Yellow and Gray · 365 Project

Yellow and Gray by Rondi Aastrup · 365 Project

I went for a walk in the late afternoon, knowing that I would see some interesting things. I always do. This time I saw more than I could capture with my camera, but I got enough to share all the same.  This mockingbird was my first find. He was perched atop a lemon tree, standing out, the gray against the yellow.

Next, I saw a flock of Abert's Towhees, but couldn't get them to sit still long enough for a good close photo. They were very talkative, though.  I could hear them long after I had gone past them (they were flitting around the pool area of this condo complex on the golf course).

Further along, I saw the cutest winter wren hopping around atop a boulder.

On the ground, just past the wren's boulder, a ground squirrel froze long enough for me to shoot him.  He's right outside his hole and when I moved, he popped down into safety.

Across the walkway on the golf course, a large flock of doves gorged themselves on something tasty in this patch of dirt.

And finally, back home again, a mockingbird enjoyed the suet on my back patio in the shadow of the bougainvilea.  It was a good walk =)

Gnarled · 365 Project

Gnarled by Rondi Aastrup · 365 Project

This gnarly tree is on a side of campus I don't often go. I noticed it the other day as I was making my supervision rounds. A lone girl was climbing it, lost in her own world. I was reminded of the "helicopter" tree my sisters and I had when we were kids--it was a sycamore tree the grew along side a creek across a field that was next to our yard. We used to love to climb it and pretend we were in a helicopter (not sure why that...) spying on the rest of the world around us. It was big, beautiful, sturdy. We felt safe up in it, in spite of the heights we climbed to. Puts me in mind of another tree-activity we used to love: swinging. And singing Robert Louis Stevenson's poem about "The Swing."  Maybe that was it:  just being up in the air and seeing all that we could see:

How do you like to go up in a swing,

Up in the air so blue?

Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing

Ever a child can do!

Up in the air and over the wall,

Til I can see so wide,

Rivers and trees and cattle and all

Over the countryside--

Till I look down on the garden green,

Down on the roof so brown--

Up in the air I go flying again,

Up in the air and down!

In Like a Lion

March sure came in like a lion this weekend!  But typical of New England, it was also on a roller coaster ride, taking us with it.  Friday, we had 60 degree, balmy weather.  All I needed outside was a light jacket.  Saturday was MOTS ("more of the same," in the words of Boston's award-winning legendary meteorologist who just retired on Thursday after 30+ forecasting the weather here).  In fact, it was feeling so much like spring that I indulged and bought 3 bunches of daffodills to brighten up my living room.

All well and good until sometime last evening.  It started with an e-mail from a parent asking if we would have school today.  I looked out the window.  Nothing.  I went on-line to check the weather and saw that Boston Public schools were already cancelled.  Within a couple of ours, our local superintendent had called to tell me we wouldn't have school today either.  So I sent out a flurry of e-mails and Facebook messages (actually, just put it in my status!) and made several phone calls to let everyone know they had the day off.

Then I settled in to see what would happen.  I can't tell you how many times school has been called off when it shouldn't have been, or it wasn't called off and should have been.  You never know when you do things ahead of time.  But when I looked out my window this morning (after sleeping in), I saw that we'd made the right call this time.

After shoveling out, I went to see if I could find some wildlife and ended up at my favorite nearby lake.  I thought I might see some ducks and geese, but there were only sea gulls huddled on the still ice-covered lake.  I'm not sure why the unprotected wind-swept lake is a better place to sleep than the warmer, less windy shore.  Perhaps it's safer is all.

Once again, I was intrigued by the silhouette of the dark leafless trees against the white of the frozen, snow-covered lake.  Contrast, patterns, and texture are interesting to me...

Trees

I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree

A tree whose hungry mouth is pressed
Against the earth's sweet flowing breast;

A tree that looks at God all day
And lifts her leafy arms to pray,

A tree that may in summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair

Upon whose blossom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.

