Hot But Not Bothered

This evening's departure was like a flamboyant lover who discards fragrant silk scarves across the room as compelling reminders of her ability to continue to seduce on her way out the door.  She smiles and winks and shakes her head as if we were the naughty ones.  She pulls on her salmon colored slippers and adjusts her purple turban while licking her soft lips one last time before her whisper of goodbye.

Fog may come on cat feet, but the end of the day comes with a moist hot breath and orgasmic sigh.  I will be following this sun to its southern domain in the week ahead and not posting. Perhaps I can come back with intimate warm photographs if I catch her home. (Click on the photos if you want to feel my breath on your neck.)

Grayed Out

The world is in between today

Neither dark nor light

Resting easy in grayness

Soft and smooth 

As an ancient pearl.

There is dotted mist

hiding the distant horizon.

Or is it haze?

It is certainly not fog.

The gulls are in

collateral colors

and play in the mud

hinting at collateral damage.

Except for one who stands aloof

Without companion

Still as a stone

Perhaps lost in opaque thoughts.

Once They Were Sentinels in the Coal Mines

 

 My husband said I should have titled this blog "The Harbingers."  These noisy and aggressive birds are found pretty much anywhere across the U.S. They are a blackbird, Quiscalus quiscula, and some find them a real bother at the feeders. My husband had a neighbor when he was growing up in Florida who used to take a spoon and pan and bang on it to drive the grackles from the trees in her yard. I question who was the noisier and more disturbing even though their song is somewhat harsh and squeaky.  You might mistake them for a crow, but they are not nearly as large or full in body shape.  I cannot honestly tell you if mine are the boat-tail ones, but they may be.  But spring is the time of the year when they show up in the dozens.

According to Cornell:  "You might see a Common Grackle hunched over on the ground, wings spread, letting ants crawl over its body and feathers. This is called anting, and grackles are frequent practitioners among the many bird species that do it. The ants secrete formic acid, the chemical in their stings, and this may rid the bird of parasites. In addition to ants, grackles have been seen using walnut juice, lemons and limes, marigold blossoms, chokecherries, and mothballs in a similar fashion."

Most people fail to see how beautiful these birds are unless seen in the correct light.

This above was taken through my window, because, like crows, they are very wary of man and farmers find them terrible pests in the corn fields.  Some are documented to live over 20 years...so I am sure they remember their enemies.

Their beady yellow eyes are off-putting and they do not take any argument from other birds.  My daughter said they have the color of gasoline.  Actually they do!

With Love From Brazil

While I was away this weekend I visited some Brazilian travelers.  They spoke excellent English, though, and we enjoyed each other very much, although they asked that I refrain from taking their picture with a flash!  They did say I could veil them in whatever filter motivated me.  They smelled very nice on this freezing winter day.

Where Have All the Oysters Gone

Watching a sunset at the boardwalk of a nearby town. It was cold but bearable. We were exploring before our Valentine's dinner out at a little French restaurant in a nearby small town.

Above we paused at the end of a country road that wound past low lying farms, some in fields of mud before we came to the end of the road at a boat ramp.  The photo above was taken looking back on the wintry sleep of a marina and restaurant which would be much busier in the summer. The reef in the foreground is composed of oyster shell from a time when oysters were abundant. Now we have less than 5% of what was everywhere.

The Card

The King of Saxony

Thought that I would share this concert for those of you who missed it.

Hopefully the link will work!

And then THIS!

Lingering

If your brain is whirring like a mix master in February and you don't know how to stop, take a breath and look around.  Sometimes you can catch the rainbow in the late rays of the sun.  It lingers longer each day now dragging out the goodbye with its magic fingers.  This will make you pause and smile. (Click on the photo to better see the rainbows.)

Cedar and Salt Water

It happens so slowly that your eye does not capture the change.  You are busy with your breathing and your looking and your talking and your living.  Nature is busy with her meditation on how to deal with the warming water that has crept past her toes and now reaches her ankles.

At first it was just the tides that were larger and broader.  Then came the lingering salt water intrusion closer to the shore where the cedar had grown for almost a decade.

There is a branch here and there hanging on for dear life.  But it is just a matter of time.

And we are always amazed that in death it is still so lovely.

Ghostly Day

The photographic world is full of fun and mystery especially if you have a cold day with nowhere to be and nothing compelling to fill your time. Here I have taken a ghost of history from Gettysburg and placed him on a walking trail in a land trust nearby. Perhaps someone he knew camped here many years ago during a war.  Do you ever walk historic trails and hear the ghosts of heroes of the past moving in the woods? 

(Please click on photos for closer views.)

This photo below was something I quickly took one morning and because it was out of focus and misty I almost threw it away.  Then, today, while I was deleting dozens of garbage shots, I decided to take my photo and make it even more mystical and mysterious and I think I am glad I did not toss it because it gave me a different window on my back yard.