I was going to do a “Macro Monday” but the photo below isn’t a macro and there’s story behind it anyway.
What you see here is a baby bluebird. A live one, fortunately.
A bluebird chick in the hand.
First, some context: a few months ago we set up a bluebird box in our front yard. Well, it’s on the other side of our driveway, a narrow stretch that is bordered street side with azaleas and our 8-foot fence opposite the street. Apparently, it’s a good spot because a pair of bluebirds have moved in and started their SECOND clutch a couple of weeks ago. We’ve never saw the first clutch of bluebirds, but during the first and with this second, we’ve enjoyed seeing Ma and Pa Bluebird take turns bringing juicy worms to the box.
Today, when I arrived home after attending a yoga class and grocery shopping, my husband came out to help me with my loot.
Then he saw the tail end of a gray rat snake hanging from the opening in the box. He quickly went into action.
He grabbed the tail but the snake wouldn’t budge. Nothing to be done but pull up the box (it’s attached to a long pole) and see if we can get the snake out.
SNAKE WARNING: the next photo shows the snake.
Gray rat snake in a bluebird box, with a bluebird chick.
Son of a b———. We could see the snake had a grip on a chick. My husband upended the box and the snake and two chicks fell out.
The snake wasted no time in slithering away. It was obvious one chick was dead, probably smothered, but the other one (see photo above) was alive.
Then, when we righted the box, we discovered two other (alive) chicks!
I slipped the chick back into the box, we placed the pole back in the ground, and then my husband put an apron-like baffler around the pole.
We already had a squirrel baffler on the pole and thought that would be enough to deter snakes. We thought wrong.
Here’s hoping that Ma and Pa Bluebird recommence with feeding their youngun’.
Meanwhile …
Wendy is doing quite well. Two weeks now with no vomiting or diarrhea. We started her on a special diet, for now mixing it with regular food, and she’s been licking her bowl clean. The last drug she’ll come off is Cerenia, for nausea. She’ll stay on PredisOLONE for life.
We have three more B12 shot appointments, but those are in-and-out, no waiting around for the vet.
A Gulf Fritillary chrysalis, from a few days ago. We didn’t get to see this guy emerge but we have had a lot of butterflies, including Gulf Fritillaries, in our garden so far this season.
Hello, everyone! Spring has arrived here in north Florida, a real feast for the eyes this year. We credit a few long, soaking rains for the abundance of color.
Magenta blooms from an azalea bush.
Close-up of a variegated pink azalea bloom.
Fat carpenter bee sucking nectar from a dark pink azalea flower.
White azalea flowers.
All together: magenta, pink, red, and white azalea flowers along our front yard.
Elsewhere in our gardens …
Bulbine with small yellow flowers and a bunch of buds.
Woodland pholx: a bushy plant with purple violet-like flowers.
Blue-eyed grass (grass with delicate blue flowers).
Pink sorrel, a type of groundcover with pink, violet-like flowers. Grows wild.
Columbine, a delicate plant with red flowers that hang like upside down tulips with yellow fronds.
Close-up of a native pink azalea, petals not yet fully open.
A bromeliad plant with several red and yellow buds poking upward.
A red buckeye bush (or tree, I hope) with small red flowers on top.
While color is bursting out all over in my little corner of the world, I’ve been busying myself with writing (more or less) and various handcrafts. I’ve knitted two pair of socks. One pair (not shown) is mostly purple. The pair below was not intended to be “mismatched.” I apparently drew from the wrong end of the yarn for one, but I really like how these turned out. I might do this kind of mistake on purpose next time.
A pair of feet clad in striped socks, colors ranging from yellow to green to red to purple.
I also sewed the bag in this photo, finally finding something to do with the fabric remnant I bought years ago. It’s called a 4-corner bag (designed by Cocoknits) and was super easy to make. I have a fetish for bags and am enjoying this one so much I might make more.
A bag made of light denim fabric with a muted flower pattern and leather straps.
Finally, we’ve done a grownup thing and bought new living room furniture. The cushions and springs of our old furniture were fairly shot after 15 years of wear and the upholstery fairly destroyed after 15 years of tear by our cats. Note: Do not buy tapestry-like upholstered furniture if you have cats.
View of a brown leather loveseat and a brown leather sofa in our living room.
Raji and Wendy were quite put out by the loss of their beloved oversized scratching posts. We eased their adjustment by installing window perches behind the loveseat. We also covered the loveseat with a little-used comforter to protect it from the sun and make it more comfortable for our cats should they desire to stretch out.
