This past weekend I was in Wisconsin. I happened to see these bird houses.
I liked how they look; however, made out of metal they don’t look too cozy. Also, I noticed they don’t have a ledge to put birdseed. Would birds go inside this DARK house to eat food?
What do you think? Would birds come or are they just for garden decoration?
I haven’t looked at clouds for a long time. Yesterday, I was waiting for someone. Lost in thought, I realized that while the sun was shinning on one side of me, on the other side it was dark. So, I looked up into the sky and saw this dark cloud coming in.
I always think of The Wizard of Oz movie when I see dark clouds like this. Remember Dorothy sitting on her bed, while the tornado spins around her? Great idea to have scenes from “back home in Kansas” viewed through her window. Then her house lands in Oz, she’s not in Kansas anymore. She’s welcomed by Glinda (the good witch) and the Munchkins. Fabulous!
We’ve been having a lot of storms lately in Chicago. High winds, thunder, lightening, etc.
Summer is almost over. However, I remember last year reading that summer was at the end of September. How could that be? Is that true? Our weather now feels like late September.
Winter is coming and birds are looking for food.
I was on a walk, forcing myself to exercise…
As I say that, I cringe. Why do I say, “forcing?” I actually enjoy walking. However, the transition from Fall to Winter is a strange one. The days are changing, it’s darker in the morning and at night, which effects our mood. Suddenly, I go into bear, hibernation mode. Desire for comfort food sets in (stews/soups) and laziness to go out in the COLD takes over.
It’s funny, isn’t it. This happens every year. We need to create a new exercise routine. No more walking at 6 AM, now it’s 7 AM or lunch time. No more walking at 4:30 PM, too dark outside. I need to dust off my rowing machine, pull out my weights. Create new exercise habits until March.
There are REWARDS for walking. Look at this lovely bird I saw in the window. I don’t feed the birds, so was pleasantly surprised to see this bird feeder suctioned to the window. It held the weight of the bird nicely, as you see.
I was brought back to Italy. My grandmother fed the pigeons on her apartment balcony. It was a morning ritual. Make her tea and give bread crumbs to the birds. It’s nice to have birds as friends.
I’m not alone in my “move into winter mode.” Look at this squirrel, he’s been eating a lot too. In fact, he was enjoying his lunch so much that he let me get a close up of him, no fear, he just kept chomping.
As I finish my post, I see the sun rising.
Got to lace up, head out walking. GET IT DONE!
We do FEEL better when we exercise! No more winter laziness!! Exploration awaits, right!?!
Remember the Squirrel from last week with that HUGE — piece of FOOD — in his mouth? Nobody knew what it could be. Such an odd “thing.”
Well, guess what, I happened to walk by a tree and as I looked on the ground, I saw it! Yes, I saw, “IT.” I saw what the squirrel had in his mouth. I picked the weird thing up. It was VERY STICKY, like sap. Imagine my surprise when it was sticking to my fingers, felt prickly and I could NOT let go of it. I had to fling it off. Horror of horrors.
As I looked at it, I noticed there were more at the bottom of the tree. So, I peered up into the tree and LOOK what I saw. YES, a bunch of them growing on the branch.
I’ve NEVER seen a tree with these “things” in my entire life.
I stopped people as they walked by asking what tree this was, NO LUCK! So, I did searches online. Challenging, since I didn’t know what search words to use — “sticky spikey ball in tree?”
Needless to say, my searches didn’t pull up much. THEN a brainstorm, I have a friend who used to work at the arboretum. She must know this tree, right?
She messaged, it’s a HAZLENUT tree.
I went back to the tree for further inspection. See photo of where the nuts were. The nuts are protected inside a green leaf-like hairy bract with ragged edges. Nuts in clusters of 2-5.
I LOVE hazelnuts, so this was a GREAT find.
No wonder the squirrel was dodging me left to right! He thought I was after his hazelnuts!
And you know what — NEXT TIME, I might just go after him!
Have you watched that show on Netflix called, “ALONE?” One participant was desperate for food, it was winter, hard to find food. A squirrel had stashed away mushrooms at the top of a tree. The participant cut the tree down to get the mushrooms. He apologized to the squirrel (who wasn’t there), “Everyone for himself in the wilderness! We’ve got to SURVIVE!”
Great wilderness show if you haven’t seen it!
I will have more appreciation for the hazelnuts in Nutella, Loacker wafers, Ferrero Rocher, Godiva, and Kinder Buono chocolates now!
Don’t you LOVE life’s surprises! Thank you, Mr. Squirrel!
I got so lucky. This squirrel posed for the camera. Look how close I got. You can tell he is hesitant. Wondering if he’s going to have to FIGHT to keep his… WHAT IS THAT in his mouth?
It started like this. I was out walking. I saw this squirrel on the sidewalk. I immediately STOPPED, because he was so darn cute with that HUGE root, dead flower (couldn’t place it) in his mouth.
