Blue Heron

A recent post showed a current photo of an angelic snowy egret about to light in a local retention pond. The description talked about a couple of years ago when our own koi pond was stalked by a blue heron and as I read over it, I realized it sounded very much as if I thought the heron had a distinctively sneaky personality.

If it sounded that way, I am pleased that I captured the feeling I had at the time. This critter stood on a berm overlooking the koi and had a look that suggested attendance at a rich buffet, filled with fresh food. Here we see the beady eye checking out the seafood.

Glad I was able to chase him often enough to protect our current school of nine koi. As long as the egret stays down on the corner, he is on my good list. This fellow is always on my bad list.

Context Means Lots

Context. As a writer and as a former English teacher I understand the power of context. Whatever it is we are considering, the elements that surround it and affect it mean everything. For example, two years ago a great blue heron found its way onto the berm around my pond and stood there, eyeing the koi below. I chased him and thought I had scared him. I had not.

He returned and gored a four-pond koi. The fish was apparently too large for the heron to eat, and the bird got no meal from the deal, but the koi wound up in my pond skimmer and died soon after. I had to string fishing line all around and across the pond to prevent the heron from returning to finish his meal. A great blue around or in my pond -- in that context -- is something I do not wish to see again.

Yesterday as I took a walk down my block and got to the retention pond only about two hundred yards away, a snowy egret was standing in that pond eyeing the surface, apparently looking for an unsuspecting fish. When I got close enough for a photo, he spread those impressive wings and flew across the pond. That mere two hundred yards -- that differing context -- made all the difference. No fishing line, no chasing, just some photography. My favorite shows the massive wingspan just as he was about to fold the wings and step back into the water. Wonder if he found a meal.

He is welcome down there as far as I am concerned -- as long as he stays down there!

Globes & Puppets

The last post visited Kindergarten and remarked how attractive and varied and interesting the room was to challenge the minds of the learners. Among the images that caught my eye were a rack of globes and a stand of puppets, all plush and ready to act out just about any story.

It was a place any one of us would have enjoyed as our Kindergarten room.

Grandparents' Day

Kindergarten does not look the same as it did over 50 years ago when I attended it, nor the same as it did over 30 years ago when our children attended. The room is interesting and colorful, with places to sit and read, with interesting things to play with and listen to and read, and with charts and pictures all over the room.

They even have a collection of puppets, which appear to be ready to act out any story, and my granddaughter Gianna, who was pleased to have all four grandparents in attendance, showed us her favorite puppet, several of her friends, and her favorite books and games. It was a wonderful morning for all, especially for the grandparents.

Happy Shakespeare Day!

A wonderful holiday for former or current English teachers and students, drama lovers, language experts, and pretty much everyone else.

Today in honor of Shakespeare Day, the reputed date of not only his birth in 1564 but also his death in 1616, I am taking out some tickets and looking at them. The tickets are for ROMEO & JULIET at the Globe, bankside in London, on Sunday July 5. A couple of days later I will be visiting Stratford. Rest assured the blog will have some of the results upon my return!

More Feathered Friends

We have several visiting songbirds of all sorts, many of which pop up in the branches of a Burning Bush right outside our dining room window. This affords me an opportunity to use the house as a gigantic "blind" as I shoot the birds from quite close quarters. Tiny as they are, they are skittish and even if I am completely invisible to them, they never perch for very long. Even the grey-colored birds are beautiful and intricate in their feather display.

Ducks also stop by every spring, often swimming in our koi pond. The first time I saw that from my patio door I had a strange feeling of recognition. Then I remembered that when Tony Soprano started on his journey through analysis and activity, his ducks were in a swimming pool. Mine were in a koi pond. No analysis needed.

Some summery looks at the garden in the next post.

Friends in the Yard

Once the weather breaks, it gets easy to forget about blogging. Almost a week since the last post, I decided to take a day or two to look at some other garden scenes, since we looked at the pond, the waterfall, and the koi last post.

We have been quite fortunate in the past few years to host several cardinals, both male and female and often in multiples flying, drinking, walking in the grass. One of my favorite locations to see the amazing reds is in our red twig dogwoods in the leafless months. The bright color jumps out to brighten a winter morning or one in early spring.

While we have been told that leaving bread out for the birds might not be a good idea for the health of the birds, we really don't worry too much about how much of the bread actually gets to birds. This squirrel ate half of the slice where he found it and carried to remainder off to save for later.

More shots of our landscape and friends in the next post.