Posted on : By : Michelle Posted in : Uncategorized

February’s End

One of the things on my 23 for 2023 list was “Meatless February” which I am close to completing successfully. During this month I have had eggs and dairy (I don’t drink cow’s milk because I lost my taste for it some time ago, but I do eat cheese and yogurt) but no animal flesh of any kind. 

I’ve flirted with vegetarianism and veganism several times over the last few years, but I never went an entire month without meat. This month I went to the library several times to check out vegetarian cookbooks and spent hours on Pinterest and other websites researching recipes. My goal was to find food that I absolutely loved – not to gag down endless salads and lentil casseroles. 

I’ve enjoyed this month so much! I don’t eat soy products, so I couldn’t use tofu as a source of protein, but thankfully I absolutely love beans (not a huge lentil fan, though). Cold salads don’t really appeal to me when the weather is cold, but I found several warm salads that were fabulous. I feel great and I’m excited to continue eating this way for the foreseeable future. Chris and I both love roasted vegetables of all kinds, and we’ve discussed how most of the recipes I’ve made can simply have a piece of salmon or chicken added if he wants that. Will I ever have bacon, a beef burger, steak, or chicken again? Probably. Or maybe. Who knows? But right now I love eating this way, so I’ll continue and see how it goes.

As you can see from the photos, I’ve been out birding several times since my last blog post — both weekend days and some evenings after work. I’ve discovered wildlife photography FOMO is a thing – “The herons have started building their nests! I need to get over there TODAY!” And I love having something I look forward to every single day. 

Going out onto the trails, or even sitting in my own kitchen with my camera watching for birds in my back yard, is so meditative for me. When I’m on the trails, I move slowly, constantly scanning, stopping often. This is not a work out. I do my workout walking five mornings a week – on the weekends I might walk a total of 5 or more miles each day, but they are slow miles. I’ve read before about something called a state of “flow” – when you are so immersed in an activity that you don’t even notice time passing. When I’m out looking for birds I’m definitely in a state of flow. 

I won’t be putting up a new blog post for about three weeks. I’m going to be busy with something that I will tell you all about when I return to this space! 

Love, 

Michelle xoxo

Posted on : By : Michelle Posted in : Uncategorized

The Next Level

One of my 23 for 2023 goals was to get a new zoom-ier lens for my camera. I did a good amount of research before buying this lens – I wanted something that would give me further reach than the zoom lens that came with my camera; I wanted a high quality lens, but I did not want to spend more than $1,000. My price range filtered out major brand names like Canon, but there are some very good third party lens manufacturers out there, and I chose Sigma for their excellent reviews. 

This weekend was the first chance I had to take it out into the field, and I am so happy with my purchase. I visited three different areas in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park – the Bath Road Heronry, the Beaver Marsh, and Station Road Bridge. The great blue herons are due back very soon, with the males beginning to prepare the nests sometime in mid-February. I didn’t see much action there, but one pair did circle around a while, and a single heron landed in one of the trees and hung out for a while. Beaver Marsh is a place I have also seen great blue herons in the past, but this time I only saw Canada geese and mallard ducks. 

I have visited the Station Road Bridge trail several times since mid-January and while I had seen the eagles’ nest, I didn’t see any eagles. I was thrilled to see a nesting pair both yesterday and today. They apparently have some eggs, because they appear to be taking turns sitting on the nest (the nest is very large and very deep so you can’t actually see an eagle when they are sitting on the nest, only when they pop their head up or leave the nest). The nest is across the Cuyahoga River from the best viewing area, which I am happy about because it means that I could take my photos and not bother the birds. 

I’m finding that wildlife photography is mainly just waiting around for something to show up, and I did have to wait several hours both days to get the photos I’m sharing here. What was really lovely is the fact that I met some other birders/photographers while we waited and heard some of their stories/tips.  I still have an enormous learning curve, but I’m so excited to go to the next level with my photos – I hope you enjoy them!

Love,

Michelle xoxo

Posted on : By : Michelle Posted in : Uncategorized

Visiting the Heronry

I’m very lucky that I live less than 10 miles from the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. It’s a sprawling 32,572-acre park that follows the Cuyahoga River from Cleveland to Akron. I really do count my lucky stars that we live so close to such a beautiful area. My sunset-watching park is within the larger national park, along with so many hiking and biking trails, picnic areas, and points of interest.

Within the park is the Bath Road Heronry (learn more about it here). It consists of two enormous trees among whose branches great blue herons build their nests every year. The website linked above describes it as a nesting colony, and I can’t even estimate how many nests are in the trees, but I’ll try — 30? Maybe more? Right now the fledglings are pretty big and I’m sure will be leaving their nests soon.

I’ve visited the heronry about half a dozen times over the last couple of weeks, trying to take some photos to share with you. It’s been a bit frustrating because my current zoom lens just isn’t powerful enough to take really great photos of things so far away, but at least I can give you an idea of what it looks like there. So many of these huge birds! You can imagine the racket made by all the young great blue herons chirping for their mothers – it’s fabulous.

I’m emerging from my funk and actually feel like I might have something to say to you all. I recently read such a lovely book by the British author Matt Haig. It’s called “The Comfort Book” and it is a loosely organized collection of little essays, inspirational quotes, lists, and even a recipe or two. To give you a little feel for the book, here is what is written on page 46. It is titled “Toast” and says “Continually looking for the meaning of life is like looking for the meaning of toast. It is sometimes better just to eat the toast.” Matt Haig suffered from severe suicidal depression as a young adult, and he speaks on the subject of bad times and difficult feelings so eloquently. I absolutely love this book and have already bought two copies to give to loved ones. If you have someone in your life just starting out on the path of adulthood, I highly recommend it as a graduation gift or a “just because” gift. I wish I had read something like this when I was in my early twenties, but I must admit that at my age of almost-59 I am still learning how to navigate this human experience and got great comfort from the book. It is perfectly named.

I have been taking lots of photos of our hummingbirds and will post some here very soon! Wildlife photography really is mostly just a lot of waiting around — I knew this already from previous summers photographing our hummers, but it really hit home to me on my several hit-or-miss visits to the heronry. The key is to do something during the waiting other than mentally reviewing your to-do list, or your to-worry-about list. At the heronry there are a lot of other things to look at – groups of goldfinches zooming around, red-winged blackbirds perching on dead tree branches, lots of fascinating but too-difficult-to-photograph heron activity – but when I’m sitting in a chair in my dining room or kitchen looking out the window waiting for a hummingbird to show up I really have to work hard to be mindful. It’s good practice, though!

I’m taking a break from all news during this long holiday weekend. This past week was just too brutal and the more I read the news the more frustrated/angry/depressed I got. Because I don’t see my country ever changing on this issue. And that breaks my heart. But, as Matt Haig says in The Comfort Book, “Nothing is stronger than a small hope that doesn’t give up.” So, I will keep that small hope in my heart. And I won’t give up.

I hope you are doing well and are having a lovely weekend.

Love, Michelle xoxo