A short trip

I spent a little down time under a Japanese Maple while the sun was thinking about setting. I felt like a little girl discovering color. I just wanted to lie in the grass and shoot the highest reaches of this masterpiece. It was magical under there...

Barking up the right tree

I'm thinking curtains.

 This fabric comes in other color waves 

I think it will look great in the studio.

a young family

Did you know that swans mate for life and the male swan, known as the cob, helps build and sit on the nest? They have three adorable cygnets all fuzzy and floaty. The littlest prefers to tuck herself into her mom's feathers. She rides along content to see the world from higher up. I drive by them everyday and hope to see all three littles alive, this is a dangerous time for them. All sorts of mysteries lurk under that water. I wish they would all pop into their parents feathers and wait it out till they're grown.

 But life doesn't work that way... 

life on the beach

Can you see the horseshoe crab? They are one of the oldest surviving pre historic creatures, they have been around for 450 million years, considered living fossils. This one is dead. But let's consider her life. She has in her lifetime laid thousand upon thousands of eggs, some of whom survived, most were eaten by shorebirds and I do love those shorebirds. But I love the horseshoe crabs too. So how do I feel about this group of turkey vultures who's tiny naked heads sit on a beautiful majestic body with a huge wingspan? They are going to clean up. That's what they do best. And the geese will look on…

 And I from my kayak will ponder it all….

new house update

I have new found respect for men who work where the birds are singing.

And great respect for their ability not to fall off the roof because of the view!

ready set go

We are working so hard cleaning and throwing and otherwise running as fast as we can.

understory

What looks better, the way it is or the way you want it to be. 

time out

There is so much work to be done I wish I could stick my head in the garden and rest awhile.

taking inventory

This little tufted titmouse is sitting on a bare branch that should be pulsing with life. It isn't.

 My beautiful lace cap hydrangeas are dead. The winter was too much for them. Their branches are brittle and dry. but they remain a stopping off place for the birds at the feeder, I won't cut them back yet, I still have a small nut of hope that they will fight to survive. As you know I am a dreamer.

northward bound

It's time to head north today.

 Tully has discovered her own packed bag and spread it's contents all over the front hall while we were out last night. She is our shadow this morning. 

Yesterday was my last walk on the beach and the royal terns were finally there in a huge group, I sat with them for awhile before they flew off leaving me to find my own flight home.

terns in the air

These terns were dive bombing each other in the sky at the beach.

 I was mesmerized by them. 

 One of them had a minnow in his beak. The other did not. 

I was afraid that one was going to take the other out!

But the drama resolved itself without my ever knowing what it was all about.

flutterbyes

A wave goodbye flew down the beach. Keep looking up, you'd be surprised what you'll see.

Happy birthday Shirley!

tiger by the tail

Actually it's a snake.

 This Great Blue Heron caught this snake by the tail and the snake tied itself up in a knot. So the heron whipped it around in the air, dunked it in the water a few times and eventually unknotted him. He then managed to flip him upside down so that his head was in his beak instead of his tail. That took some doing….

Now that he has the snake the way he likes it, he in a matter of a nano second simply ate him.

Notice that the snake tail is still wrapped around his beak and his throat is snake filled.

Hopefully tomorrow I will blog some pretty butterflies or something…..