Mummy, Do You Love Me?

Mummy, do you love me?

Home Again, Home Again

Yes, I'm home, but my heart remains in Africa.

Lion cub

Lion cub and mother

The magnificent kori bustard, among the world's heaviest and largest flying birds, on display.

A Maribou stork with vultures at a hippo carcass.   The stork looks like it has a bad, bad sunburn, but the naked head is an adaptation to prevent liquids and offal from clogging head
 feathers.

The Serval cat, only 20 to 24 inches at the shoulder.

Mother cheetah and her cubs, slowly walking back after a failed hunt.   She will not have the energy to hunt again until the next day.

The moving affection between cub and lioness.

Lion cubs.

A cheetah seeks privacy and shade with her kill.

A leopard cub near the ravine where it lives.

An elusive leopard emerges silently from the brush.

A baboon carrying its infant beneath its chest.

Guess What?

While Julie keeps the home fires burning and the wild birds fed, guess what I'm up to......

Inordinately proud of how little luggage I'm carrying.   The suitcase is carry-on sized and weighs 20 lbs.   The other is the size of the the ones used by airline flight crew and cabin attendants.   It's full of camera gear and also weighs 20 lbs.

Until I return, some recent visitors:

A red-breasted nuthatch.   Sleek and streamlined, these tiny birds run up and down the trunks of trees.

Steller's jay.   They are a member of the corvid family along with ravens, crows, etc.   Smart, smart birds.

A new bird for me--a gray-crowned rosy finch.   Note the rose tints on its lower wings and body.   The more I look at it, the more I appreciated its subtle beauty.

If Chickadees were Human

If black-capped chickadees were humans:

Tuxedos and business suits

Emily Dickinson and Emily Post

Opera and ballet

Carl Sagan and Stephen Hawking

Tennis, polo, and golf

Paris and Venice

First or business class

Limos and Lincolns

If boreal chickadees were humans:

Jeans and sneakers

Max Brand and John Wayne

Football, eight ball, darts at the pub

Nashville and NASCAR

Coach, definitely coach on mileage awards

Jeeps and pickups

A Day in the Life

There's a story in this photo:

1. I am not shoveling the waist deep snow that I am supposed to be shoveling, but standing in a narrow path that I shoveled to take this photo that shows how deep the snow was.

2. The photo was taken with a point and shoot camera that was propped on the handle of the snow shovel that I was supposed to be using.

3. Yes, I was chilly. I was not dressed for warmth, but for not getting too warm while shoveling, which I was not doing.

4. Notice the knee of my snow pants. A large tear is repaired with duct tape, the first choice of discerning Alaskans everywhere.

5. When I actually got around to shoveling, the only part of me that was cold was my right hand. That was because I kept taking it out of a glove to take photos.

6. The deck eventually got cleared. By that time, the first half of the Steelers/Patriots game was over.



These are the things that kept distracting me from shoveling:

Oh, look at the pretty mountains.

It's 15 degrees!   How can this tiny icicle be dripping?

The tiny icicle is center right.

Looking down on the back deck below and the way the snow curls off the top rail.

More snow art.

Oh, you have to take a photo of that mountain.

And those, too.

More snow art.

Done.

From below.

Yippee! It warmed up and now it's snowing....

BIG WHOOP!