At first, he wasn’t aware of me. When he got to the top of the fence… THEN I could tell, he was starting to think I “might” be a threat. You can see in his eyes and stance that he knew he had to ACT FAST or he might lose this HUGE food item. That is the motherland!
He happened to turn, I got another GREAT photo. Here he’s making an “assessment” of the situation.
This was the highlight of my walk. I’ve never gotten this close to a squirrel before. They are usually so fast to run away. Photography has become so easy with our phones. Fun getting these photos.
So, I ask you, “WHAT is that in his mouth?”
Recently, I was in Colorado. Imagine my surprise to capture a picture with an eagle, moose and mountain lion all at once. One of my daughter’s thought I had actually seen the moose on a wilderness trail. That means she QUICKLY looked at photo, did not analyze it.
I love this moose. Perfect taxidermy work. I do feel as if I met him on the banks of a river. The mountain lion is cleverly hidden to the right coming out of the cave.
If you are wondering, I was in a Sporting Goods store called, “Scheels.” First time I have been in one. It was similar to a Bass Pro Shop, if you’ve gone there. HUGE – hard to leave without buying something.
Case in point, I found these orange ON gym shoes. I’m not familiar with this brand. Turns out they are from Switzerland, founded in 2010 by three guys who wanted a good running shoe. They’ve been worn by a lot of athletes who have won in their fields. I tried to find out what the logo on the shoe stands for, but couldn’t find anything. If you know, leave a comment.
These are slip ons, so not meant for running. So far, so good, they feel comfortable. Although, I need to tighten up the laces. I love the color.
I’m all set for more walking. We have a heat wave coming though, that might have me indoors, let’s see!
Happy exercising!
I’m not one to look up at the sky and observe clouds very often. Recently though, I was at the Colorado airport, as I was waiting on my flight, I was looking out the window. These clouds were right at eye level.
I took these photos about an hour apart. The first photo looked like a tornado was coming in. An hour later, the sun was peaking out and we saw these amazing sun beams coming through the clouds. My camera could not capture the bright white light properly. Here it looks dark and dull while in reality it was the whitest light I’ve ever seen. Amazing, really, it was. So many people stopped to take a photo. We all agreed. Our phones could not capture the reality of what we were seeing. Photography, it takes the right camera for these types of photos.
So, I’m going to take time to “slow down” and look up at the sky more often. Clouds are beautiful.
We never know what shape / form we might see in the sky. It will be a SURPRISE!
A shout out to Hannes van Eeden at Wandering Ambivert out of Cape Town, South Africa. He’s an AMAZING photographer. He shares tips / tricks to make “us” better photographers.
I’m hoping this is up to his standards. I’m sure he would have tweaking advice. I did take zillions of photos to capture this one. The birds were on to me – NOT sure what I was up to, so I had to be FAST.
I smiled when I saw a field of dandelions! Did you know that the yellow flower is the dandelion. I always thought the white puff ball was the dandelion. Well, in theory it is, because it is the seeds from the yellow flower.
I did not know that!! What a revelation. It’s hard for me to imagine the yellow flower turning into a fuzz ball. I need to scout out a transformation video on that.
It must happen in the dark of night, right!?
I haven’t seen a bunch of them together in a long time. I was tempted to blow this puff ball out, but if you don’t blow every single one you are doomed in the love department. There is a better myth that you can blow on the seeds and make a wish. I like that one!
NOW, you know why there is a field of dandelions. All those seeds we blow on land somewhere to create more blooms for the next year.
Finally, it is LILAC season. My goodness, they are blooming everywhere, white and lilac colors and they smell heavenly. I do mean heavenly. I admit I prefer the lilac colored ones.
That about sums up my photography for the day. I was on a roll, it was fun!
Our weather is so strange. We’ve got Fall for three days, Spring the next and then Summer. We’ve just got to roll with it. Personally, I prefer Fall / Spring weather, I hope it stays cooler.
Have a nice day!
Visiting with friends in Michigan. A cardinal came by, but I was not fast enough to take the picture. We filled up the bird feeder in hopes of seeing more birds.
Later in the day, we wondered why the bird feed was so low.
WELL, look who was visiting. Amazing how athletic these squirrels are. They spook easily, so I had to be quick to take some photos. It was challenging. The wind was making the squirrel twirl around while he was trying to eat. I laughed and thought, “He’s a CIRCUS squirrel!”
Nature is amazing!
This weekend my girlfriend filled up her bird feeder and had a lot of birds visiting. She got this great picture of one of them. I think he is a little sparrow? Who knows a lot about birds?
I told her I need a NEW bird photo for my Blog, so she has to keep taking photos. I would LOVE to have a cardinal. The cardinal is Indiana’s state bird. They are so beautiful in red and look lovely around the holidays when it snows. Here is what the cardinal looks like. A bluejay would be nice too.
Wishing you all a — HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
Brilliant Viewpoint 