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Staying Put (for a while)

Hello friends – I’m back! I landed in Cleveland last night after spending a week in Connecticut. It was a lovely visit. You would think that by now I would be used to missing my loved ones – I moved to Colorado at age 22 (Air Force training) and since then have lived in six different states, never any closer than 500 miles from my parents. Never close enough to “pop over” for a visit or a Sunday dinner or even a quick weekend catch-up.  Most of the time I am so caught up in my own life that the “missing” is well in the background, but then a visit like this one brings it to the forefront and heightens the feelings, making me wish that everyone I love could live close by.

Lest I get too maudlin, let’s switch to the subject of this post’s photos. 

On Friday my sister Paula brought Mom and me to Harkness Memorial State Park and she and Mom waited in the car while I walked the marshland trail looking for birds. There were two man-made nesting platforms for ospreys at the park, and both of them appeared to be in use. As I was walking along, I saw three large birds having an altercation of some kind whilst airborne – I was too far away to be able to see much detail, but it seemed like one of the birds was holding a fish. I just assumed that they were all ospreys and clicked away. 

It wasn’t until we returned to my sister’s house and I downloaded the photos to my laptop that I realized one of the birds was a bald eagle! Amazing. I feel like I was given an incredible gift to have been there to see it, even if I didn’t quite know in the moment what exactly I was seeing!

Tomorrow I am back to work and my normal routines. I’m staying put for a few months, concentrating on my photography (I’m starting to learn how to use the photo editing software Affinity), this blog, getting our garden looking neat and tidy, and some other projects that have been on the back burner. 

My next few posts will look back on my New Zealand trip. I still have so many photos and experiences I want to share with you!

Happy Easter to those who observe the holiday!

Love,

Michelle xoxo

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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

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Baking (and Birds)

I’m doing really well on my “23 for 2023” list. Number five on the list was “Baking Lesson with Howard and Beth”, which was a bit cryptic, I know. So now I’ll tell you all about it because it happened today!

My friend Beth introduced me to The Great British Baking Show (or The Great British Bake-Off, as it’s known in the UK). I’m generally not one for reality or competition shows, but Beth’s enthusiasm for the series (“Everyone is so nice!”) won me over, and I’ve watched a few of the seasons over the last year. I absolutely love it.  I was quite happy that I was able to return the favor and introduce Beth to a podcast related to the show, called “The Bake Down,” in which former contestants discuss each episode. The podcast is run by a company called “Bake with a Legend”, which runs online and in-person baking classes with former contestants on the show. 

Around Christmas time, Beth said, “I’d really love to take one of those classes.” “Let’s do it!” I replied. 🙂

And so we did! Howard Middleton was our instructor. He was in season 2 (or 4 if you are in the US). We were provided with the recipe and a list of required/suggested kitchen tools for the class several weeks in advance. It was a Zoom class, with about 25 participants from all over the US and the UK. 

I was so nervous before it started! I don’t know why – I guess because it was a completely new experience and I didn’t quite know what to expect. It turns out it was a total joy from start to finish. Howard was so lovely and Sarah, the facilitator, kept things going smoothly. I highly recommend taking one of their classes (link to their website here). 

Yesterday I went in search of the elusive (to me) Eastern screech-owl. I had heard that there was at least one on a certain trail in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, but information was sketchy as to where exactly it might be found. I walked a couple of miles down the (very muddy) path scanning every tree for a possible owl tenant with no luck. I turned back and got nearly to the parking lot when I was distracted by a tree just full of small birds I don’t ever remember seeing before (it turns out they were cedar waxwings). Instead of going straight to my car after those birds flew away, for some reason I climbed to the top of a small hill and, lo and behold, there was a screech owl sunning itself in a hollow of a tree. Four miles of searching and the owl was literally living next to the parking lot!

Screech owls are quite small, about 6-10 inches tall. They are adorable and I am completely smitten.

I hope you have a wonderful week!

Love,

Michelle xoxo

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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

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Isn’t (S)he Lovely?

This post was supposed to be about my “23 for 2023” (that will come tomorrow) but I just had to devote a post to this beautiful mourning dove. I searched birding sites online to see if I could identify it as male or female, but there seem to be very few differences between the two. I *think* it’s a female because the males are supposed to have a slightly iridescent patch of feathers on their necks that this one doesn’t seem to have.

