Sunday Morning

Rainy Morning

Crawford County Kansas

Sunday morning dawned grey and rainy. Several thunderstorms had rumbled trough late Saturday into Sunday as we slept. I decided to go for a walk hoping the drizzle would let up for a while.

I wound up out at a wildlife area near home. There was a mist falling as I hiked past a small pond alive with spring frogs.
As I left the pond I could hear the morning birds adding to the chorus; cardinals, doves, blue jays and a few I couldn't identify by their call.
I hiked into the woods and stood under a canopy of trees a few days away from leafing out, a good time to see birds up high. In college I had an Ornithology professor who taught me the value of waiting in places like this and just listening, then looking. I heard the tchur-thcur of a red headed woodpecker but could not find it in the tree tops. In a moment I found it sitting way up high at the top of a tree sticking its beak out each time it called. Looking up at the sky through the trees I had a peaceful feeling very similar to times long ago when I would leave the crowds and slip into St. