Hungry we Come…

I for beauty, they for food, we both ended up in the garden, the chickadees and I, in this little patch above the stone wall where  burgundy bush beans and basil shared their bed all summer with a trio of sunflowers, a row of marigolds and some aphid-ridden calendula.P1190124P1190127P1190131

The joy of distraction was the story of my morning—there at my newly appointed writing desk I sat looking out the window alternately with writing.  A glorious bough of oak leaves translucent with morning sun hangs just above my head,IMG_20151016_122130106_HDR letting loose every so often, a leaf to catch my eye in its sashaying descent.

Have you ever caught a picture of a falling leaf?

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Me either.  But I’ve been wanting to!  Perhaps today?  But no, must…sit…still…and…write…

Then came the chickadee.P1190047P1190075

The rest of the morning is history, spent with the warm sun at my back, my camera poised, chickadee calls in my ears…taking pictures, lots of pictures…of distant blobs barely detectable as birds, of dead sunflowers, of dead airspace where once there was a bird (or a falling leaf), of green and gold backdrops and drooping sunflowers…of the blur of wingbeats…

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and finally of actual chickadees, who let me approach to within a couple arm lengths P1190105

and who turned out to be quite the saucy posers, as curious of me as I of them.

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We both went about our business in the end.

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They got my seeds, I their pictures.

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A morning well spent ( :

leaves falling (I even caught some leaves in free-fall!)

So glad am I for the digital age where literally hundreds of shots can be taken and discarded in pursuit of the one that captures what the eye sees…For I am no  photographer, only a poser who persists out of hunger to capture the beauty…

And I’m so glad I planted sunflowers! ( :

–LS

 

This chorale piece seems fitting…

…each little bird that sings, the Lord God made them all….

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlhV80QPUuI

Flutter-bies and Friends…

P1170987 P1170915I got to go ‘birding’ again last week.  We hiked along a little string of lakes and wetlands and listened for birds… My most interesting find was the American Three-toed Woodpecker, apparently not a common find for most people—yay! I spotted something (though I had to be told what it was!)

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I must confess I was soon distracted by things more easily seen and photographed–

like this “White Bog Orchid”…

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And these sweet fairy bells—”Twinflowers”

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And trying to name the trees.P1170939

And by the last stop I found myself stalking unidentified butterflies and dragonflies through a meadow-like marsh quite oblivious to birdsong…

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And all this before ten in the morning.

Wonderful way to start the day!

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–LS

Many, O LORD my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered. Ps.40:5 KJV

Don’t Drink and Fly…

The Ash tree was aflutter with bird song and feasting earlier this week.

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It’s silent now, the berries consumed.

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I stepped out to find this lifeless form on the table at the sliding glass door–

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–stark reminder of the perils of partying in excess.

They tell me birds regularly gorge on these berries to intoxicating degrees.  And crashes often result.  Poor robin… I was so glad to see him and his kin in the spring.

Now it is fall.IMG_20140928_152427401Sigh.

–LS

“But watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap. … But stay awake at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.” Luke 21:34,36

In brighter news, last tomatoes are brought in, reminding me that not only spring is green.  Fall  too has its greens ( : as does the Fall of life’s seasons:

“They still bear fruit in old age; they are ever full of sap and green.” Ps.92:14

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