Anyway, I came home for lunch one day to find this beauty perching nonchalantly on top of my bird feeder. We do get doves in our backyard – being so large, they tend to scrounge around the fallen seeds under the feeder. Seeing one just hanging out ON the feeder was surprising, and as she didn’t seem to be in a hurry to leave I was able to snap several photos.

I’ve never been too excited about doves. I do love the call of the mourning dove — for many years I thought they were called “morning doves” because that’s when I tended to hear their calls. Doves have always reminded me of pigeons, though – like a slightly more refined relative of the pigeon. And pigeons have never really done it for me.

Having these photos now, though, I am head over heels in love. The subtle browns/tans/grays and the random black spots – gorgeous. But what really gets me is the turquoise around the eyes. I can’t stop looking at these photos and at the “pop” of that turquoise against the more subdued shades. That Mother Nature – she really knows how to accessorize.

Love,

Michelle xoxo

p.s. I know those first two pictures are nearly identical, but to me they are different and I couldn’t choose between the two!

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The Big Chill

Like much of the United States, Ohio is currently being visited by a pretty extreme weather system. We have been under a winter storm warning and wind chill warning since early Friday morning. As I write this at 6:43 am on Saturday morning, the temperature is negative 2 degrees Fahrenheit, with high winds making it feel like negative 24 degrees Fahrenheit. We have been hunkering down here, venturing outside briefly only to shovel the small amount of snow in the driveway (Chris) or refill the bird feeder (me).

Have you ever wondered how birds stay warm in frigid temperatures? I found this article fascinating, but if you don’t want to click on the link the photos here will show you the main way they stay warm: by fluffing up their feathers. They trap pockets of air around their bodies this way – their very own “down jacket”, literally.

The birds were at the feeder all day long yesterday. I added some handfuls of high energy feed (a mixture with raisins and peanuts) to a couple of flat surfaces on our patio. On a normal day I notice a lot of feeding activity in the morning and then not again until later in the afternoon. Yesterday was constant.

Today is Christmas Eve. We have a very quiet evening planned: Sam and Pokey will sleep over and we will eat cheese fondue (with this homemade bread) and watch Paddington. Tomorrow morning we will have a breakfast of various homemade baked goods (almond croissants, ham and cheese croissants, sausage rolls) and, a blast from my childhood and a necessary fixture at all celebratory mornings, Pillsbury cinnamon rolls. Sam will meet up with his dad later on Christmas morning and Chris and I will have a quiet Christmas meal of New York strip steaks, mushroom sauce, and homemade oven-baked, parmesan-coated French fries.

To be honest I have not been in a very Christmas-y mood this year. Possibly because I contracted Covid from my workplace a couple of weeks ago. Ten other colleagues in our rather small workplace also came down with it within the space of one week, and the entire office was subsequently told to work from home until after Christmas. I was lucky in that I had nearly no symptoms, but the process of isolating myself in the house (thankfully Chris did not get it) and suspending my walking practice out of an abundance of caution sort of threw me for a loop.

One thing I have been doing is thinking about what my one-word theme for 2023 will be. I love the process of deciding what my theme will be – it makes me really consider these types of questions: What do I need? What needs to go? What needs to be done in me and through me?

That last question sounds a bit religious, and I’m not a religious person. But I do believe in positive energy (which makes me sound New-Age-y, which I’m not, either). I think that energy is highly contagious, whether it be positive or negative. Think of how you feel after a wonderful visit with a friend, versus how you feel after listening to a coworker’s gossip or rant. Or, heaven forbid, Fox News or MSNBC. I do want to, in some way, contribute to the positive side of things, and that’s what I will be contemplating over the next week.

I will share my 2023 theme, as well as my “23 for 2023” list next weekend. Until then, stay warm. Merry Christmas to those who observe/celebrate the holiday!

Love,

Michelle xoxo

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Technical Difficulties

Hello friends! I’m back! I have been dealing with some very frustrating technical difficulties over the last few weeks. Out of the blue WordPress was not letting me edit or begin a post. I got a pop-up error message that I tried to resolve using all the advice out in Google Land, as well as the (really crap) technical support provided by Bluehost, my hosting service. All to no avail. Finally, Chris asked if it might be worthwhile trying his old laptop. Et voila, here I am. I think perhaps the problem was that the latest updates to WordPress and Bluehost finally rendered the operating system in my laptop (which has reached its own iOS update limit) incompatible. The plan is to get me a new laptop at some point, but until that time I’m so happy to have a pretty convenient workaround.

It’s funny – before these technical difficulties I would sometimes feel self imposed pressure to get on here and crank out a blog post. Once I was unable to do so, I missed the blog so much!