Raji (ginger cat) and Wendy (Tortieco) on their windowsill perches.
No one can say that we don’t try to do right by our kitties.
I hope all is well out there among my far-flung online community. My writing is going well enough for me. My writing course is taking a break (as scheduled) until April 1 when we’ll start Session Two with new prompts among other goodies. Life is going well for us.
We did the other grown-up thing with updating our Wills, Living Wills, and Durable Powers of Attorney for Health Care. If I learned anything in the last couple of years, it’s that you don’t want to leave your loved ones guessing.
I am continuing with my daily record of five things and decided to share today’s effort on WordPress. (For more about this prompt, read Summer’s description of the Five Things Essay here: The Five Things Essay.) For this post, the five things are about one place: St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge (aka the refuge). The refuge is located about 30 miles south of Tallahassee near the coast. It’s our favorite place to ride our bicycles (which, by the way, are getting long in years just like us). Here are five things about the refuge that we enjoyed when we went there for Thanksgiving.
Wildlife
There is wildlife in this photo, a young deer grazing. It’s almost smack dab in the middle of the scene. While I was disappointed that I didn’t get a better photo, it was exciting to have a deer nonchalantly grazing among the grasses, curious about me but not fearful. There’s no hunting allowed in the refuge although there is in the wildlife management area that borders it. We wear bright colors during hunting season since bullets don’t respect borders.
The Bayou Stony Trail
This is really my favorite part of the loop that we ride. The photo on the top shows the view as we approach the stony trail, and the next photo shows the (very much) stony trail (plus part of the front wheel of my husband’s bike). Both of these were shot with a wide-angle lens, skewing the clouds a bit. And, yes, that big bright spot in the bottom photo is the sun. The roughness of this part of the loop makes for a bumpy ride, but on this trip, we had the added disadvantage of riding into clouds of (possibly) midges (very tiny insects). Yuck. I never pedaled so hard and so relentlessly on this stretch as I did on Thanksgiving. I kept my mouth close but I was also afraid of the midges flying up my nose. Yuck again.
Ring Dike
We survived the midge swarms and made it safely to a favorite rest stop: Ring Dike. An overgrown semicircular trail takes you from the main trail to a spot with two sturdy benches by the bayou. The first photo is the view from where I was sitting. The second photo is a panaromic. You can see how lovely the day was. Interesting clouds but mostly blue sky. At Ring Dike, we always drink hot tea and munch on homemade banana bread, nuts and raisins, and Lindt dark chocolate truffles.
Buzzards
We always see a buzzard or two on our trips, but this time we saw a “wake” of buzzards. (Seriously, why the word “wake”? See Collective Nouns for Birds. Of course, there is something a bit ominous about seeing several buzzards at once). They flew in and roosted on a bare-branched tree. I thought about getting off my bike to take some pictures, but I didn’t want to spook them into flying off. Of course, riding by the tree was enough to spook them anyway, so I stopped and got a few so-so photos. Below is the best one.
Alligators
A trip to the refuge isn’t complete if we don’t see at least one alligator. Given that temperatures were on the chilly side, most alligators we saw were in the water. Riding along, I saw an ahinga (also known as a snake-bird or water turkey) drying its wings on a log. It seemed like a good photo opportunity. Then I saw the alligator off to the right.
This is perhaps the largest living alligator I have ever seen, at least in recent memory. Greg estimates it was about eight feet long. EIGHT FEET LONG! Fortunately, there was a body of water between us and it so I didn’t have to be shy about taking photos. Still, the one photo I didn’t get was when the gator decided to turn around and I saw all its teeth. I was standing yards away but I saw ALL ITS TEETH. Then it slipped into the water, leaving a few inches of its tail exposed on the land. Kind of like when our cat Wendy wraps herself up in her fleecy blanket but leaves her feet sticking out. Kind of … but not quite.
So, now I can say I completed my five things prompt (or essay or draft or whatever you want to call it). I hope you enjoyed the photos. We’re planning another bike trip this week, and it will be colder than last week. I’ll be looking for alligators, but unless there’s a sunny spot on land (preferably not on the trail), they’ll likely be in the water. Stay tuned, and thank you for reading.
By chance I came across this website and photo challenge: https://shareandconnect.wordpress.com/2021/04/10/lapc-4/ It’s an “old” challenge in that another challenge has already been made, but I consider the find serendipitous nonetheless. Here is my colorful April:
On a recent visit to Timberlane Ravine park, we found evidence of a whimsical and delightful imagination a few yards in from the trailhead.
