NEWFAZE

Think too much (c)

Posted on November 29, 2015 by Jay McLaughlin

29 November, 2015 Think too much (c)

Today’s title thanks to my old buddy KD, who introduced me to Paul Simon, and the songs Think too much (a) and Think too much (b). KD is for some reason inordinately fond of (b); I’ve never learned why. But listen to about the first 30 seconds of (b). Discernible in the background is a soft mewling sound, either a little baby or a goat or a sheep. Since I’ve known him (for fifteen years), KD has understood things I have not. And I suspect he understands something about those sounds that I do not.

See? Think too much. Perfect example. He probably just likes the song.

Thanksgiving afternoon just before 4:00 Evelyn and I walked out of the house to get in the car. We were headed to my brother’s house in Doswell for our family Thanksgiving. Between our front door and the car, a Red-tail swooped over our heads and landed on the chimney of the house across the street. The light is poor but the subject matter is unmistakable:

Neighborhood Red-tail, consuming a fresh caught mouse on Thanksgiving Day

That’s what initially had me thinking too much. Because it was automatic to say “that hawk sure had a great Thanksgiving meal.” Less automatic (thinking too much) was my thought about the mouse’s Thanksgiving. Or the mouse’s family. I read recently in one of my books – I’ll see if I can find it – that human rules simply don’t apply in nature. There is no remorse. If you’re hungry, you eat. No vegetarian hawks. Another animal dies or you do – very simple. Same fortunate hawk, same unfortunate mouse:

Nothing is wasted

Part of my thinking too much was that we’re mammals and we have a bird for Thanksgiving; Red-tails are birds and this one had a mammal for Thanksgiving. They sure don’t think too much – I’m quite confident.

Our Thanksgiving – my family’s – was much more conventional. My brother Kevin and his wife Jenny and their daughters host a superb Thanksgiving gathering every November. Usually around twenty of us get together at their home. Regrettably, I didn’t take any pictures. They make place markers for everyone each year. Here’s Evie’s and mine from this year and one previous year:

Hand made Thanksgiving place settings – so excellent

Ev got a lovely Thanksgiving bouquet from her family; it’s the centerpiece of our dining room table:

Blazing bouquet – photo credit goes to Evelyn:

After having my bicycle in the shop for way too long (my fault, not theirs), I got out for a nice ride Saturday with Pat. We got out to Maidens and stopped at our favorite place for honey:

We ALWAYS love a fresh bottle of honey

Some friends have mentioned I see more hawks than average. Which for some reason is true. I mentioned to one friend that I have a long-standing interest in Red-tails. Even back – documented – to my high school days. This is an excerpt for a journal I kept for a high school English class in 1977. I was sixteen years old:

Red-tail hawk poem excerpt from a journal I kept 38 years ago (!)

The poem was Hurt Hawks by Robinson Jeffers, 1938. I was sixteen in 1977 when I made that journal entry, and deeply interested in hawks, although not to the extent I am today.

Winter is creeping closer; next week’s blog entry will be on December 6! I’m looking forward to it; it’s a relaxing time. Come back next week! All best,

Jay

PS I’m planning a few more add-on sections (the kind I normally put below here in bold) in the coming weeks. They’re my favorite part of blogs! Except of course for photography.

Posted in Birds, Flowers, Fun, raptors, Red-tailed hawks, Rivers, Smiles (including "dog smiles"!) | Tagged Dogs, Flowers, Fun, nature, outdoors, People, Red-tailed hawks, smile | Leave a comment

It was just a coincidence, but still

Posted on November 22, 2015 by Jay McLaughlin

22 November, 2015 It was just a coincidence, but still

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I began writing the section below this (begins “The low angle of the November sun…”) yesterday. The whole hawk incident happened the day before (Friday, 20 November). Last night I was getting ready for bed, I was brushing my teeth, I remember looking down at my little toothbrush stand on the counter, with bits of dried up toothpaste drips on it. It occurred to me in that instant what it would have been like to discuss this whole hawk encounter (below) with dad. His insights always startled me – always – and those insights are one of the many things I miss about him. I was mentioning to Evie at about that time – think about how it feels to talk with a mouthful of toothpaste, I suspect we’ve all done it – that the day before had been the third anniversary of dad’s death. And the day I had this singular encounter with a big Red-tail. Some of us think everything happens for a reason. Others (including me) think events are more random. More at the end. Here’s the post, mostly as I wrote it yesterday:

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The low angle of the November sun makes gorgeous light. We’ve gotten brief early season frosts but haven’t yet had a long, hard, brittle overnight freeze that will stop the insects for 2015. This wasp (Vespula vulgaris) was slowing down and sitting in the sun to warm up. That’s cooperative and helpful for an amateur photographer like me:

Common wasp (Vespula vulgaris) on a leaf at Pony Pasture

I was driving east on 33 in Glen Allen Friday afternoon. Ahead on my right I saw a mob of crows behaving with unmistakable aggression in a stand of mixed hardwoods and pines on the side of the road. I watched a bigger and lighter colored bird swoop through the woods and stop in a grove of loblolly pines. It was next to a parking lot and I slowed down and pulled in.

I drove around a building and through the parking lot to where the crows were mobbing a bird in a pine tree thirty feet from the edge of the parking lot. It was a large (female) Red-tailed hawk. I rolled down my car window and pulled up and turned the engine off. When photographing urban birds, cars make a perfect “blind” because cars are not a direct threat and the birds act like you’re not even there. If you get out, everything changes. But they couldn’t care less about the car itself.

I took my first picture (it says on the camera) at 2:50. By the time I took my 157th picture (that’s how it goes sometimes) it was after 3:30. This is among the first pictures I took:

It's a difficult look to interpret. It may be arrogant. Or confident. Or raptors don't have emotions - who am I to say.

A difficult look to interpret. It may be arrogant. Or confident. Or raptors don’t have emotions – who am I to say. I’ve never seen a chickadee with this expression.

