SHOOTIN' THE MOON

Photos taken at the Chatham Light Overlook.   We chatted with Stephen and Susan who'd parked beside us to watch the solstice full moon come up over the ocean.  This is for you two.  It was so much fun sharing the wonder and laughter.

LATER THAT NIGHT . . . .

They're Baaack. The 17 Year Periodic Cicada Brood V.

After 17 years they've just started to emerge in Loudonville Ohio.   I got to pet one :)   Now we're waiting for the real insanity of their noise.  Our son came from NH to experience this.   WHERE THEY'RE SHOWING UP IN OHIO

An Honorable Man

The Trash Man

                       The Trash Man

I’d hoped it was the machine that would suck up the leaves

that I’d raked toward the curb all morning.

It was the garbage truck.

As I filled the bird feeder

I glanced at the heavy black trash bags

I’d dragged to the curb in the brisk November dark.

Sometimes I make a HEAVY sign and attach it with frog tape -

afraid a worker might get a bulging disc handling them.

I couldn’t handle that.

A motor roars, and brakes squeal.

I hurry toward the three monoliths.

“Careful!“ I wave as a young man jumps from the cab of the truck.

“They’re heavy!” I shout.

He gingerly lifts and tosses the first into the bin.

As he feathers the others up and in, like the leaves I’d been moving,

he flashes a beautiful smile into the crisp sunlight.

“These are nothing!

But thanks for the warning!

Have a great weekend!” 

And he roars into the day to keep our suburban lives – predictably tidy.

Lately, I don’t listen to TV and the radio.

After Paris, I want only to address my immediate life and surroundings.

Somehow, though, this exchange with the trash man,

was blessedly reassuring.

Above the din of daily life, above the clamor of world events,

I know I am not alone.

I hear America working.



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An Old Fossil and her Young Friend Look for Real Fossils

My Mini-and young friend - Lori ;)

Some younger stone masons . . . having about as much luck as we.

They wouldn't let us at THIS  wall.   Bet we'd a done better.

Look Mom!  Some dirt!!

On our way out - in the stones lining the entrance drive:   Wow!! A teensy tiny . . fossil (?)

OOOOHHHH . ..  But look!!  Could it be!!!????   A Trilobite !!!

Yeah.  The one I "found" in a Colorado Springs jewelry shop - yeeeeaars ago.
A true fossil.   

Autumn - Ohio

Just outside of Loudonville, Ohio

 Mount Jeez overlooking Malabar Farm.    Jonna captures the scene.

A couple pumpkins whom their aunt loves like crazy :)






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Why are we here? Why we ARE here. All saints day in the park.

What do you call mentally disabled children now? She was frightened and visibly distressed by the noise of the distant tractor. I watched from my car as the kind, patient, unruffled assistants tried to coax her to join the others who’d found their way to the picnic area. Look at her hand as she tries to reenter the bus. So tentative about the life she inhabits. Someone started to blow bubbles to distract her – to little effect. Finally they coaxed her with the promise of pizza. They took her hand and drifted past my windshield. One of the bubbles persisted for a few moments against a bright blue sky. It finally drifted downward and gave up its form above the freshly mown grass. I tried not to weep.

Great Egret Gesturing

Here Chick-a-dee-dee-dee !

Precious nieces on Cape Cod .  . .  Making friends with the locals.

Nuff Of That Previous Post With the Dead Fish

Gotta change the wallpaper.  Birds and friends in AZ.

Verdin.

Mockingbird.

Camelback Mountain.

Black-tailed Gnatcatcher.

Big cactus with Keith and Jonna.

A Fish Story. Heron versus Osprey. Heron Wins In First Round.

That's the tip of the Great Blue Heron's wing jutting into the left side of the picture.  He wanted that fish.

This is one of those pixes you always regret not capturing.
The heron is hot pursuit of the osprey.  That's the osprey's wing in the upper right.

     The osprey lands to eat his fish.  The heron approaches.

   The heron gives him "The Look" and the osprey flees.

                                         
                                             THE LOOK

                                              

EYE TO EYE

THE ONE THAT DIDN'T GET AWAY

GULP

Amazingly,  he could still fly with that lump in his throat.

Falling Away

Falling Away

It's mid January.

Some things don't change.

The sunlight has found a path

through winter clouds.

The patterns it throws across the walls,

as it falls through bare branches,

are familiar.

It's the sun pushing back the covers,

and stretching its broad back,

to start the year, again.

In this house, for decades,

I've watched the seasons melt,

one into another.

Buckling soil, greening shoots,

rhapsodic bloom, endless lawns, 

ripening seeds;

leaf-drop.

Mid January.

I sit watching timeless patterns.

The years have left their marks.

Only I, and the family pictures,

on the sun-drenched sill,

mark time . . .

falling away.




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A Late Christmas Present

Outside my kitchen window in central Ohio.   Three bluebirds perched on the telephone wire.
Life is good.  This picture from earlier in the year.

I Heard a Bird Sing

I heard a bird sing

In the dark of December.

A magical thing

And sweet to remember.

"We are nearer to Spring 

Than we were in September,” 

I heard a bird sing 

In the dark of December.

                                                                        Oliver Herford

November

November 

Let your heart's eye drift down.

Past the snow covered branch . . .

the clattering leaf.

Past the early sun at the horizon,

and follow the squirrel hopping to the ground.

Only the sun rises -

On a November morning.

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