Poems were made by fools like me
But only God can make a tree.

­~ Joyce Kilmer

Photo: a knobby tree across the street from my hotel in downtown Portland

Beyond the Sunset

Tonight's view from my living room window was spec- tacular. I love winter sunsets for the coolness of their colors. I also like how the stark darkness of the leafless tree branches stand out silhouetted against the beautiful sky...

Autumn Beauty

R.E.A.C.H.

Our non- teaching holiday stretched into one more day (after Columbus Day), thanks to a teacher in-service on inclusion. Our educational system has just released a manual entitled R.E.A.C.H. on full inclusion of learning disabled children in the classroom and we had two of the committee members present today for the in-service. It was a profitable day. The discussion and activities were valuable. The last thing our group did was watch part of a video that gave us the experience of being learning disabled in a classroom. It was an incredible feeling...a horrible feeling...an oh, so valuable feeling. Walking in another's shoes, even for 15 minutes or so shook up my whole thinking about the way I do some things in my classroom. After all this time! Wow!

The drive to and from the meeting (about an hour west of my house) was just beautiful. This fall is just glorious so far! Around every corner is a nother amazing sight. And the sunset was incredible too, although I couldn't get a good picture of it because it was mostly behind instead of in front of me. All that put together, I didn't mind the long drive at all because I was enjoying what I saw so much...

Beautiful Day

I spent yesterday and today up in Maine with my father while my mother was out of town. The drive up yesterday morning and home this afternoon was just beautiful. I took many pictures while I was driving, and several of them turned out nicely. The colors are especially brilliant this season, making the round trip a great pleasure.

More beautiful flowering trees

Friday, before going home from school, I decided to drive over to Lake Quano- powitt to see what there was to see there. I got an eyeful, let me tell you! Dozens of amazingly beautiful flowering trees!

Most of these were in the two cemeteries bordering the lake, and it was drizzling slightly, so the contrasts were brighter than usual. I love this time of year!

Flowering Appreciation

Thursday was Teacher Appreciation Day for our conference (school district). Our superintendent invited us all to Tower Hill Botanical Gardens in Boylston, MA for a luncheon. I've been wanting to go here for awhile, so was glad when I got the invitation.

I drove out to my sister's school to pick her up so we could go together. We arrived early and wandered the grounds for an hour or so. It's a little early for a lot of the flowers, but there were enough to appreciate and enjoy.

I'm thinking I'll be going back, now that I've made my first visit =)

Beautiful flowering trees

I had some time to kill this morning (I had to meet someone but was about 20 minutes ahead of schedule) so I took a drive through the cemetery where my grandparents are buried. It had been raining fairly heavily just prior to my arrival, so everything looked so pretty and fresh. The flowering trees were out in full-force, so I took some pictures.

This is a favorite cemetery of mine. I wrote about it a couple years ago here. This time, I was just appreciating the beautiful trees.

Between the Woods and Frozen Lake

I was sick much of the weekend, but when I had to go over to check on my sister's cats I took the opportunity to drive by the nearby lake and see what sunset looked like there. In a word, beautiful. I love how the gnarly trees look against the frozen lake and sunset in the distance.

I was charmed by the skaters. Reminded me that I used to skate on this very lake when I was a young girl. Reminded me that it's been awhile since I've been skating. Maybe even 20 years. I used to love it. Almost all my skating experience has been in such a setting. I learned to skate on a pond behind a monastary in Ohio. Then we moved here to MA and we continued our skating experience on this lake. Years later, on a stand-out night in my memory, I skated on a woodland pond under a full moon with a "rainbow" ring around it.

Reminded me of the skating scene in Little Women...Jo and Laurie skating...Amy trying to chase after them...falling in...Jo and Laurie saving her... Something romantic about such scenes I think =)

Anyway, the lake was frozen over. Surprised me. I hadn't expected that for some reason, although it's been bone-cold, so I don't know why not.