I watched her eat while I sat there. When I first stopped there were twenty crows, all in a frenzy. I didn’t witness any of this, but by her behavior and the crows’ behavior I surmise she must have just killed the squirrel. My guess is the squirrel was thrashing around and the crows were very, very agitated. But she just kept eating – it wasn’t pretty – and the crows lost interest and flew away. I don’t understand enough about this behavior. I wouldn’t have guessed they’d leave her alone so quickly.

Here’s another picture while she was in the tree:

It’s hard to look away from a hawk’s eyes

I watched for a long time. Just me and her and the rapidly vanishing remains of the inattentive squirrel. I didn’t watch for an eternity, but over twenty minutes. Because after around ten minutes it was evident she’d finished eating. She turned 180º and was facing the opposite direction. And wasn’t eating, just enjoying (I presume) the feeling of a full stomach. Although in raptors that’s referred to as a full “crop.”

Brief geek interlude. If raptors aren’t your thing, skip this paragraph. Of course if raptors are your thing, chances are you know this. But hawks (and eagles and ospreys) are “diurnal” raptors which means they hunt in the day. You’ve no doubt already surmised this, but owls are “nocturnal” raptors which means they are night time hunters. And diurnal raptors have crops but nocturnal raptors don’t! Or so I read in the Delaware Valley Raptor Center article called “Raptor Adaptations.” There is nothing that is not fascinating about this. If you’re of a certain mentality.

While reading the “Raptor Adaptations” article (you should really read that; it’s incredible) I discovered a fascinating section called “Foot Notes” – also worth reading. When that Red-tail was out in the sun (I’ll get to that in just a moment) I zoomed in on her feet. Check this out:

That’s a bad sight for a small mammal to turn its back on

To return to where I left off before the “brief geek interlude,” she sat there for some time digesting. The sun was dropping and I wanted to see if she’d left any pieces of the unfortunate squirrel on the ground around the tree. I got out of the car and stood next to it and she still didn’t take off! I was really close. I gradually walked toward the tree and she flew off into the woods. I picked through the leaves at the base of the tree (lots of oak leaves even though she was sitting in a pine) and she hadn’t dropped so much as a squirrel hair. No blood, no hair, nothing. I walked back and drove out of the parking lot on my way home. But the nine day old moon was rising in the east and the air was clear and crisp and beautiful. And I thought a picture of the moon would be a nice compliment to the hawk pictures so I turned my lens toward it:

Waxing gibbous moon rising above a well-fed hawk

Waxing gibbous moon rises over a well-fed hawk

I would have worked harder on a better moon picture – but as I snapped that shot, she flew right over my head! She flew across the road in front of me and over another strip mall and landed in a tall tree – in the sun! I got back in the car, drove across the street and behind the strip mall, to the base of her new tree. I opened the car window again, stuck my camera out and grabbed a few more from this new angle:

That’s a spiderweb behind her! This stuff never ceases to delight and amaze me.

It was late by that time and the sun was going away and I went home. All this time I had been unaware it was the anniversary of dad’s death. But that’s just a coincidence. That’s the end of this section. Check out the little addendum to this one if you’re so inclined. And come back next week!

All best,

Jay

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So anyway, since this was the week of the anniversary of dad’s death, that wound through my thoughts about the hawk encounter a lot. First – it was just a coincidence. In my opinion. It’s popular to say that “everything happens for a reason” but personally I don’t subscribe to that notion. My brother Kevin knows a statistician who says that “rare events happen – rarely.” It’s unusual to have a somewhat long, somewhat involved encounter with a raptor that coincides with an important date, but sometimes stuff just happens.

As I thought more about it, it also occurred to me that I’m glad I was unaware of the coincidence when I was watching and photographing the hawk. In my notes it says that if I’d been thinking about that, it “…would have cheapened the experience and distracted me and I would have less fully immersed myself in what I was doing, and that would have made it not-great.” I love a photographic “session” like that one. But it totally takes you over, you’re on autopilot, you can’t think about other stuff.

Dad didn’t believe in ghosts or “being visited by spirits” or any other new-age or old-age mumbo-jumbo. If someone related a story like that to my dad and said “I think it was my father’s spirit saying hello,” my dad would have been utterly kind, especially if it was obvious that made the person happy. He would have said something on the order of “you can’t beat spending a sunny autumn afternoon taking pictures of a cooperative Red-tail.” He would never – not ever – believe that a person’s spirit takes the form of a hawk and stops by for a visit. But if something was harmless and made a person happy, he was all for it.

Kevin wrote Dad’s obituary, and closed it with this: “Mike’s kindness, sense of humor, curiosity, love of reading, and love of animals lives on in his children and grandchildren…” That hawk encounter was a sterling example of his curiosity and love of animals living on in his children. And that is a sterling example of a father’s spirit saying hello.

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Posted in Birds, Fun, moon, People, Pony Pasture, raptors, Red-tailed hawks, Rivers, Smiles (including "dog smiles"!), Spiders, squirrels | Tagged nature, outdoors, pictures of the moon, Pony Pasture, Red-tailed hawks, smile, Smiles - human AND dog smiles!, waxing gibbous moon | 9 Comments

Eating mac and cheese with chopsticks

Posted on November 15, 2015 by Jay McLaughlin

15 November, 2015 Eating mac and cheese with chopsticks

I did that earlier this week – totally did not anticipate it. To be honest, it never crossed my mind since I was born that at some point in my life I would use chopsticks to eat macaroni and cheese, but there it was. Goatacado, Village Shopping Center, at the corner of Three Chopt and Patterson Avenue here in Richmond. That link has a brief description of the shopping center that includes the following sentence (which I am not making up): “Located in Richmond’s West End near the University of Richmond with a customer mix of students and adults, all with considerable disposable income.”

They were unaware that I am part of that customer mix or they would have written “most with considerable disposable income.” The food was fantastic though, and Evelyn and I enjoyed both the food and the experience. Fun place with great food and great customer service. They were in the same space as “Ginger Juice” and we had great drinks there – it was a nice dining experience. Mac and cheese with chopsticks – who even knew?

Too much text and not enough photography – I’ve had a couple of “firsts” for the season this week.

