Asbury Park, New Jersey .. the town is painted everywhere!
Store front window…
The walls of the old abandoned casino building…
Along a street..
The boardwalk painted walls…
A sign by the beach…
And a rainbow crosswalk…
Baby Blues
A family of BlueJays have made their home not far from mine, and come everyday for nuts and seed. They are a loud bunch, always squawking, as their mother scurries around picking up the peanuts I throw from the window or leave on the windowsill. I love watching them. Soon enough they will be full grown, but if they’re smart they’ll stick around as there’s always good eats here!
A Photo a Week Challenge: Squirrel!
Oh squirrels… they over run my backyard, they move in on the peanuts I leave for the birds, they are always around it seems! I have a baffle attached to my feeders so they cannot take over, though they have attempted to climb the pole and look up into the baffle quizzically when realizing they can go no further. Sometimes I find them entertaining, they play on branches, falling over and grabbing on like acrobats. Here are a few of my captures.
My greatest squirrel moment of all was when these cuties appeared above me as I walked a local trail
Nurturing Thursday
Beach Time
The area I live in has begun to “reopen” after being locked down because of Covid-19 since March. I am still not going out much- a trip to Starbucks when I mobile order, a morning coffee with a friend on her patio, both of us wearing masks and sitting 6ft apart. No shopping except online. But it is summer, my favorite season, and a time when normally I go to the beach a few times a week. I have seen the photos of the beaches here in New Jersey, crowded, no masks, lines waiting for the bathroom. I decided what I would do was leave at 6AM, (I am always an early riser) arrive at 7, stay for a few hours and head home. That is exactly how it worked out. I was in my car at 6:02, stopped at Starbucks, had no traffic and pulled in at 7:12. Got a space on the street across from the beach, and was greeted by the sparkling ocean I had so longed to see. No problem with the bathroom as no one but the cleaning people were there. I always sit in the surfing section only, as families won’t sit there because there is no swimming. Serenity. By 10:30 the swimming area of the beach was filling up, and just a few older couples were near where I was, but far enough away. By 11:00 I was ready to head home. As I walked to my car, I noticed not a space was to be had on the street. Home by 12:15, I had spent what I consider the best hours of the day sitting at the ocean, taking it in, walking through the surf, and so thankful to be able to have been there.
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Who Was She?
Last night a childhood friend sent me a photo via Facebook messaging. I had never seen the photo before, had no recollection of who took it, where it was taken or when it was taken. It was jarring to see my face as a teenager staring back at me, familiar yet unfamiliar. A moment caught in time, not a special occasion, just friends hanging out together and someone must have had a camera and taken the pic. A moment lost to memory, making me realize there must be so many of those moments lost to time, to the years, to life moving forward and leaving just traces of the person I was behind. New friends, new experiences, replacing the past. My friend said she figured it was the year we were in 8th grade, probably 13 or 14 years old. It is hard to believe almost 50 years have gone by since then. Makes me think about how so much has been forgotten, has become unimportant, how little I knew then, how little I may still know….
Last Photo for June 2020
My last photo of the month of June was a video I took with my cell phone. I sit out on my patio in the early morning and watch the birds. This Momma Bluejay comes every morning with 3 babies to feed, so I help her out by putting nuts on the windowsill. She is not bothered by my presence at all, I am sitting literally an arms length away.
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Sunday Stills: Let #Freedom Ring
Terri tells us this week: I chose this week’s theme with some trepidation if only to be challenged myself. The uncertainty of Covid-19 still looms, and civil unrest continues to make tragic headlines world-wide. As many countries are still confined to “stay-at-home” orders, we may feel anything but free. States and counties continue to impose public safety guidelines for wearing masks and physical distancing, some still choosing to delay openings of their economies. Again, many feel our freedoms are impinged upon as this process unfolds.