These figurines were positioned around one downed log. Initially we thought someone had left some trash behind (cynics that we are) but we quickly realized that the objects were strategically placed around the log.
My only regret is that I couldn’t get photos as good as I wanted. I would have had to lower myself to the ground and I wasn’t about to do that. Two days after the last time I got down and dirty on this trail, I found a tick adhered to the inside of my thigh.
Whoever left these figurines had to have known the delight they would be giving to park visitors. And they left the best message for those exiting the park.
Indeed, Love.
I hope you enjoyed these figurines in a park setting as much as we did.
Stay safe and well. Hope is out there. You just have to keep your eyes open and look for it.
Last Friday we went on another bike ride to the St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge. Practice makes near-perfect. I’m becoming more comfortable riding bikes which is a good thing since my knees and feet no longer want to walk the miles we used to at the Refuge.
I rode bikes when I was growing up in New York, but I’m wasn’t then and am not now mechanically inclined. Cue my husband who patiently provides guidance on how to adjust the front and back derailleurs so I don’t fatigue my legs to the point of exhaustion … which is what I was doing on this latest bike ride.
The wind was against us … literally … until we got off the bayous trails and turned right toward the Pinhook River. The bayou trails can be grassy and soft. At one point I was riding slow, got distracted and felt my bike come to a stop. Now, for me, if my bike comes to a stop when I’m not ready, that can only mean one thing: I’m going to fall. Luckily, I was able to get my right toes on the ground. Unluckily, I was stuck on my seat. If I moved my right foot, I would fall. So I yelled to my husband and he came to the rescue, holding my bike handles until I could ease myself off the seat.
Luckily, no one but my husband was around to witness my humiliation.
The second time, I wasn’t so lucky and, more unluckily, I fell while on a small concrete bridge where we had stopped to take a break. I’m not sure what happened, only that I had gotten on my bike, the front tire turned when I didn’t want it to, and I couldn’t press the pedals hard enough to put the bike back in motion. I knew I was going to fall, and I did. Pretty hard on my right knee and elbow. Luckily, it was a cool day so I had layers on, although my knee still got some serious road rash (it’s been over a week and the scrape is still healing while the area below my knee displays a changing palette of yellows, blues, and purples).
After these two episodes of near- and definite falling, I adjusted my derailleurs per my husband’s suggestions.
I took fewer photos on this trip. I was too busy enjoying the views. The thistles were still in glorious abundance, alligators were here and there (but mostly there, thankfully), and the day was just lovely.
These photos were taken early on our ride, where the thistles were plentiful. You all know I’ve got a jones for close-ups, especially when insects are about.
See how industrious and tenacious this little busy bee was.
Here’s a panoramic at the intersection of a couple of trails. You can see why we keep coming back.
A view of the other side of the trail to the left.
On our way back to the car, we stopped for a moment and I took this photo. The light seemed particularly lovely right there.
And now for a Raji update!
Your eyes do not lie. That’s Raji and Junior “spooning.” Now, Junior really wasn’t thrilled that Raji wanted to snuggle, but we thought it was adorable! Every day we say how lucky we are that Raji is Raji: a lover, not a fighter. He’s also getting used to being petted, brushed and picked up. When he lived in the garage, he loved to be petted and brushed. When he came into the house, he shied away from both activities for a long while, but we’re wearing him down with love and patience.
Hope you all are well, happy, and healthy. Stay safe!
Monday (March 29) we went for a bike ride at the St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge. As you all know, the Refuge is my favorite part of north Florida. It’s a magical place full of birds, insects, flowers, trees, marshes, swamps, turtles, and alligators, to name a few of my favorite things. Without further ado …
Thistles, specifically, the Horrible Thistle (Cirsium horridulum)–no doubt named for it’s spiny stem and leaves–lined the trails we rode on. We had a slow start on our ride because both of us had to stop and take photos.
In all the years we’ve visited the Refuge, we’ve never seen so many thistles.
Insects were enjoying them too. I guess you could say there was a lot of pollinating going on.
Other wildflowers and creatures were in abundance as well.
Sagittaria platyphylla
Southern Fleabane, Aster family
My favorite frog, the tree frog, delta duck potato (that’s the Sagittaria platyphylla) and southern fleabane.
We took the long way around, over the farthest dike which I don’t believe I had been on before. We’ve traveled these trails by foot many times, but usually taking the dikes more inland. As we went back inland, more thistles.
A bald eagle on *his* tree. The majority of times we’ve come out here, he’s perched on that branch.
More water. I know there’s alligators in those waters, but often I wish we would ply our canoe around the marshy area.