Deer at Pony Pasture move to more secluded areas of the park when they’re having babies in the spring. But they mature over the summer and now they’re more predictable. This one was back in one of their normal winter hangouts:

I like that look. They’re just observing. They don’t even seem anxious, just aware.

Buffleheads (Bucephala albeola) appear at Pony Pasture reliably around the first frost and head back north near the last frost in the spring. I’ve been expecting them for some time; today was the first time I saw them:

2 males and 3 female Buffleheads

Serious cold (the kind that freezes my dogs’ outdoor water bowl solid) will happen soon. Buffleheads are purely a winter bird in Richmond.

I was driving home from the river today and a hawk swooped over the road and landed in a tree. I pulled into the Tuckahoe Shopping Center at the corner of Forest and Ridge Road; it was sitting in a tree facing away from me. I had my camera from the river and managed to get a quick picture. As you’re no doubt aware, the bulk of the hawk pictures on this site are Red-tails (Buteo jamaicensis). This is a Red-shouldered hawk (Buteo lineatus):

Red-shouldered hawk above a shopping center parking lot

They’re not rare. But I’m sure that Red-tails are the most common hawk in Virginia by a considerable margin. The local hawks have not been around this week, although I heard one this morning. But Wednesday I was driving home from visiting a buddy of mine in Bon Air and this pair of Red-tails was perched (where else) on a power line tower:

Pair of Red-tails in Bon Air, female on the left

Just FYI, although you may not find this interesting – notice both birds (Red-tail and Red-shoulder) have scientific names beginning with “Buteo.” There’s another class of hawks in this area that are “Accipiters.” We have Cooper’s Hawks (Accipiter cooperii) and Sharp-shinned Hawks (Accipiter striatus) in central Virginia as well. But I’ve never gotten a picture! They’re smaller and fly faster and are more in the forest. A big difference between buteos and Accipiters is that buteos mostly like to eat small mammals and lizards, while Accipiters catch and eat birds. Those aren’t hard and fast distinctions, but as a general rule, buteos eat small mammals and Accipiters eat birds.

It’s possible I’ll get an Accipiter sooner or later – I’m getting closer. When I do I’ll post it here.

Certain things happen every autumn around the same time. The first frost, buffleheads, deer moving to their winter areas, all that stuff – and usually around now I’m running low on my leftover firewood from last year. I buy it from an old friend and he puts it in my driveway. It takes me the better part of a day to move it around behind my garage and stack it up. This will keep us warm for some time:

Our heat is on right now – and that’s the source!

Also this week my brother Kevin completed the American Family Fitness Half Marathon here in Richmond yesterday, and so did my friend Lucas. It was the first time at that distance for both of them and they were fast. The Half Marathon was run in conjunction with the Anthem Richmond Marathon and my friend Laura finished that race. It was also her first time at that distance. I won’t tell you how fast she was, except to tell you that it was over an hour faster than the best I’ve ever done. Everybody’s so fast! Great job!

I don’t have any food pictures or marathon pictures, unfortunately. Oops!

For a moment – to return to the subject of “eating mac and cheese” – I grew up in the 1960’s and 1970’s. In the 1980’s I cooked for myself regularly. And when I heard “mac and cheese” it meant this, and nothing else:

For the first 3/4 of my life, this was mac and cheese.

Maybe you’ve tasted Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. Don’t misinterpret my tone – I love that stuff. But this is Goatocado’s ingredient list for their mac and cheese; I quote verbatim from their menu: “rotini noodles smothered in sharp white cheddar, pepper jack, and creamy ricotta cheese.” Take my word for it that you will not have a flashback to (or renewed longing for) Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. If you’re in Richmond, try Goatocado and try Ginger Juice.

Until next week,

Jay

Posted in Birds, buffleheads, firewood, Fun, ginger juice, goatacado, James River, People, Pony Pasture, raptors, red-shouldered hawks, Red-tailed hawks, richmond marathon, Rivers, Smiles (including "dog smiles"!), whitetail deer | Tagged buffleheads, Endurance, Fun, ginger juice, goatocado, james river, nature, outdoors, People, Pony Pasture, red-shouldered hawks, Red-tailed hawks, Rivers, smile, Smiles - human AND dog smiles!, whitetail deer | 2 Comments

Except for all the others

Posted on November 8, 2015 by Jay McLaughlin

8 November, 2015 Except for all the others

“Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others.” ― Winston S. Churchill

This blog is a dedicated politics-free zone, except I like to vote. The polling place is not far from here so I always walk up, and I always think about democracy while I’m walking. Many people are unhappy with our political system. But I’ll bet it’s been that way since 1776. There’s an expression (I don’t know its origin) that says “you can please all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time.” Democracy goes on.

Let me put in a picture – I’m going to return to this subject. This is an azalea, blooming in our neighbor’s yard, just over the fence beside our driveway. I took this picture yesterday (Saturday, November 7) around noon. Amazing! An azalea blooming in November!:

Look at this gorgeous azalea blooming in November!

Anyway, I’m walking up to the polling station, thinking about voting and democracy and Evelyn’s and my visit to New Jersey last week. I mentioned Fred’s birthday in last week’s blog post. Fred and I had a great time together, but we’re from different generations and we have different political views. But Fred was with the United States Marine Corps in Korea in late 1950 and I looked this up and it was thirty-five degrees below zero. When it’s -35º, I don’t think they talk about “wind chill.” And people were shooting at him and trying to kill him. Then – some years later – Fred was still in the Marine Corps, and he fought in Vietnam. So I’m guessing he went from 35 degrees below zero in Korea to a hundred above in Vietnam. More people shooting at him and trying to kill him.

And Fred gets the same number of votes I get! It seems like he should get at least two or three. I haven’t risked anything and I get one vote. He’s been colder than I’ve ever been and been hotter than I’ve ever been and he’s had people trying to kill him – and he gets one vote. Incredible. Thanks Fred! And thanks to everyone else who serves or has served in the US Armed Forces.

