Just checking in

So I'm feeling pretty guilty about not having appeared here for months (!) after being so gung-ho about blogging regularly again. After a bit of reflection, I realize that I was mostly enthusiastic about others blogging regularly again. ;-) I've been busy with the new job, of course, and busy sitting on my butt in the air-conditioning. This knee thing has really thrown me for a loop and I'm just now getting to feel better after a month of physical therapy. Why that dopey doctor I went to didn't recommend it for me, I don't know. I'm just glad I decided to be proactive after suffering for 3 months with barely any progress and so grateful to have good health insurance to pay for it. It's really made all the difference in my ability to function like a regular person again.

We've planned a camping trip this weekend and I'm looking forward to hopefully being able to hike without pain. Other than work and physical therapy, I haven't done much so far this summer other than try to avoid the heat. I still don't know how people stand it here - I've got major cabin-fever! We're sharing season tickets for the Braves and have been going to a couple of evening games each month. We're discovering new favorite places to have breakfast on the weekends. We're eating ice cream more often than is probably healthy. My brother and his family came to visit for a couple days at the beginning of July - it was super great to see them and to show off some of the fun things we do here in the A. I've been reunited with my dog Luka from that other life and just last week said goodbye to the senior shelter dog, Sadie, that we adopted only four years ago. I bought myself a new camera lens - a super wide angle - and look forward to playing with that in the future. J and I went out the weekend that I bought it to take some photos of the tall buildings in midtown Atlanta, but ended up at the High Museum of Art as a way to escape the heat and enjoy some free air conditioning. I'm not much of an art museum type, but I enjoy the High and it's folk and modern art.

The photo that accompanies this post was taken there. I plan to be back here in a couple days to share some memories of Sadie - once we're back from camping in the mountains where hopefully it'll be cool!

Calling all zombies!

This photo has nothing to do with the subject of my post, but.... cute kitty!

So!

A couple of friends on FB have been lamenting the demise of our blogs. We all seem to mostly agree that, coupled with life changes or varying degrees of laziness/lack of interest, the popularity and ease of Facebook put the final nail in the coffin of what was a very happy time in our lives. All the writing. All the sharing. All the feels.

;-)

We miss blogging and we miss our blogging community. Some still blog regularly, some occasionally, some never do - but a couple of us have decided to give it a go again and see if we can't get back some of the magic that we used to share here, in this way. Isn't that exciting?!?

Wonderful sweet Jayne suggested that prompts might be helpful to get our writing juices flowing again, if need be. I like the idea of prompts, so long as they're not too restrictive, or too predictable. So in thinking about it and considering how much we all seem ready to write / talk / make excuses (?) for why we STOPPED blogging, it occurred to me that an interesting prompt might be to think and write about why we STARTED blogging. Others of you may have already addressed this at some point in your blogging career, but I don't think I ever have...

So what do y'all say? Can this prompt lead you somewhere interesting? Will you join us as we try to resurrect our dead or dying blogs? Zombie Bloggers Unite!

:-)

Comment here if you're in!  We'll promise to read and give feedback; that has to be part of the bargain if we're to feel like a community again.

Many, many thanks... I've missed you!

Shine on

I was the-lady-behind-the-snowy-owl in a thousand photos taken that night!

Given the opportunity, I'll complain to most anyone who'll listen about how much I hate living in the city, but I have to admit (however grudgingly!) that it does have its perks, one of which is the Lantern Parade. It's such a fun event and is unique to ATL...

It feels like everyone in the city comes out and it's a crazy riot of colorful people (and their mostly homemade lanterns) and music. A group of us from the Atlanta Audubon Society walked the two mile route together with our lanterns decorated with birds - mine had monarch butterflies - along with an estimated 15K others. It's a wonderful event for the community; participants come up with a crazy, creative variety of ways to add color and light to the parade and people line the pathway and rooftops to watch. It's held each year to celebrate the opening of Art on the Beltline, an exhibition that I hope to post about later in the week.

I found the video below to give you a peak at the view from above... I especially like the dusk shots at the beginning with the skyline in the background and at the end from the after parade party in Piedmont Park!


Atlanta Beltline Lantern Parade 2014 - Filmed By American Drone Industries from E.T. Phoned Home on Vimeo.