It looks serene. Not too far from this spot, there is a primitive camping area. My husband said he’d like to camp there someday. Lovely idea … if only we didn’t have bad knees and bad backs and I wasn’t afraid of gators on land.
I could see he had a big grin, as if to say, “Come on in. The water’s fine!” No, thank you.
I think this guy was playing hide-and-seek. No matter where I walked, his head was hidden by the reeds. Fortunately, he’s too large to be completely hidden.
We saw a couple of other gators on our ride, but they were actually ON the trail so there was no stopping for photo ops. We just kept spinning our wheels and holding our breaths until we were clear.
Ah, life in North Florida. Even Raji likes St. Marks.
Ha ha ha … I LOVE photography apps! I made this photo of Raji at St. Marks with the Superimpose Classic app. It only costs $1.99, and this is the first photo merge I’ve done. I’m so happy with it, I had to put my name on it ;)
I hope you enjoyed the trip. Another one will be coming up soon!
I hope you all are well, healthy, happy, and vaccinated (if not now, then soon).
You know the day goes by pretty fast when I affix myself in front of my computer. I was going to wax all poetic about the flowers I’ve been photographing lately, but, my, it’s late in my day. Pretty soon the four amigos will start checking in on us as we work away in our separate rooms and make clear that dinner time is near.
I’m happy to say that I believe I’ve recovered from the dreaded UTI of last week. I do have some fatigue occasionally from the pollen that blankets our house and cars (and somehow finds its way into our dining room and kitchen). My fingers are crossed that April’s showers will wash that pollen away and the oaks will stop (please!) releasing the pollen.
As my time is short (far be it from me to keep the fur beasts from their evening meal), I’ll simply share a couple of photos of the Blue Flags that can be found at the pond (or stormwater facility that it truly is).
According to the National Audubon Society’s Field Guide to Florida, these are Anglepod Blue Flags or “Prairie Iris” (Iris hexagona var. savannarum). Whatever they are called, they are pretty and a delight for the heart and soul.
I hope everyone is well, happy and safe, and that more of you are getting vaccinated every day.
My husband doesn’t like my math. He’s argued that, with respect to a countdown, this should be week 1, not week 0. But it is the week in which I become untethered, set adrift. To me, it’s a 0.
In a perfect world, it would be a relaxing week, the last three-and-a-half days of employment spent tidying up my desk (or my desktop as it is), having casual chats with coworkers over Microsoft Teams, skipping down memory lane during a phone call or two. But we all know it’s not a perfect world.
I will spend most of my remaining days in meetings, either assisting in kickstarting new assignments or transitioning old assignments to new people. I will likely put in a bit more than my regular hours, but will stop on Thursday shortly after my surprise retirement party.
By the way, if you want to surprise someone with a retirement party, do not display “Marie’s Retirement Party” on your Outlook calendar, especially since Marie is often responsible for setting up meetings and, thus, is likely to see it.
About noon, I will shutdown my laptop, gather it and all its necessary peripherals and make the commute that I haven’t had to make in almost a year.
With any luck, the only person I will see at the office will be D. to whom I’ll hand over the state government property and engage in a brief exit interview. Then, weather permitting, I plan to take a walk around the ponds and see if there is any trash to pick up.
After that, who knows?
Well, I do know that I’ll be studying iPhone photography again, tending to my plants, and taking walks in my neighborhood and beyond. For now, there’s plenty catching my eye around my hood, starting with my front yard which hasn’t been mowed in months. (Greg wants to sweep for insects before he mows.)
Some might call this delicate flower a weed but I call it … a delicate flower.
Our azaleas are starting to bloom but in fits and starts. We’ve never taken the time to shape our azalea bushes as some do. They’re a bit scraggly right now but only for now.
A nearby neighbor’s Dogwood is in partial bloom. Years ago I was driving along a road lined with Dogwoods in full flower, all snowy white and surreal. This Dogwood has a ways to go, but it’s early yet.
Now, if anyone knows what the bush below is, please tell me in the comments! I think it’s gorgeous but I don’t know what it is.
I suppose since it’s on the street side of the fence, I could steal a snip and take it to my local nursery for ID. But I’d rather not. Usually there’s two yappy dogs in that yard. They put up a ruckus even when I’m way over on the other side of the street. I hate to think what noise they’d make if they saw me so close to their fence.
The next few days will be an emotional roller-coaster. We weren’t able to hire a replacement for me so I’ll be feeling some guilt at leaving my staff with no buffer between them and “the boss.” I know that guilt will leave me as soon as I leave the office building for the last time, but I have to get there first.