This week I saw not one hawk but the pair of Red-tails on Monday, Tuesday and again on Wednesday. This isn’t a gorgeous picture, but it’s neat to see the pair with the sun behind them, glowing through their wingtips. I took this picture just before 11:00 on Tuesday morning (Election Day):

Male and female Red-tails near the house Tuesday morning

The invasive-plant-eating-goats are still at Bryan Park; there were only two when Ethan and I visited Monday. The handsome dark brown goat is a male or a “ram” or a “billy”; his name is Billy. The white goat’s name is Beacon; he’s a “wether.” If Beacon was a horse he’d be a gelding and if he was a cow he’d be a steer. But the word for neutered male goats is “wether.” Good vocabulary word. I believe – not entirely certain – that neutered male sheep are also called wethers. This is Billy and Beacon together. Billy is friendly and outgoing; he’ll stand there while you scratch his head or his back. If you ever watch him walk, he has a faint but unmistakable swagger. Beacon is not quite as confident and jogs past while looking nervously out of the corner of his eye. Go figure:

“Billy” is darker; “Beacon” is the mostly white goat.

Here’s Billy by himself. He is a fine looking animal:

This is Billy; he’s friendly and confident just this side of arrogant.

In my blog post from October 25 (The dogs sniffed me suspiciously) I posted a picture of the moon from October 20. It was a few hours past “first quarter.” Here’s that picture:

First quarter moon

This week I photographed the moon around 7:00 Tuesday morning (Election Day again, big day). This picture was taken just before “last quarter.“

Last quarter moon

See the difference? If you ever look up at the moon and see it’s lit up on the right side, it’s “waxing” – it will be bigger the next night. If you look at the moon and see it’s lit on the left side, that moon is “waning” – it will be smaller the next night.

Yet again I began this post too late. Oops! My friend Andrew was also in the Marines when he was younger. I remember going to his wedding, which seems like it was a couple of years ago. So it escapes me how his daughter Sydney could possibly be in high school, but there you go. And last night Evelyn and I went out for dinner at Portico in Goochland then drove to Goochland High School to watch Sydney perform the title role in Diary of Anne Frank. I’ve never watched anyone I know acting in a play before, but Sydney’s talent was evident and impressive. I didn’t get the impression she thought about acting – it seemed to come natural. Which I suspect is an essential quality for great actors. Fantastic job Sydney! Here’s the cast at the end of the show, Sydney (a.k.a. Anne Frank) in the middle in red:

Cast of “Diary of Anne Frank” at Goochland HS, 7 November, 2015

I wish I’d been more organized – I’d like to include more here. But I have to get up a long time before sunrise tomorrow. So until next week!

All best,

Jay

PS I almost forgot I “got” a bluebird at Bryan Park on Thursday. I’m always happy to see bluebirds:

Bluebird / Blue sky

Posted in Birds, Flowers, Fun, goats, James River, moon, raptors, Red-tailed hawks, Rivers, Smiles (including "dog smiles"!) | Tagged Diary of Anne Frank, wether | 4 Comments

NORTHERN hospitality

Posted on November 1, 2015 by Jay McLaughlin

1 November, 2015 NORTHERN hospitality

Northern hospitality equals or exceeds Southern hospitality in every way! As I learned (again) this weekend when Evelyn and I stayed with her family and friends in the Sandy Hook area of New Jersey. We had a fun train trip up and back, but the return trip didn’t get us back to Richmond until 9:15 this evening. So I’m going to put up a handful of pictures I enjoyed then extend this tomorrow.

All of the pictures in this post are taken with my phone, not with my “real” camera so they’re not as crisp as I like. But we were traveling light.

This picture is taken out of a not-very-clean train window, but this is the sun rising at 7:34 Friday morning – somewhere near Quantico, VA. An hour and thirty-four minutes after our train left Richmond. In the pitch dark:

Sunrise to begin a wonderful journey

I took this picture Saturday morning around 10:30, about five minutes walk from the Blue Bay Inn in Atlantic Highlands, where we stayed during our visit:

Five minutes walk from our hotel. Unimprovable.

This picture I took yesterday afternoon while we were watching the Halloween Parade in Atlantic Highlands:

Firetrucks are always fun. ESPECIALLY when they’re throwing candy.

And there was no way I could walk past this without a picture:

This person wasn’t even wearing a pirate costume.

And I took this picture – the final picture for this post – this afternoon at 2:00 – while standing in Evelyn’s mother’s backyard! It’s like paradise! This is the house where Evelyn grew up!

The creek behind Evelyn’s mother’s house – where Evelyn grew up!

More tomorrow. This weekend I got to meet Fred for the first time – today is his birthday – Happy Birthday Fred! Today is also my sister Katie’s birthday – Happy Birthday Katie!

More tomorrow, all best,

Jay

Posted in Birds, Fun, People, Rivers, Smiles (including "dog smiles"!), Trains | Tagged atlantic highlands, firetrucks, halloween, new jersey | 2 Comments

The dogs sniffed me suspiciously…

Posted on October 25, 2015 by Jay McLaughlin

25 October, 2015 The dogs sniffed me suspiciously…

…when I walked in the door Tuesday afternoon. My friend Ethan and I were hiking at Bryan Park when we saw this crowd hard at work clearing invasive species:

Goats – get rid of invasives, get back fertilizer, milk and cheese. What could be more ecologically friendly?

If you want your dogs to sniff you suspiciously, go out and pet some goats. You will have your dog’s undivided attention when you walk in the door. Ethan and I talked to the goats a lot; I don’t know what we looked like. The goats replied though, and I did get that on camera:

I believe this goat is saying something obvious, but I don’t know what it is. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

I don’t know the names of the goats yet, but I’m learning. I will share that information in a future blog post. There’s a nice article about these goats at Richmond’s Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden. Read it here at Goats Eat Poison Ivy? Even if you don’t read the article, it’s worth clicking on to watch a fifteen second video of a nine day old goat named Solstice. If I’ve seen something cuter, I don’t recall when.

Goats clear all manner of invasive species, including but not limited to poison ivy and kudzu. From what I’ve read on the Bryan Park site, these goats are clearing Japanese Stiltgrass (Microstegium vimineum) and Porcelainberry (Ampelopsis brevipedunculata).