Art Seen (Erased)

"Each person can take it the way they want to, because it is for everyone ...and at the end, if it gets painted over, know that the gray paint will not hide the fears of no one, but if anything, it will make those fears more visible" - Hyuro

Photo from Creative Loafing

"Paint on this wall made for a beautiful mural, people talking about it made for a beautiful conversation. A public space was created and all of a sudden this dead intersection became more human. The mural belonged to all of us, to the ones that liked it and to the ones that didn't, it was our dialogue, it was our challenge, but now it's gone. Now we are back to ignoring that space again, now we are back at thinking that erasing the evidence will make us think this never happened..." - Monica Campana, Founder and Executive Director of Living Walls

I never had the chance to see Hyuro's mural before it was buffed over. The neighborhood didn't understand its message or was threatened by the nudity it depicted. In its 37 "frames", a woman grew fur and shed her coat; she then morphed into a wolf and walked off. I'm not sure that I understand its message either, but I can see clearly the value of such art, if only in its assault on the blight that is most of Atlanta.  I'm not sure of what anyone could find so terribly offensive in the almost cartoon-like images of this mural, especially considering what we're all exposed to on tv and in print media, every day.

I'm not sure, either, that you have to like a particular piece of art in order for it to improve your quality of life. What say you?

The sunflower farm

Boy... time sure does fly when you're not paying attention!

I was about to tell you about our visit to The Sunflower Farm, but then, poof! and 3 weeks had gotten away from me.

There's an actual festival here each summer, but I've yet to brave the heat and the crowds to attend. As it is, no matter how mild you think a particular day is, once you're out in the middle of that ten acre field, it's hotter than blazes!

The farm itself is beautiful and is a picture-maker's delight. I first heard about the place because so many photo groups visit it. I go to pick flowers, tho.

I'm not sure there's anything more cheerful than a field of sunflowers, except maybe for the bees and birds that visit it.

: )

I wondered aloud to the farmer if they sell the leavings for birdseed.

Nope, but they sometimes hunt the doves that are drawn to the seeds in the fall. That's okay, too.

There's plenty to photograph, here. Red (and green) tractors, old farm tools and a beautiful hummingbird garden. There's even an enchanted forest nestled on the back of the property. And if you want directions to the little local place that sells the best homemade strawberry-cream cheese fried pies, just ask!

Plus, you get to keep as many sunflowers as you can carry away for $15.

: )

That makes for many old mason jar bouquets.

If looks could kill...

another grumpy PAWS Atlanta adoptable kitty!

"I dare you to take a flattering photo of me!"

Probably this is not her best look.

: )

Aside from the obvious cattitude, I need help from my photography friends with black cats and dogs. Unless there's sun streaming onto their fur, they so often look... well, blech! What can I do about that? Any hints?

Does this photo make me look more adoptable?

So I've been taking photos of some of the adoptable dogs and cats for the PAWS Atlanta website for a couple of months now. I started volunteering there shortly after we adopted Sadie. At first, I assisted their photographer by helping with equipment set-up and herding the animals during their photo shoot, but after a while the regular photographer moved away and I was promoted to full-fledged official volunteer pet photographer.

; )

As volunteer gigs go, it's pretty sweet! I don't have the fancy studio set-up that the other guy did and I don't usually have an assistant and I mostly don't know what the heck I'm doing, but it's so much fun! And oftentimes there are puppies and kittens to be photographed and loved on and snuggled some, too!

The cats are often a challenge, though. Or they're a different sort of challenge than the dogs. The last couple visits I've been met with running, hiding, hissing and spitty kitties. I try to reason with them, but not being a cat person, I can't seem to get them to understand that they're not doing themselves any favors by looking so... so... dangerous! 

; )

I would encourage anyone with photography skills and a love for animals to consider offering your talents to a local shelter. The time spent befriending the animals (even the meanest of scaredy-cats) is therapeutic to us both, I think, on a personal level as well as in the quality of the photos. A happy, comfortable animal makes for a more beautiful photo; both of which make their adoption more likely!

You can see the pets currently available for adoption at PAWS (as well as some of my photos of them) by clicking here.

Building a better taco

As a kid, I loved having tacos for dinner, but could hardly convince my dad to ever make them. I guess assembling all the proper parts was too much trouble. What I'm sharing tonight are not tacos, but something better, I think.

