I saw a bird flying in and out of a hole in a barn in a local park and zoomed in to see what was going on. This little guy popped his head out.
There seemed to be a lot action going on
It wasn’t until I got home and looked closely at the series of photos I had taken that I saw what was happening. Lunchtime.
Daffodils are popping up everywhere around me at this time of year. Plant the bulbs in the fall, and come spring you will see them.
FOTD
Song Lyric Sunday this week is going for one word titles. Did you know that that the probability of a hit song having a one-word title is two and a half times greater now than it was in the 1960’s?
I have chosen an oldie but goodie- Carly Simon’s Anticipation. It was a song that played endlessly on the stereo record player 😀 and one of my favorite songs to play on the guitar. I didn’t realize the truth in the refrain “these are the good old days” at the time. Who knew?
Here is Carly Simon singing Anticipation, released in 1971.
We can never know about the days to come
But we think about them anyway
And I wonder if I’m really with you now
Or just chasin’ after some finer day Anticipation, anticipation
Is makin’ me late
Is keepin’ me waitin’ And I tell you how easy it feels to be with you
And how right your arms feel around me
But I, I rehearsed those words just late last night
When I was thinkin’ about how right tonight might be
Anticipation, anticipation
Is makin’ me late
Is keepin’ me waitin’And tomorrow we might not be together
I’m no prophet and I don’t know nature’s ways
So I’ll try and see into your eyes right now
And stay right here ’cause these are the good old days
And stay right here ’cause these are the good old days
(These are the good old days)
(These are the good old days)
(These are the good old days)
(These are the good old days)
I did a lot of walking over the past two weeks and of course had my camera in hand.
While visiting a beautiful park in Spring Lake, New Jersey, these two swans came to greet us.
The month of March seems to have flown by, taking it with it the one year anniversary of when life as we had known it changed. The school I work in closed down and went to Zoom, people around me were sick with Covid, and fear of the unknown gripped us everyday. Fortunately vaccines have arrived and have allowed us to breathe a little easier, and begin to thaw out from our frozen in place lives. Brian has invited us once again to share our last photo of the month- no edits, just whatever we snapped on that last day of March.
This year I was fortunate to be able to go away overnight to the beach with a friend. Separate rooms, the one I stayed in had a beautiful view of the ocean. Did I care it rained the two days I was there? Not at all!
This one was taken from a balcony of the Inn with my Nikon.
This was taken with my cell phone outside a shop on Main Street. The name of the shop spoke to me, as serenity is what I feel when at the beach.
I met a friend for coffee the other day. We have known each other 30 years, we met while commuting to New York City on a local bus. Something we both agreed would most likely not happen today as people are focused on their cell phones, rarely looking up and even smiling to acknowledge another’s presence. My friend is turning 60 this year and remarked how she remembered a conversation with a woman on one of her commutes when she was in her 30’s and the woman in her 60’s. The woman had told her, “these are the best years of your life, they will slip by before you know it, savor them.” My friend nodded, thinking to herself how harried she was, a nurse, commuting to the city everyday, a mother of 5, getting home exhausted to tend to her children and husband. Best years? Ok, whatever.
But now we sat together looking back, and understood what that woman had meant. Life may have been busy, but it was mostly filled with good. Our parents were alive, our lives were rich with growing children, our jobs rewarding. Our marriages were still new or fairly new, life was laid out before us, reaching forward with things to come. Worries? Some, but they were manageable, pertaining to kids and their friends, finding enough hours in the day, getting along with co workers or a boss. Life had not yet handed us the losses, there were more years ahead of us than behind.
Today, our concerns so different. Our worries seeming to hold so much more weight. Hearing of acquaintances in failing health, managing their high blood pressure, losing their eyesight, friends dying suddenly or taken from us through sickness. Our parents and in laws all gone. We find ourselves the “top” generation, seated at family gatherings with other old aunts and uncles. Fewer years ahead and a long road behind. The woman had been right. We were too busy to stop and think back then, hey life is good I need to stop and really take notice of where my life is right now because it will pass unnoticed.
We were both struck by this passage of time, watching the world around us age as we stood where we had always stood, mentally feeling so unchanged but thrown off balance when realizing that in truth we had. We had to, time had robbed us of that old life. We are fortunate to know we share the same thoughts, fears, uncertainty together, rather than silently thinking we are alone in this. Also fortunate to have been friends long enough to remember those past times, and now know to take notice of our present days.