The goats are sponsored by the Friends of Bryan Park. They have a nice article on their website about the mission of the goats. Read it here at Goats in Bryan Park!

The goats are from Bright Hope Farm and Apiary in Chesterfield County. And they were cute! Bright Hope’s primary presence is on Facebook but you can also see them at that link.

We returned to the park on Thursday; the goats were working in a different section. We hiked around for a few minutes before we found the new spot. On the way we saw bluebirds! I first misidentified this as a female bluebird; I thought his colors were too dull for a male. But my sister Katie corrected me; I still have a lot to learn. He’s a handsome guy, perched here on a soccer goal at the edge of the fields at Bryan Park:

He’s a handsome guy, isn’t he? Shows up well against that green background.

Here’s an “accidental” image I took of two bluebirds together on the soccer goal:

No one scored on them while I watched. But it did take two of them.

We saw an osprey twice that day at Bryan Park but I was unable to get my lens on it. I was certain the Richmond ospreys had headed south for the winter since the ones in my area have vanished. But there was a minimum of one osprey at Bryan Park this week. I’ll get a picture if it’s still around.

Speaking of birds I did photograph this week – unexpectedly – I saw a killdeer at Pony Pasture. It was way out on a rock, standing near an unattractive pile of goose poop. Killdeers are always attractive birds, though. Adult males and females are identical in appearance:

I wonder if killdeers think about Canada geese? This could have been a much nicer picture.

I wonder if killdeers ever think about Canada geese? This could have been a much more pleasant picture.

I also saw an Eastern Phoebe in Glen Allen on Wednesday morning. When I saw the wash of pale yellow below its wings I thought it may be some phase of a goldfinch. Then I read about phoebes on allaboutbirds.org and learned that “Birds in fresh fall plumage show faint yellow on the belly”. The more I learn about birds, the more I find out how much I still need to learn about birds. Read about them here: Phoebes on All About Birds

Phoebe in the Fall

One of the pictures I took of the phoebe was on a fence:

Perching on a fence line – just like it says in allaboutbirds.com

It’s possible I wouldn’t even have included that sub par image, had I not read this sentence on the All About Birds site: “The Eastern Phoebe generally perches low in trees or on fencelines.” There’s another automatic identification feature with phoebes – I’ve seen it all my life, but didn’t notice it that morning. This is what it says on All About Birds: “When perched, Eastern Phoebes wag their tails down and up frequently.”

Although the site says “frequently,” I believe “non-stop” is a more accurate description.

The neighborhood Red-tails show no sign of departing. Although I admit I don’t know what it would look like if they did show a sign. Here’s a picture I took this week:

They’re so handsome. Or pretty. They have presence.

I’m going to study some pictures more closely and see if there is an identifying mark that I can use to distinguish between hawks. They’re nearly identical at first glance, but I’m thinking there’s a way to tell them apart. When I figure it out, I’ll share what I’ve learned.

I’m not seeing as many rabbits around as there were a month or two ago, but we’re overrun with squirrels. The squirrels are fattening up on acorns and the hawks are fattening up on squirrels:

This squirrel was making an incredible amount of noise - even with this giant acorn in its mouth.

This squirrel was making an amazing amount of noise – even with this giant acorn in its mouth.

The moon was new (invisible) on October 12. The first tiny sliver was visible two days later but it was up during the day and I never saw it. I’ve taken a lot of pictures of it as it grew or “waxed” this week. Here’s one I took Tuesday evening (October 20) just after 9:00. It was officially half full (“First Quarter”) at 4:32 that afternoon:

First quarter moon:

Ev’s and my friends John and Maria from the Eastern Shore were in town this weekend. We had breakfast here (I fixed oatmeal, yum) and Maria brought coffee! Really yum! She brought it from Brazil; they don’t carry this at Starbucks:

On hiatus from Starbucks. Thanks Maria and John!

And she left the rest of the bag for our personal use! And since I’m the only coffee drinker here, I have it all to myself! Thanks Maria and John!

I didn’t take my camera with me to Pony Pasture this morning because I become very anti-social when I take photographs. It was fun to show the jewel of our fair city to people who have never seen it before. Hopefully they’ll come again soon! But we also have an invitation to visit them on the Eastern Shore, so perhaps I will have pictures from there.

Until then, I hope you have a great week!

Best,

Jay

=======

Continuing the additional section (soon)

I have a lot to write, and ideas where to go, but I haven’t written any more this week.

The only place to go next is with my family. Telling the story of my life without the influence of my family is like drawing an outdoor scene and forgetting to include the sky. So my family will be next (briefly) – but not this week.

=======

Posted in Birds, coffee, goats, James River, moon, People, Pony Pasture, raptors, Red-tailed hawks, Rivers, squirrels, Starbucks | Tagged bluebird, bryan park, coffee, Fun, goats, james river, nature, outdoors, phoebes, pictures of the moon, Pony Pasture, Red-tailed hawks, Rivers | 2 Comments

Throw it up against the wall…

Posted on October 18, 2015 by Jay McLaughlin

18 October, 2015 Throw it up against the wall…

…and see if it sticks! Shorthand for trying something out to see if it works. That’s what I’m doing at the end of the blog this week. At the beginning of the blog, I need to warn ophidiophobes (people with an unreasonable fear of snakes) that there’s a crisp photograph of an Eastern Gartersnake (Thamnophis sirtalis) I took this morning at Pony Pasture. I thought for a moment it was a Common Ribbonsnake (Thamnophis sauritus) until I read the garter snake link above. I’ll put the picture some ways down this post and warn readers before they get to it. Remember that ophidiophobia is by definition an unreasonable fear and you can make it go away if you choose. Or keep it, it’s all about the choices.

