotten to do laundry. So, I turned to color-mixing logic~ Mix red and blue, and you get purple. :) Mix red and white, you get pink. :) So, purple and pink! And then I added in white underneath, and found some red, white, blue accessories. ^_^ I really kind of loved my outfit! :D It was definitely an unusual one, but...yeah. xD

    I also figured out how to avoid posting a million pictures:

    My personal favorite picture was this one (I don't usually like pictures of myself all that much, haha!):

    I love that wig. :D Just by the way. <3 A great alternative to hair-dye. :) And that dress; very loose and comfortable. :) And it was only $6 at the thrift store! I LOVE thrift shopping! <3

    I definitely caused a lot of head turning and staring. :) A lot of staring from kids. Got some smiles from people. Got a few uncertain looks, and then would smile really big and get some smiles back. Had some girls glaring at me. Had some people looking at me like, "What the?!" And then a few boys were looking at me like, "Hmm!" Hahaha...it was awesome seeing all the different reactions! :D I was smiling all day! I especially loved it when talking to some of the people who looked kind of uncertain. They seemed surprised by how polite and soft-toned I was. :) It was typically elderly individuals that would give me that kind of reaction.

    I also met someone who knows my sister-in-law. :D She asked if it was my hair or a wig. And when I told it was a wig, she said that's what she thought because she did theatre make-up. After asking her what collage she went to, I was like, "Oh! Do you know _____?!" And she was like, "Everyone knows her! She's such a sweetie!"

     It was so fun wearing this yesterday. ^_^

    I will hopefully post about my day, and pictures of fireworks and stuff a bit later after fixing my  camera connection. :) And I will tell a little about the 4th of July for the viewers I have that are not in the United States. ^_^

Hope you have a wonderful day, dear reader! :D

Love,

Bryn

My dear friend, Jo. :)

    I wanted to make a Blog post really quick about my dear friend, Jo. I have told a lot of people for years that she is my truest and most dear friend. But...I feel bad because I feel like I have neglected her a lot over the years. :( Something I am not sure I can really make up for.

    Jo is a little more on the quiet side, and she is one of the most compassionate people I know.

    I have not been able to really do anything regularly with anyone over the past year. Something that she has been very understanding about. I was very touched last week. We were hanging out; we pulled an all-nighter and had an anime marathon. :) It was a lot of fun, and I was ready to keep going for some more hours. The sunrise outside was gorgeous, and so we went and watched it and she patiently waited for me as I took several photographs (which I still need to post to different places...haha?). I was about ready to come inside so that we could go back inside and hang out some more. And then this heavy, heavy exhaust/gasoline smell came out of nowhere. I was only able to make it a few steps inside before sinking to my knees and just staring blankly forward. I was only somewhat aware of what was going on. Jo asked if I was okay, and I was able to shake my head. Quietly, she sat down behind me, resting a hand on my back to keep me steady.

    In that moment, I knew that that is something I will always remember.

    I more-or-less started dozing off, and she kept me from falling over. After several minutes, I kind of starting "waking up" and she helped me get to the bathroom so I could brush my teeth and talk to my dad. She helped get me settled so I could go to sleep and dad took her home. After they left, I couldn't help but cry. When dad got home, I was telling him that I needed to get back up and call her to see if she wanted to finish hanging out. Dad told me I was confused. I wasn't, though. :) I was completely serious. But he told me she had said she'd had a good time and that was of a little comfort. I wound up falling asleep in the middle of rambling about needing to get back up.

    I have been meaning to come and make a post about this, because I was so touched by her actions and by her caring. As horrible of a friend as I have been to her...she's always so understanding and so caring. She is truly a great friend. <3 One I probably don't deserve, but am so very thankful for. :)

    I cannot quite describe what I wish to...the words just are not coming to me right now. But...it's just one of those moments that I will always remember. A heartwarming moment. <3

    This is a picture from a year ago, but it is one of my favorites of us; I love her expression. :D

    Well...that is about it. If I can find my words later, then I will update this. But...I just wanted to post about that moment really quick, and express my gratitude for her. :)

Have a wonderful night, dear reader. <3

Love,

Bryn