Jay calls these "Poor Man's Tostadas" and we had them for the first time last week before our first Braves game of the season. They came together quickly and were delicious! We started with a corn tostada instead of a taco shell... important to the stability of the end product, I think. We used warmed refried beans spread in a thin layer over the tostada as the base for the yummy things and as a "glue" to hold it all together.

We made a meat-free version, hence the "poor man" title, with boiled carrots and potatoes in place of any meat. On top of that we added a crumbly Mexican cheese called queso fresco, diced tomatoes and diced jalapenos.

The final touches were sour cream, fresh cilantro and a green tomatillo salsa.  All very yummy!

A proper approach is necessary, so that you don't lose the whole thing in your lap. It's definitely worth the trouble balancing it all, though. I'm trying to dream up something besides potatoes and carrots that might be used as an alternate... any ideas?

These days

I'd been waiting ever so patiently (not) for that glorious day that felt like Spring for the first time and it finally came on Saturday last. I sat in the sun for a couple hours and finished the latest Barbara Kingsolver book. It's a good one; I'd recommend it, especially when combined with some overdue sunshine.

I seem to have lost all tolerance for cold weather. Probably that happened around the time that I moved here and threw away most all of my winter clothing in the process.

Spring happens differently here... everything is coming into bloom at once. Daffodils and Redbud and Forsythia and Azalea are all screaming for my attention at the same time.  It's hard to relish any one thing.

In an ongoing effort to keep myself busy, I'm starting volunteer training later this week to be a docent for Trees Atlanta in their Beltline Arboretum program. I'm doing this so that I can lead bird walks on the Beltline for Atlanta Audubon and be able to sound as intelligent about trees and art and the history of Atlanta as I do about birds. We'll see how that goes.

: )

I've been reading a lot of cooking blogs these days and I think that, more than anything, this attests to just how out of sorts I'm feeling. I hate cooking, remember? I do enjoy reading about it, though, and enjoy the excuse of trying out a new recipe because I saw it on a favorite blog. Anyone have a good cooking blog to share? The blogs I enjoy the most are written by people who seem to approach cooking the way I do... as something like a science experiment. I like reading about their failures and mistakes because it makes me feel less incompetent myself...

Do you like scones? I have a couple recipes that I use often... a favorite is maple walnut scones. I tried dressing them up a couple weeks back with frozen blueberries that were leftover from some we'd picked last summer. I was wholly disappointed with the results... those frozen blueberries had no flavor whatsoever!

It turned out that the frozen blueberries I'd used were actually black beans. Ask me what they were doing in the freezer. Ask me, too, how I didn't realize they were black beans instead of blueberries.

It's good to be able to laugh these days.

A picnic indoors

We went for afternoon tea yesterday at Glenridge Hall with some other supporters of Atlanta Audubon... we'd "won" the opportunity to be treated to this special event by bidding in a silent auction at the 40th Anniversary Gala back in October.

Never having been to tea in a multi-million dollar mansion before, I was a little stressed out about what to wear and whether it was proper to eat the finger sandwiches with my hands and so forth, but it turns out that afternoon tea, like Alice Walker says, is really just an indoor picnic.

With fine china, of course.

: )

We also were treated to a tour of the place, which was a lot of fun. We're hoping to schedule a couple bird walks on the property this spring, so if you're in the neighborhood (Jayne!) keep your ears open for more information.

Here birdy, birdy...

We spent the early morning hours on Saturday with Georgia's IBA (Important Bird Area) Coordinator and some of his volunteers. They were out at Panola Mountain State Park to band sparrows.

We met before the sun was up and were pleased to see and hear American Woodcock doing their flight display over the grassy fields of Panola.

Here birdy, birdy...

I'm not sure how much you all know about how birds are caught and banded, so I played Kenny Kodak and took pictures of the process to make myself feel useful. I'm a bit too squeamish about it to actually handle the birds myself...

Mist nests are erected in likely habitat and then checked by volunteers every thirty minutes.

Removing birds from the nets is a very delicate process. Volunteers are trained over the course of years to learn how it's done.

The birds are then placed in soft cotton bags until they're processed by the bander.

As a side note... a couple years ago at Jekyll Island, where Charlie also bands birds, they did a study of the droppings left in the bags in order to better understand what specific plants birds were making use of in the local habitat. Neat, huh?!?

