4 October, 2015            Some weeks

Some weeks you go to put up a blog post and you just don’t have a lot to put up! Fortunately I have a few remaining items from the UCI World Championships here in Richmond last week. One is original art! I’m amazed that in the whole blog post I did last week I didn’t put any pictures of Mackey, Turner and Yuki – they were with us the whole time! If you’re unfamiliar with them – though I’ve posted them here numerous times – I’ll include an old (May of this  year) picture of us at Pony Pasture. I’ve said that the three together look like Neapolitan ice cream. Which perhaps you’re unfamiliar with. This is Neapolitan ice cream:  

Neapolitan Ice Cream – 3 times the fun

Notice it says “3 times the fun”. Here is our version of 3 times the fun:

Neapolitan dogs

This is Ev’s rendering of them accompanying us to last week’s UCI World Championships, along with her haiku:

THE NEOPOLITANS – by Evelyn

The UCI produced a fantastic ten minute highlight video of the Men’s Elite Road Race here in Richmond, won after six plus hours of riding by Peter Sagan. It’s fantastic to watch:  

Of course I did get outside a little bit, although a couple of these pictures are from West Creek and not Pony Pasture. We watched the Worlds on Sunday; I had to get on my bike Monday, just for a few laps at West Creek. A big white bird stalking the lake’s edge (the  southern lake) caught my eye. It was there every lap so when I finished I walked down with my camera and caught a few pictures. I googled it later; it turned out to be a Great Egret (Ardea alba):

Great egret (Ardea alba)

Speaking of big white living things, while I was walking down to the lake I saw this enormous mushroom at the edge of the woods: 

Very fun. That is one large mushroom.

It’s hard for me to take pictures right when I get off my bike, even when it’s only after an hour ride and even when it’s just a quick iphone shot. When I’m taking pictures I’m fond of, all I’m thinking about is pictures. My head is very clear and it’s just me and my camera and whatever I’m pointing it at. When I’m riding my bicycle I’m the same way. I’m deeply immersed in the experience of what I’m doing and not thinking about much else. Come to think of it that’s the way I wash dishes and cut grass. I digress. It was really challenging for me to switch from cycling-brain to photography-brain. It was a fun picture anyway.

I was writing about hawks four weeks ago today and wrote “I suspect they may leave soon” and I hadn’t seen any in some time. Of course I saw a hawk this week. The light was un-lovely and the weather bleak (it’s been that way for some time now) but I got a reasonable (not great) picture. Not sure if this is a male or a female but it’s bedraggled. It’s wet and I sense this raptor is not filled with rapture:

Soggy October Red-tail

Emily Dickinson wrote that “hope is the thing with feathers” and I hope I will have more things with feathers – and petals too if we’re fortunate – next week. I suspect the thing with feathers in this image is hoping for better weather. Or at least a successful hunt. 

I also hope you’ll come back! And I hope you have a great week! The weather is forecast to be more lovely than it’s been.

All best,

Jay