A hundred-thirty-six whole words and nary a mention of a hawk; you must have known that wouldn’t continue. I’m learning about them at a great rate this year, and my interest is only becoming deeper. This week I photographed two at the same time on the power line tower near Freeman HS. It may have been a pair, but if I were a gambling man I’d bet that the one on the right is an adult female and the one on the left is a juvenile. Here’s a picture of two at one time:

Two hawks on the power line tower

Here are closeups of the two. These were taken precisely ten seconds apart. You can click on the pictures and they’ll enlarge for a closer look. The one on top is on the left side of the tower and it just doesn’t look confident. Perhaps “mature” is the word I’m searching for. The focus isn’t as tight on the lower bird (on the right on the tower) but it appears more businesslike. If I were a mouse poking around in the grass down there and looked up at those two and said “OMG” I think I’d be more afraid of the one on the right. Who can say:

It looks kind of cute, don't you think? Is it just me?

It looks kind of cute, don’t you think? Bigger eyes. Is it just me?

Slightly more businesslike and/or threatening, in my view.

Raptors in general have become more interesting to me this year, and Red-tailed hawks and Ospreys are the two I have the most chance to observe. So I’m reading more about them and learning more about them. I’m finding more to read about Ospreys than I am about Red-tails. Although if anyone knows of any good books about Red-tails, please let me know. I’ve had six solid months now of watching and reading about the two. I can tell you beyond any doubt that ospreys are comfortable having you watch their nest, while Red-tails depart as soon as you come in view. I am having a lot of fun learning about them. If you can watch Red-tails from your car, they’ll ignore you. Open the door and get out and they’ll leave.

Speaking of learning about ospreys, I know where there are a few nests and I glance up at them when I’m in the area. I saw something in a nest this week. I was surprised because I thought the ospreys had left. Most ospreys from the east coast of North America overwinter in Venezuela. So I parked in one of my favorite osprey watching hideouts and zoomed in on the nest to find this:

There’s a good joke about landscaping to be made here, but it escapes me just now.

Presumably they’ll do some pruning when they return in the spring.

My friend Ethan and I were at Bryan Park Thursday and the ducks were splashing around. It was purely by accident that I got this photograph of a male mallard flapping his wings and a female standing on her tip toes:

Male mallard flailing around

Female mallard trying to look taller than she really is

[[Snake picture coming soon! Ophidiophobes, skip to the bottom of the page – there’s good reading (in my opinion) to be done there. ]]

The same day I photographed the mallards I was taking a picture of a black locust (a favorite tree of mine) when this squirrel poked its head around the corner:

Some squirrels will go to great lengths to get their pictures on the internet

Evelyn and I were hiking at Pony Pasture this morning and she stopped and pointed to the ground just a few feet ahead. It was only around 50º and there was a Garter snake crossing the path in front of us. Here is a nice picture of its head. I don’t know (yet) how to distinguish between genders of snakes. When I learn, I’ll put it here. Have a look (or don’t):

Garter snake at Pony Pasture – interesting identification explanation below

I was at first certain this was a Garter snake. Then after some searching I became more certain it was a Common Ribbonsnake (Thamnophis sauritus). As it turns out (I learned on the web site of the Virginia Herpetological Society) it’s common to confuse the two. They’re nearly identical. Save for this great identifying feature, clearly obvious in that photograph. You can hardly tell them apart, except Garter snakes have “dark vertical lines on the margins of the supralabial scales.” Which if you look just below that snake’s eye, there are several dark vertical lines. Learning that Garter snakes have dark vertical lines on the margins of the supralabial scales is reason enough to keep a blog right there – what a treat.

There have been frost warnings and soon the last flowers will be gone. In mid-June the sun was above the horizon for nearly fifteen hours a day here in Richmond. It’s down to around eleven hours a day now, one of the reasons we see less and less flowers. In late December and early January it will only be up for nine and a half hours. This wild rose was blazing in the garden beside our driveway when we got back from the river earlier. Soon it’ll be gone but it’s bidding a spectacular farewell:

Could be the final rose of 2015 here on Westbury Drive. If so, that’s a bright and cheerful way to end the season.

Enough for this week! On to my new section – we’ll see how it goes.

Until next week,

Jay

= = = = = = = = = = =

Beginning this week and continuing intermittently in the future in this space, I’m going to post brief memoir sketches. I’m going to continue blogging in approximately this present form, just with the occasional addition of these sketches. I don’t just welcome feedback, I encourage it! Please comment on the bottom of the blog (there’s a space that says “Leave a reply”) or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from anyone! Memories of things we’ve done together or places we’ve been, I welcome it all. Plus I love to hear from people.

= = = = = = = = = = =

Have a good time

I can’t remember the most important thing that ever happened to me. I was hit by a car while riding my bicycle in 1988. I had a severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) that left me in a coma for five days. That’s why I can’t remember it. I was wearing a helmet but it was broken in three pieces. The car was going 65 mph. My bike went under the car and I went into the windshield. My right arm still has a plate and screws in it. The bones in my leg severed a nerve before they broke through my skin. I still wear a brace since the nerve won’t hold my foot up. I only know all this from police and hospital reports. That’s the nature of TBI – you’ll never recall that it happened. You can’t even have a nightmare about it – it’s gone.

In the year or two that followed, my brain and body healed while my life went downhill. I had numerous surgeries and spent months in the hospital and rehab. I was twenty-six when the car hit me. I’d been married less than a year. We’d lived in our new home less than a week. I’d been at the same job for seven years. In the year after my accident, I lost all of that. Marriage gone, job gone, house gone. Fortunately I still had my large and loving family, the foundation of my “old” pre-accident life and the foundation of my new life.

Now my life is better than it was before my accident. I’ve been in a happy, stable relationship for four years. I have a home that I love. When I had my accident I was training for what was to be my third triathlon. It took about a year but I completed another one. Then another one. These were mostly short races that only took a couple of hours to complete. Then another ten races, then twenty, and this summer I completed my two hundredth. Including eleven “Iron” distance triathlons where I’ve swum 2.4 miles, ridden my bicycle 112 miles and run 26.2 miles in one day. Those long distance races take me between fourteen and sixteen hours to finish. A long day!

When I had my accident, I’d finished high school and was a college dropout. Since my accident, I’ve completed my B.S. in Psychology and my M.S. in Rehabilitation Counseling.