The area I live in has begun “reopening” slowly, but because of my age and my husband’s age I stay mostly at home. I will meet a friend for coffee- outdoors with us both wearing masks. Freedom. I have a beautiful backyard filled with birds that allow me to sit out and forget what is happening in the world outside. Freedom. I make a daily trip to Starbucks, which allows me to feel a some normalcy in abnormal times, yet still feel safe, I mobile order and no one is in the store when I pick up. Freedom. My husband and I visit a different park every Sunday for a walk. Freedom. In the world in which we live right now, we need to find our own freedoms and what works for us. These small things are helping me get through these unprecedented and uncertain times. 
Wordless Wednesday
Ragtag Daily Prompt Thursday: Rear View Mirror
I took today’s prompt literally. I love taking photos from the perspective of my side car mirror. Looking back, where I had just been, a different view, saying good bye.
Nurturing Thursday
The Weekly Smile
Trent wrote that for him it is the little things that make him smile these days. I would have to agree. Getting out early to take in beautiful views, meeting a Mockingbird on a walk and finding she had a nest hidden among one of the bushes. Watching the assortment of birds come visit my backyard, some bringing their young.
One Voice Children’s Choir-Maroon 5 Memories
Another beautiful cover of a song sung by a group of children.. together.. yet apart. I hadn’t realized before hearing the violins in the background that Maroon 5 had “borrowed” measures from Pachabel’s Canon in D, as I found after looking it up, have many other artists. You can read about it here: https://www.classicfm.com/composers/pachelbel/maroon-5-memories-canon/
Nurturing Thursday
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Hats
Wordless Wednesday
Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Benches
The Starlings Have Arrived
A family of juvenile European Starlings have taken over my feeders- and what a noisy bunch! Crying to their mother to be fed, they never stop squawking. They are very entertaining to watch, despite the noise. They mature into beautiful iridescent beauties.
Birds in Neutrals
I noticed that so many of the birds visiting my feeders today were neutral in color. Beige, brown,gray. A Catbird, a female Red Wing Blackbird, a female Brown Headed Cowbird, young Starlings, a Mourning Dove. Female birds are often less colorful than their male counterparts. Safer that way to protect their young, they blend in with foliage more easily. All still beautiful in their own way.
Last Photo for May 2020
Brian invites us once again to share our Last Photo for May 2020
The rules are simple:
1. Post the last photo on your SD card or last photo on your phone for the 31st May.
2. No editing – who cares if it is out of focus, not framed as you would like or the subject matter didn’t cooperate.
3. You don’t have to have any explanations, just the photo will do
4. Create a Pingback to this post or link in the comments
5. Tag “The Last Photo”
Not surprisingly, my last photo was one of a bird, a Blue Jay. Taken in my backyard where I am spending a lot of time these days.
Wordless Wednesday
Sunday Stills: Life in a #Waterworld
For Sunday Stills this week, Terri has asked us to show her our own water world and what we love about it!
The sparkle on the ocean from the sun
The feeling of freedom seeing its expanse
Its stillness at sunset
A place to coast along
The Sentinels
I often run across this beautiful pedestrian walkway in early morning. Before quarantine I sat with a friend and enjoyed a coffee there gazing at the lovely view of the river below. As I crossed the other day I heard a hiss, which startled me. I looked and there in one of the flower boxes attached to the side of the walkway was a goose. Had he not hissed I would not even have seen him.
I was thinking such a curious place for him to decide to sit, when I realized his mate was in the next box
There they stood gazing out at the river, a real bird’s eye view. The sentinels of the walkway.
Art Recreated
I am sure you have seen people recreating works of art with things they find around the home. The Getty Museum first began the challenge during this time of stay home and quarantine. People are so clever,and come up with such wonderful recreations
Today the school I work in offered as part of our Discovery Day, the challenge to replicate a piece of art. I decided to join in and chose a painting by Marie-Denise Villers, called Woman Drawing.
and here is my recreation
Such fun it was!!
Wordless Wednesday
A Day In The Life 
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