After weeks of snow, rain and colds we needed some outside time and turned to one of our favorite and frequent destinations, Foulweather Bluff Preserve. We haven’t been there in winter nor in stormy weather so we weren’t sure what to expect.

When we first arrived the sun actually threatened to make an appearance across the water and the waves were really hitting the beach, much more so than we’ve seen in our previous trips.

The token shot of the namesake bluff – the sun had already decided enough was enough, the wind however did not concur. It just wasn’t that pleasant a day and our first taste for its naming.

The grasses around the marsh took the full force of the winds off the water.

There wasn’t as much bird activity in the marsh as we had hoped but we did see an osprey soaring across the water from one tree to another – it looked like a small plane its wingspan enormous.

The beaches all around the Sound have driftwood and it doesn’t take much investigating to find some cool features – I love the rusted bits on the logs. We only lasted only an hour before the wind and cold drove us back home but we still had a great time.

Today wasn’t just fun at the beach. For those of you who know him can you believe Ralph is nine today?

He hasn’t lost a step, he’s more chaotic than ever and he’s still mistaken for a puppy because of his insanity energy. Watching his complete transformation from pampered-condo-living-bed-sleeping-dog to refuse-to-come-inside-consumer-of-dead-mice-deer-chasing-won’t-stop-barking-primal-canine has been a joy to watch – most of the time.