I’ve volunteered for eleven years and over seven hundred fifty hours doing Animal Assisted Therapy on the Pediatric unit at Virginia Commonwealth University’s Medical College of Virginia. I’ve taken a five week mid-winter driving vacation to volunteer at the Yukon Quest 1,000 mile sled dog race. I’ve taken a six week vacation to New Zealand, Australia and the West Coast of the US, including a short triathlon in Wellington, NZ. I drove to Billings, Montana in the summer of 1999 for my first internship for my Masters. Lots and lots of adventures in the decades since my accident.

I’ve recently been moved to write about it a bit more. When I actually produce something, I’ll attach it at the end of a blog entry. I’d love to have feedback! There’s a space at the bottom of this page that says “Leave a reply.” You can leave me a note there or email.

The life I’m living today is as it should be, a combination of the abilities I had going into my accident and the experiences I’ve gained as a result. In the coming weeks and months I’ll expand on that theme in this space.

Have a great week!

PS If you’d like to see a before/after picture and brief story (the “before” picture is not pretty, consider yourself warned) you can click on the More about me link at the top of this page.

Posted in Birds, Flowers, Fun, garter snake, James River, ospreys, Pony Pasture, raptors, Red-tailed hawks, Rivers, roses, Snakes, squirrels | Tagged bryan park, Flowers, Fun, garter snake, james river, nature, Ospreys, outdoors, Pony Pasture, Red-tailed hawks, Rivers, Roses | 4 Comments

Making tracks

Posted on October 11, 2015 by Jay McLaughlin

11 October, 2015 Making tracks

Good evening! I hope your week’s been a great one. The river’s down to a reasonable level now (just dropped below five feet) but last weekend’s rain pushed it up some. It peaked at slightly over eleven feet. Whenever it drops after a flood it leaves a thin, slippery layer of silty mud, excellent for looking at animal tracks. Mackey and Turner and I were hiking on Thursday and there were plenty of tracks in the mud. We found some clear raccoon tracks (I’m relatively certain these are from a raccoon). Front paw prints, you can see the claw marks just in front of the toes:

Raccoon track in the center of the picture

Closeup; you can see the claws more clearly:

This is a closeup; see where its claws made holes in front of its “fingers”? Like a dog’s, they’re non-retractable

We hadn’t gone much farther when Mackey started nosing something in the tangled honeysuckle beside the trail. The river bank here was about four feet above the water level and this was about ten feet away from the edge:

Eastern Box Turtle – don’t his shell markings look like raccoon tracks?

It’s an Eastern Box Turtle (Terrapene carolina carolina). My friend Cris sent me a note that the Virginia Herpetological Society is collecting data about Box Turtles. I looked on their site and learned the following: “Virginia Wildlife Action Plan Rating Tier III – High Conservation Need – Extinction or extirpation is possible. Populations of these species are in decline or have declined to low levels or are in a restricted range. Management action is needed to stabilize or increase populations.”

They have a form for reporting Box Turtle sightings and I filled it out for the one we saw this week. Here’s a link to the reporting form if you see a Box Turtle in Virginia: Eastern Box Turtle Reporting Form

Part of what made me think about this post was how much the markings on this turtle’s shell look like raccoon tracks. Maybe it’s just me and maybe it’s because I’d just been looking at raccoon tracks, but I think there’s certainly at least a suggestion of a raccoon-track pattern there. ymmv.

I’ve said it before, as long as I continue to photograph hawks I’ll put at least one picture here. I’m still learning about them, especially about what I believe are the “local” red-tails. Monday morning I was coming down my street and a hawk flew practically over my hood! One house away from me! I stopped when it landed in the bushes. I put on my flashing lights and rolled down the window. He (I don’t really know the gender) popped out of the bush and flew about ten feet and landed on a wire. Almost at eye level. He was around fifty feet away. Or not quite. Hawks are in my experience skittish around people but I think he thought I was a parked car. So my car served as a blind. Here are two pictures of him, with the siding of my neighbor’s house in the background. Very fun:

Young Red-tail almost within sight of my house

Same terrific looking bird, zoomed in a bit

I’ve been watching Red-tailed hawks (Buteo jamaicensis) closely since May (as I’m sure you’ve noticed) and this didn’t look quite like a Red-tail. I thought it might be a Red-shouldered hawk (Buteo lineatus), also common in our area, but it didn’t look quite like that either. So as always I sent it to my friend Kim, a bona fide Virginia raptor expert. She said it’s a juvenile Red-tail.

I saw another one on the power line the next day. I’ve been watching them so much I’m learning some of their patterns. They sit up there facing south now most of the time, watching for an unsuspecting rabbit or chipmunk or mouse to move. Their “tell” when they’re about to take off is they hop up and turn around to face north. That’s where the prevailing breeze is coming from in nice weather and birds (and airplanes) always take off into the wind to get that extra bit of lift. This one had just turned around. Soon I’ll get a picture of one taking off. Look how red this tail is:

Look how bright that tail is! I don't see their tails very often.

Look how bright that tail is! I don’t see their eponymous tails very often.

I got a “double” on Wednesday although it’s an unlovely picture; the light is miserable and the birds are scruffy. But it’s always a treat for me to get a double. My “grail” is to get a triple – and I may be getting closer. Here’s the pair I got Wednesday:

Always happy to get two at once, even when the light is bleak

This is interesting weather wise. The picture above is time-stamped on my camera at 10:00 Wednesday morning. The picture below was taken on the same tower precisely seven hours later:

I’m amazed the weather can transform so completely in just seven hours

I am seeing lots of Northern Flickers this week, including one on the edge of the woods while I was photographing those hawks. And I saw three at Bryan Park Thursday afternoon but I didn’t have my camera with me. I’ll get my lens on one (or more) soon, they’re attractive birds.

Speaking of attractive birds, I also photographed my first Pileated Woodpecker in some time on Thursday morning at Pony Pasture but they’re crummy pictures. One might get in front of my lens soon.

