Category Archives: Snapshots

In the neighborhood, Snapshots, Whatever

Around town

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Saturday errands can be such a bore, but today was a lovely day to be out and about. It felt warmish almost and there were no signs of ice on any of the local waters.


I love living with so much water close to home; there’s always a little creek or river or the bay or ocean within sight. A water view always cheers me. And if there’s waterfowl in winter or herons and terns in summer, well… I’m sure to be smiling.


There were a dozen or more parasurfers out on the bay this afternoon, and foolishly I didn’t stop to photograph them before the wind died down. This guy had been windsailing and was just picking up his gear while I watched. Of course he insisted he was plenty warm in his wetsuit!


Even the ever-present Canada Geese are beatiful in the right light on a winter afternoon.


I visited with some gulls in a parking lot littered with broken clam shells along the river. My car and I almost ended up in that very river today due to a moment’s inattention. Foolish, but I had a good laugh at myself as a result.


Yeah… I was that close to going into the drink! Pretty view, but would’ve been hard to explain to the tow-truck guy (or the scuba team).

So… how’s the view in your neighborhood?

Pastimes, Small truths, Snapshots

Horseshoe Cove sunset

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“The sky is the daily bread of the eyes.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

If I had the time, or better said, if my work schedule permitted it, I think I would be in a place everyday where I could watch the sun set over water. Especially in the wintertime, when the colors are just so much more spectacular somehow. As it is now, it’s a race to be home before dusk, but everyday the light is lingering a bit longer. Have you noticed that yet? Spring must be on the horizon.
Birds, Books, In the neighborhood, Snapshots

A stinker for Mary

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The season is all wrong and this is, after all, a decoy and nothing to compare with Mary’s GB Heron pics, but I love the imagery in this poem from Mary Oliver’s Owls and Other Fantasies. Hope you’ll enjoy it, too.

Some Herons by Mary Oliver

“A blue preacher
flew toward the swamp,
in slow motion.

On the leafy banks,
an old Chinese poet,
hunched in the white gown of his wings.

was waiting.
The water
was the kind of dark silk

that has silver lines
shot through it
when it is touched by the wind

or is splashed upward,
in a small, quick flower,
by the life beneath it.

The preacher
made his difficult landing,
his skirts up around his knees.

The poet’s eyes
flared, just as a poet’s eyes
are said to do

when the poet is awakened
from the forest of meditation.
It was summer.

It was only a few moments past the sun’s rising,
which meant that the whole long sweet day
lay before them.

They greeted each other,
rumpling their gowns for an instant,
and then smoothing them.

They entered the water,
and instantly two more herons–
equally as beautiful–

joined them and stood just beneath them
in the black, polished water
where they fished, all day.”

There’s a GB Heron who hunkers down at the edge of the farm pond where I often walk Luka when I get in from work. He is so still there, just before dusk, that he can’t possibly be fishing and I feel badly for invading the end to his day with my noisy parade.

Snapshots, Whatever

Sweet lil’ guy

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Isn’t he just the sweetest thing! Today was christening day for the newest member of the family – my nephew’s baby – and the little man slept straight through the whole ordeal.

I also finally got to see my other nephew home from college in Montana for Xmas. I think he’s grown a foot since I last saw him and has his hair cut in a mohawk (again) – kids! Nice to see him and hear that he’s doing well in school; when he was little I tutored him in reading for a while. He struggled a bit during his first year at college closer to home, so this move to Montana was a chance for him to find a better fit. He says he loves it there and didn’t even complain about the cold any. Plus, his grades are good!

Birds, In the neighborhood, Snapshots

Sandy Hook Sunset

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“I only went out for a walk, and finally concluded to stay until sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in.” –John Muir

Well… I can’t quite concur with Muir, but it was a fine sunset today at Sandy Hook. The bay was like a mirror all day and the light this morning when I arrived for my volunteering at the bird observatory would have been phenomenal for photography. By the time I was done and could scan the shoreline for ducks there was nothing but glare on the bay, but that glare led to this sunset with the distant calls of oldsquaw arriving with the gentle waves at my feet.

Anybody want to ID the bird standing on the rocks?

😉

Dog days, Snapshots

Seven month pupdate

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Suffice it to say that Luka continues to grow in direct proportion to his ability to try my patience! Mostly, he’s a doll, but he’s learning about independence and the value of selective hearing. I think it’s in that area that our training classes come in handy the most; when he’s too focused on misbehaving I simply distract him with a sit/stay and generous handouts of cookies. What’s really neat is that he’s learned hand signals for all his commands, so that I needn’t even raise my voice to scream at him.

😉

This toy that has him all googly-eyed is the only one recently that he hasn’t destroyed within minutes. Anything that’s slightly soft or has even the tiniest bit of give is torn apart and strewn across the floor somewhere. This yellow rubber jack thingy he just drops (repeatedly) at or (more likely) on my feet – or even more annoying – under the legs of a chair or the dining room table out of his reach and then he sits and woofs at it until someone comes along and retrieves it for him, only to bounce it right back under whatever again. What a PITA!

We’ve taken to calling him ‘Wiggles’ lately – he greets everyone with his whole body in a side-to-side sway. And he is a master at stealing my spot on the couch should I get up to answer the phone or something; the thing that makes me forgive him that is that he is a true lap dog (except for his size, I guess) and seems to love having someone near to snuggle with!

Birds, In the neighborhood, Pastimes, Snapshots

First of 2008

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Today is the day when even common birds can be new and exciting again – if you keep a “year list” – that is! I had to hide my eyes from the house sparrows and other feeder riff-raff this morning so that my first bird of 2008 wouldn’t be the same as every other year, but was happy enough to settle for this mallard as the first of the new year. The next couple birds were canvasback, hooded merganser, and bufflehead found in the little creek that runs through my hometown.

A New Year’s tradition that I hadn’t managed for the last few years is the annual beach walk around Sandy Hook sponsored by the American Littoral Society – a great group of people who love the coast and work to protect it – plus, they have the best cocoa after a chilly hike through the dunes! That walk added a few sea ducks and a loon to my little list already.

So… what was your first bird of the new year?