Some of my favorite black and white photos are those taken at the ocean on a rainy day. The black and white seems to fit the mood, the cloudy skies, the waves, all translate well into black and white.
This is a pedestrian bridge recently built in the town where I live. I spent most of last summer there with an iced coffee, a book and knitting. I also included it as part of my daily run, seeing the sun rise as I headed home towards the East. The metal chairs and tables show well in black and white, and the beauty of the clouds.
I love the stillness in this photo, the snow laden trees, the train along the tracks. Also taken a few blocks from my home, on a walking bridge above the tracks.
Cormorant
Cormorants commonly eat small fish under six inches in length.
Great Blue Heron
The primary food for the Great Blue Heron is small fish. It is also known to opportunistically feed on a wide range of shrimp, crabs, aquatic insects, rodents, and other small mammals, amphibians, reptiles, and birds, especially ducklings. Primary prey is variable based on availability and abundance.
Seagull
Their fishing is not the deep dive of a pelican or an osprey, it’s closer to the surface, described as a dipping action. They can stir up invertebrates and other small marine life paddling with their feet and feed that way also. While seagulls are omnivorous, many members of the gull family are piscivores. This means the bulk of their diet consist of fish.
Seagulls are scavengers, yet, they’re apt at both hunting and catching their prey. Because of their size and features, gulls are not well suited to deep diving or hunting large fish.
I had Monday off from school as did a close friend, so we decided to seize the day and headed for an overnight at the beach. We are both fully vaccinated and past the 14 day waiting period,(though remained masked on the drive down) and felt like at last we could do something reminiscent of life before Covid. Did it matter the temps were in the 20’s, real feel teens? NO! Was the sun shining? YES! We soaked in the sun walking on the boardwalk, we ordered our meals that were delivered to the Inn, and we knitted and chatted and walked Main Street and drank coffee. We even found a knitting/yarn shop on Main Street.
I set my alarm before sunrise to make sure I didn’t miss it, and headed out into the 17 degree morning darkness. (the Inn is a half block from the ocean.) I stood there in wonder, so thankful to be in the moment, thankful to have come through the past year with all the ups and downs and be standing here once again in a place I love. The horizon slowly began to change color, as the sky brightened.
Flocks of birds began to fly along the water, appearing as the sun was coming up. Here is what the sky looked like, I have not added any coloring or filters.
A true weekly smile, as the memories of the days will remain with us for some time.
Weekly Smile
The photo here is very old, taken by a friend in 1978 on my grandfather’s property. He was an avid photographer, and back in those days had a darkroom with trays of chemicals where he developed his photographs. What happened with this one I can’t say- perhaps what I remember we called a “double exposure”, though I do not know how double exposures occurred. Today’s cameras allow for all kinds of film editing but this was not done on purpose. I always called it the ghost photo. The ghost who returned to feed the ducks. It was taken with black and white film, not changed from color.
Great Egret
Great Black Backed Gull
Black Crowned Night Heron
Bald Eagle
Tree Swallow
Tufted Titmouse
This winter we have been hit with snowstorm after snowstorm. 20 inches in one shot and then more on top of that as the days followed. Finally last week it began to melt when the temps rose, and I can see some green lawn appearing. I can only hope with March upon us that the temps will rise and the snow will cease. Today it’s in the 20’s, but tomorrow it is supposed to shoot up to 50. Here’s some white for you.
This is Gracie. She lives in a local park, which I found out after asking the president of our local Audubon Society why a hawk would let me get so close. She took up residence and does not seem to be bothered by people. Quite a thrill for me to get so close to a hawk! She’s a Red Tailed Hawk.
Sharp-shinned Hawk or possibly a Cooper’s Hawk- hard to tell them apart sometimes
Red Shouldered Hawk
This Red Tailed beauty flew into a tree I was standing under and then looked straight at me, as you can see. I’m not sure who was more surprised!
For One Word Sunday, Brian at Bushboys World posted the empty chair, with a chair reminding me of one I own, so here is my companion to his post today. Another empty chair. I found this chair in an antique shop in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. It is solid and very heavy and I assume at one time had its place in a church. My mother in law who was a large woman always liked to sit on it and she said she felt secure because of how solid it was. She is gone 22 years, and so the chair has remained empty.
A Day In The Life 
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