Until next week,

Jay

Posted in Birds, box turtle, Fun, James River, Pony Pasture, Raccoons, raptors, Red-tailed hawks, Rivers, Turtles | Tagged bryan park, james river, nature, outdoors, Pony Pasture, Red-tailed hawks, Rivers | Leave a comment

Some weeks

Posted on October 4, 2015 by Jay McLaughlin

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

Posted in Birds, Dogs, Endurance, Fun, fungus, Pony Pasture, raptors, Red-tailed hawks, Rivers, Smiles (including "dog smiles"!) | Tagged Dogs, Fun, nature, outdoors, People, Pony Pasture, Red-tailed hawks, smile, Smiles - human AND dog smiles! | 1 Comment

Cornucopia

Posted on September 27, 2015 by Jay McLaughlin

27 September, 2015 Cornucopia

cornucopia n. 1. Greek Mythology The horn of the goat that suckled Zeus, which broke off and became filled with fruit. In folklore, it became full of whatever its owner desired. […] [emphasis added]

The Editors of the American Heritage Dictionary (2011-11-01). The Essential American Heritage Dictionary. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Kindle Edition.

This week has been a cornucopia of fun. Everything I love – friends, dogs, bicycles, food, I even got to play with firewood! Full of whatever I desired! And then some!

“Peter Sagan won the UCI men’s world championship road race in Richmond, Virginia.” – [The Guardian]

“UCI men’s elite road circuit in Richmond, Va. on Sunday, September 27, 2015″ [Richmond Times-Dispatch]

“Slovakian Sagan wins elite men’s road race at the UCI Road World Championships” –[IBID]

“Sagan completed the 162.4-mile race in a time of 6:14:37.” [IBID]

Here’s a picture I actually took this morning at the start of the race at The University of Richmond (U of R):

University of Richmond, a few minutes before the start of the Men’s Elite Road Circuit this morning – the starting line

I took this picture moments later as the peloton made their way up the hill and out of the U of R campus:

A gray day with a LOT of color

From there we moved to the Carole Weinstein International Center (what better place) to watch some of the race on television.

This was the outdoor entertainment:

International Center in a city FILLED with international cyclists

The next several pictures are pictures I took of TV screens with my iphone. So the quality is weak. But what an incredible event to watch. I started out tepid and/or lukewarm about this, believe it or not. I enjoy riding but I’d not been so fond of watching people ride. I am now a permanent semi-rabid fan. It’s hard for me to understand what it feels like to be a pro football player or baseball player or basketball. I don’t even know what it feels like to be an amateur. But I’ve spent a lot of thousands of hours working hard on my bicycle and I have a grasp of what these guys are doing. Or of the theory anyway; these guys don’t look much different than me and I’ve got a nice bike too but man. 26 mph.

When we got indoors to watch it on the monitor the leaders had nearly 250 kilometers remaining. The entire race was “only” 261.4 kilometers (162.4 miles) long, so they were just getting started. In this picture they’re climbing the cobblestones on Libby Hill for the first time:

Picture of a TV picture of the cyclists climbing the cobblestones on Libby Hill for the first time today.

Here’s another picture about 44 kilometers (27 miles) later, of the peloton going around the Lee Monument on Monument Avenue here in Richmond:

I just love seeing this in Richmond. I drive there in my car nearly every week. I think these guys were all breaking the speed limit!

This is the perfect time to insert that the winner (Peter Sagan, 25 y.o. of Slovakia) averaged an astounding 26.0 mph for the whole race. So that was around an hour later. I’ve said this in blog posts before; I hope you’re not bored with it. If you don’t ride it won’t make much difference. But if you do ride, and if you have a speedometer on your bike, you know what it feels like to go 26.0 mph. In my own case, it feels like you’re going down a really steep hill. From my perspective it is almost unfathomable to do it non stop for over six hours. As a human being who rides a bicycle a lot, it’s still hard for me to grasp. Fun, but wow. You should try riding 26 mph if you have an opportunity. I promise you will be shocked.

After we left U of R we went to our friend’s Ariel’s house with the dogs for a while and relaxed. Then home for a while, then we were off to Portico in Goochland for our friend Nancy and Larry’s wedding celebration. The race was on the TV above the bar; I have never seen so many Richmonders so riveted to a bike race. I was thrilled to see the finish.

Here is Mr. Sagan crossing the finish line:

Peter Sagan after riding his bicycle for 162.4 miles in 6 hrs, 14 minutes:

And a few seconds later; I was and am amazed:

Look at that guy. That’s how I look BEFORE I get on my bike!

I started this post off with a “cornucopia” and I’ve only put one thing on it – the bike race. And I only put today’s race on it; the UCI World Championships have been going on all week. It’s been such a cornucopia I’m tired! We went to a great party yesterday at Tree of Life and Nancy and Larry’s wedding celebration at Portico was wonderful. They sent us home with homemade cookies!

I’ll be getting out on my own bicycle this week – although I won’t see 26.0 mph on my speedometer very often. There’s a hill by the lake at West Creek; I may see 26 mph for 162 feet. If I give it everything I’ve got.

Thursday is October 1! It’ll be cooling off soon. I have a nice pile of firewood to start the autumn; the first fire will be soon:

Fun way to start the cool weather. Thanks Tim!

All best until next week,

Jay

PS Oops! This just in. In a manner of speaking. Ev and I were in Carytown Saturday picking up a few items. First to the outstanding Carytown Teas; I cannot recommend it highly enough. Second to Sheppard Street Antiques; what Carytown Teas is to tea, Sheppard Street Antiques is to antiques. The customer service, products, atmosphere and location are without equal. Outside – on the last weekend in September – there was a clump of honeysuckle (my favorite flower) growing – and it smelled as fragrant as any June bloom. What a treasure:

Delightfully summery honeysuckle - on the final Saturday in September!

Delightfully summery & fragrant honeysuckle – on the final Saturday in September!

Posted in Endurance, Fun, honeysuckle, Smiles (including "dog smiles"!) | Tagged pro cycling, uci | 8 Comments

NEWFAZE

Think too much (c)

It was just a coincidence, but still

Eating mac and cheese with chopsticks

Except for all the others

NORTHERN hospitality

The dogs sniffed me suspiciously…

Throw it up against the wall…

Making tracks

Some weeks

Cornucopia

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