SST round #1

I'm alive... I bet you all wondered, since this blog hasn't been updated since October. But yes, I'm here, and I have some things for you today.

I've entered the Supreme Scrap Tournament, and yesterday, challenge #1 was launched. The theme is "1000 steps from home", so I decided to focus on all the wonderful things we have within a thousand steps from our beloved farm (click the picture to make it larger).

All the photos are taken on and around the farm, and the most spectacular one, the one in the corner, is that of the White-Tailed eagle that paid us a visit last weekend. Pretty amazing, huh? 

Here it is, sitting in a tree just across the road from our house, accompanied by two youngsters soaring in the sky. When it took off, I managed to snap the photo for the layout.

There's so much more than the eagles and their buddies (hawks, buzzards, red kites and various owls) that make our farm such a special place. There is the creek, where you can catch a perch or two if you are lucky, or a couple of minnows for the cats to feast on. There is the sea within just a short walk, and there is the island with the mighty oak tree, where you need wellingtons and really low water levels to go (which rules out getting there most of the time, but when you are able to get there, it's an amazing place to be).

There's the typical farming landscape, with red barns, fields and meadows. There are woodlands, valleys and rounded hills. There are cows and horses, accompanied by moose, roedeer and boar who venture out of the woods occasionally. It's a paradise, simply the best place to live, and really, there would be no need to go anywhere else in the world just to find peace of mind.

However, there are snakes in all paradises, and in our case, the snake is a HUGE noisy wind turbine, newly risen within a thousand steps from home, that covers all of this in a constant rumble, very similar to that of a battle plane that looms at the horizon and never goes away. I'm OK with the sight, it really doesn't look that bad, but the noise has taken over everything. There are no other sounds to block it out in our peaceful and quiet little corner of the world, and it affects us all living out there more than anyone could have foreseen. So, our paradise seems to be a little lost, and that saddens us. That's why I really needed to make this layout to remind myself of what it was like before they put up that monster, and what we are fighting to get back.