A bucket o' birds!

This is my favorite part of the banding process... Charlie is blowing air on the bird's keel to check for fat... you can actually see the fat deposited there when the feathers are blown out of the way. He rates the amount of fat each bird has and records it, along with the expected info like weight, wing measurements, sex, signs of molt and how much the flight feathers are worn down. The band number is recorded and the bird is set to fly away, back to its weedy patch of home.

Another quiz!

We have the idea that going to these banding sessions might actually help us learn to better identify sparrows, but I'm not so sure. Even though I know these are two different varieties of sparrow, I can hardly recognize the field marks that differentiate them! Anyone care to guess?

The morning wasn't all about LBJ's though...

Eye candy!

Bags and bucket in hand, the volunteers head back to check the nets again...

Gardening in a furnace

"One of the most delightful things about a garden is the anticipation it provides." --W.E. Johns

Finally (!) I'm starting to feel overrun with tomatoes. Luckily, it's the cherry tomatoes that are first to bear and those disappear easily enough. Better than half of what's ripe at each visit is devoured before I even leave the community garden with the day's harvest. I munch away while I water and while I weed. Makes all the sweat seem so much more worthwhile somehow.

: )

I planted a bunch of heirloom tomatoes... Rutgers was the first of the "big" tomatoes to ripen, but I haven't tasted one yet. Each one I've brought home has mysteriously disappeared before I got a bite! The first of the lovely pink Brandywines is almost ready... those are a favorite and will be hidden away in my purse, if necessary!

The heat of the sun here is something else... like gardening in a furnace! I'm surprised anything survives, really. I'm approaching this first summer as little more than an experiment to see what'll grow and how well. Cucumbers did well, but the vines have turned to dust in the last week. Just as well... I was getting a bit overwhelmed with them. The summer squash looked beautiful and I got half a dozen that I still need to cook, but the plants were overrun with bugs. I'm still waiting on the peppers. I also planted tomatillos for the first time... anyone know anything about them? Lots of flowers, but no fruit set. Curious.

I spend some time at each visit just wandering around the garden, enjoying being around growing things. I think that's what I like most about being there. I love to see what other people are growing and how well their vegetables are doing. There's a couple of beehives maintained by students... those are fun to look in on. Plenty of bluebirds and towhees, too, keeping the bugs at bay.

It's supposed to be 106 this Saturday... you'll find me somewhere shady, for sure.

Plover party

We had a little potluck party this evening to celebrate a successful nesting season for "our" Piping Plovers at Seven President's Park... there was beer and pizza and homegrown tomatoes with basil and mozarella and homemade wine...

We plover monitors had logged better than 1500 volunteer hours (75~ of them myself) and babysat 4 healthy chicks throughout the beach season.

Wow!

I didn't take very many people pix while out on the beach, but this random beach-goer typifies the amused sort of tolerance of our antics we've trained the public into...

Can't you just see him wondering what all the fuss is about?

Endangered birds... what birds? Where?

: )

Linda is a veteran at this... she and I spent many an evening together at opposite ends of the beach shepherding people away from the chicks.

Click and look closely for two tiny young chicks feeding at her feet!

Marie is another volunteer that I spent a lot of time with... study her posture... she was fierce with young surfers who didn't think they had to follow everyone else's rules on "their" beach...

I had to include this pic of a plover chick running across my beach towel, just because...

: )

Someone on FB linked to an article in just the last couple days that almost suggested that Piping Plovers might do better on very peopled beaches... I wonder if that might not be true...

Public education can be our greatest advantage if we leverage it properly...

Anyway...

The party tonight was fun, but I think we all left wondering what we'll do with ourselves all winter...

: )

Going, going, gone

The photos I took on 30 July will likely be the last of the baby Piping Plovers...

; (

All 4 babies and their dad were still at the beach on 4 August, but my camera battery was dead...

; (

That evening, while we watched, 3 of them took a very serious-looking flight straight out over the ocean. It was the first prolonged flight I'd witnessed and it looked to me like they meant to head straight for the Bahamas.

; )

They came back, but I've heard since that dad and two of the babies have left for points south. 2 chicks were still around as of yesterday... I hope to get back for a couple last shots, but...

Seven President's Park is the only place in Monmouth County, besides Sandy Hook, that had Piping Plovers this season... and the season was a huge success for our pair!