My staff are a tight team, dedicated, creative, and industrious. They will be fine. And I will miss them. These last few months as their section administrator was the first time in a very long time that I felt part of something, that I felt I was really making a difference, maybe not so much in the world of public health, but at least in the work lives of these truly wonderful people.
So I do feel some sadness at leaving and a part of me is wishing I wouldn’t leave, that I could stay and shepherd them a while longer. But I’d be breaking my commitment to my husband if I did that. What makes me truly sad is the knowledge that no matter how much my staff feel they need me (maybe not me personally, but the constancy, the continuity of my presence), I just don’t have the mental and emotional will to carry these responsibilities much longer. I’m not a weak person. I’ve proven that.
I just don’t like my job. It’s nothing personal, nothing to do with my staff as I obviously think the world of them. It hit home a few days ago when I was revising the job announcement for my position. I realized that I never would have applied for such a job and yet here I was, doing exactly what I had intended not to do.
And then there’s my husband who’s willing to live as simply as we need to in order for me to retire. Gotta love that guy. And this guy:
That’s right, folks! Time for a Raji update. As you can see, he’s become rather relaxed around us. He drives our other cats crazy during feeding time because he paces and rubs against each of them! He has no fear. Whenever Maxine or Wendy slap at him, he looks at them like, “What? Don’t you find me cute and adorable?”
Raji and Junior are now pals, chasing each other up and down the hallways. At some point over the past week, Junior’s bullying turned into playing. I believe Raji has helped Junior to discover his inner kitten.
My dear friends, thank you for reading. Thank you for still visiting me although I haven’t been visiting you. I might be soon set adrift (in a good way) from my job, but you all keep me moored. Love you to the moon and back. Stay safe, well, and embrace happiness.
Raji spent Friday night inside the house with us. The temps were in the low 30s and we were disinclined to heat the garage again. As you know, Raji has been spending more and more time in our house, eating his meals on the other side of a bookcase from Junior. He had gotten to the point where he’d dash into the house as soon as I opened the door to the garage in the morning. Although he still loves going into the garage and checking out his play cage on that side of the house, you just can’t beat a screened-in back porch for entertainment.
I’m happy, no, I’m thrilled to say that his first sleepover was successful! I was prepared to be woken in the middle of the night by blood-curdling screams and yowls.
Didn’t happen. Nope, I actually slept pretty good that night, and when I woke the next day, all was quiet. Mind you, the cat door to the back porch was open, giving the cats more personal space even if it was cold. And my husband left the door to his rooms open (after making sure they were more or less Raji-proof) so, again, more personal space. None of my cats like closed doors. They see a closed door and they will fuss and bang until it’s opened.
So he slept inside again the next night, and, again, all was quiet until about 7 am when Raji came into my room and briefly mewed. He’s a quick learner. I am the primary feeder; therefore, if he wants to eat, he has to wake me up.
I feel so very, very fortunate that everyone is getting along … or at least tolerating each other’s presence … well, except for Maxine, but she hates all other felines anyway.
I managed to get out for a couple of neighborhood walks this week. On one, I took the time to admire our somewhat small but still lovely magnolia. I love the blooms, but I might love the buds more.
Light is everything when it comes to photography, at least for me as a newbie. Our tree had plenty of buds to photograph, but the light had to be just right to get a good shot. If the light is not good, no amount of editing is going to improve a blurry image. I am really pleased with how the photos of the buds came out.
On Saturday I went for an early evening walk. I had been tidying up the house all morning, then ran a couple of errands in the afternoon. I almost didn’t make my walk because I was tired, but Greg was still out on his bike ride, so I just made myself do it. I’m so glad I did.
It was the Golden Hour and I was walking on an easement between two houses. I had been picking up trash and had a full trash bag; but when I happened to look up and see the light, I dropped the bag and pulled out my iPhone. I love these pictures but they don’t do justice to the beauty of the sunlight on the trees and the half-moon against a blue sky.
I’m down to nine days left at my job. We’ve been very busy so, for my staff’s sake, I’m glad I didn’t take the month off as I had planned. I was able to pitch in and carry some of the load, but at the same time I am learning to let go … as I should.
While I do worry sometimes about being on a fixed income, at least I know I’ll never need to buy expensive cats toys and beds.
Thank you for reading! I hope my friends in all the states that have been hit by these brutal winter storms are well and safe, and that spring will soon be here for you.
Raji snoozing on the screened back porch. I think he really feels at home now.
Marie at 1 Write Way 