Okay, so, my bird photos – I’m quite pleased with my new setup. I’ve put up my seed feeder right outside my kitchen window – about three feet away from the window. That’s not new. What is new is a large-ish branch that I’ve stuck into the ground about three feet from the feeder. When things get really busy at the feeder birds will use this branch as a pit stop before or after feeding. That’s when I get my photos. It provides a more natural background for my photos than a green plastic feeder.

Life is good here. My exercise routine is still going well. I ate too much this long Thanksgiving weekend. We got a milk steamer/frother which is so much fun. We’re almost all caught up with Doc Martin. I just finished a super busy time at work and am about to begin another super busy time at work. I am loving the newest Taylor Swift album (never thought of myself as a Swiftie but here I am).

I am SO glad to be back on here, excited to be photographing the winter birds, and really looking forward to sharing more photos with you.

I hope you are doing well!

Love,

Michelle xoxo

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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

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Hummingbirds

Sorry for the rather uninspired title of this post!

Here I am nearly a month after my last post. I would like to say that I’ll be posting more frequently. I really would. I do have several photos I took on a recent trip, so I can do a sort of “What I Did on My Summer Vacation” post next. I also have several ideas percolating in my brain for future posts (and some pretty gnarly photos of mushrooms I’ve taken lately – you know how I love mushrooms). So yes, I will post again soon!

This post, however, is dedicated to “my” hummingbirds. Photos from my feeder here in Ohio and from outside my sister’s window in Connecticut.

You may know that only the adult male Ruby Throated Hummingbirds have a red throat patch. The juvenile males’ throat feathers don’t turn red until after their first winter. The adult and juvenile females tend to have either plain white feathers on their throats or some light gray streaking, and the juvenile males have heavier streaking. Your guess is as good as mine as to whether the above are adult females or juveniles (I tend to think most of them are juvenile males). Also, the adult male’s throat patch can look black if the feathers don’t catch the sun. In most of my photos of adult male hummingbirds, they look kind of like dark blobs. Next year it will be my goal to get some better photos of adult males!

It will have to be next year, because I think our hummingbirds have begun their migration south. I haven’t seen any birds at the feeder for the last two days or so. There may be stragglers, but I’m sure most of them have gone.

Sigh.

Safe travels, little ones. We’ll miss you.

Love,

Michelle xoxo

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Trouble at the Feeder

I’m sorry to report that I’ve had to take down our bird feeder for a week or two. One day I noticed that one of the house finches at the feeder looked like it had been in a fist fight – one eye seemed to be partially closed and the feathers surrounding the eye looked ruffled. Since birds don’t have fist fights I consulted Google and found that house finches are susceptible to a disease called mycoplasmal conjunctivitis. It is highly contagious to other house finches and can result in blindness and death due to starvation. They recommended taking down the feeder, cleaning it thoroughly, and putting it back up – which I did. However, a day or so later I noticed another finch had the same funky looking eyes (the first was female and the second male, which is how I knew it wasn’t the same bird). Again I consulted the online experts and saw that the safest thing to do would be to take the feeder down for a significant amount of time so that the flock could disperse. I’m sad that I can’t watch the birds at the feeder for a while, but I really didn’t want to host a super-spreader event right in my own backyard.

I still find it very meditative to watch the goings-on back there, even without the feeder. The other early evening I noticed some deer passing through, munching at the grass and random fallen branches. I had decided not to try to take any photos of them because the light was fading and photos in the late afternoon, past the golden hour, don’t tend to turn out very well for me. “I’ll just enjoy the deer without getting my camera,” I thought. Of course, a young Coopers Hawk decided right at that moment to land in the little tree closest to our house. I scrambled for my camera, fumbled about trying to turn it on and focus in a rush, and managed to get one blurry shot before the hawk flew off again. Even blurry, she’s (he’s?) a beauty. Moments like that are such a gift. After that I decided that any time I am looking outside, my camera will always be at my side, turned on!

I had a lovely weekend – writing a couple of letters, working my current jigsaw puzzle, reading, keeping up with friends with Zoom and group texts. I dried some organic fruit in my dehydrator – navel oranges, cara cara oranges, pears, and granny smith apples. Chris and I watched a couple episodes of His Dark Materials and the 2020 version of the movie Emma. I recommend both! I feel rested and ready to tackle a new work week.

I hope you have a good week. I’ll see you back here next weekend.

Love,

Michelle xoxo