; )

Suddenly

Adolescence is, perhaps, nature's way of preparing parents to welcome the empty nest.

~Karen Savage and Patricia Adams, The Good Stepmother

Teenagers!

A little awkward and gawky... they don't mind boundaries well, anymore, or their parent's alarm call... and they're as likely to amble unawares into a group of Greater Black-Backs as to snuggle sweetly under dad's wing... they nap together during the hottest part of the afternoon and then scatter to the wind to feed as the sun sets.

It's getting harder to keep track of them... harder to tell them apart from their dad at a distance.

It's been a full week since I've seen them... and suddenly they have wings... suddenly they're plovers.

(g)

I will not cry

There was an evening last week, before the heat wave descended, when the beach was cool and thick with fog, like it is when the Piping Plovers first return in March.

I had to search hard to find my little charges, so completely gray was their world; the sky, sea and sand blending into nothingness.

I've come to know these birds for the little flashes of light that precede them. Their movement, on the periphery of my awareness, is the only thing that gives them away.

They seemed suddenly fearful that evening, aware of my presence and the camera pointed their way. They approached, hesitant in their feeding along the waterline, and skittered past me quickly.

This, too, is a part of their growing up, I guess.

Mama Plover has been gone for almost two weeks now, leaving them in the care of their father. He is even more vigilant since, calling the alarm at my approach and distracting me away from his chicks with a game of hide and seek in the sand.

A part of me wants to play that game with him, to see just where, exactly, he might distract me away to...

Instead I step back and stay away and try to remain separate. These four chicks are not mine. I'm not totally in love with them. I will not miss them, already, before they've learned to fly and are gone as the goldenrod sweeps over the dunes.

I will not cry at their growing up.

Shade x 4

I was only able to stand a couple hours on the beach in yesterday's ridiculously hot temps, but was glad to see the plover chicks had managed to find some respite from the sun.

: )

Anyone know how much heat is radiated off of beach sand in full sun when air temps are 100+ degrees?

Watch me grow!

If I'm not careful, I'm going to have to change the name of this blog to "The Daily Plover".

: )

These are some of my favorite pix from the past week. Understand that nearly every photo is a favorite and I take upwards of 100 photos of these babies each time I'm out with them. I'm considering wallpapering my place with them I have so many!

We're still watching over 4 chicks; we try not to hover and worry too close, but if you sit still enough they'll scuttle right past your toes. This afternoon I was sure one was going to invite itself into someone's beach bag!

They're 3 weeks old now and have the funniest tail feathers... little duck butts! I saw the largest of the 4 testing its wings a bit this afternoon in the high dunes... it won't be long before they're flying.

Gulls continue to be a source of anxiety for us all... you need only see one carry away a tern chick one time to understand how quickly a gull can act when the opportunity presents itself. The public is still mostly supportive and cooperative, save for the occasional gang of teenage boys or the dopes on cell phones who think the rules don't apply to them. I've had to use my teacher voice a lot in the last couple days!

At a premium

This past weekend marked the point in the chicks' growth where all four of them no longer fit so easily under mom/dad plover... so they had to find shade elsewhere!

Here they're hunkered down in the sand at the base of the ropes demarcating the closed area of the beach... in front of them is the 25 foot "buffer zone" we roped off once the chicks hatched. Beyond that is open beach and the blazing sun.

For adult eyes only

So... this Least Tern flies into a busy colony, finds a single girl looking lonely and offers her a fish...

; )

The fish is waved endlessly about in a teasing sort of way...

Notice how possession of the fish has changed ownership at this point in the dance...

; )

This is what I meant by "flirting with fish"... a slightly voyeuristic pleasure I've been able to enjoy and share with the casual unsuspecting beach-goer over the last couple weeks.

: )

It's been fun to point out the naughtiness that's taking place right under their sunburned noses...

So while a number of Least Terns continue to mate, the chicks of their neighbors are beginning to test their wings to fly for the first time... I'm looking forward to that in the coming week!

At one point late in the afternoon yesterday, something panicked the colony and set all the adults to the air and every last chick running toward the shoreline, toward the boundary of their protected area, toward the open beach and the kite-flying, volleyball-playing, sun-marinated and clueless public.

I'm not quite ready for that, yet.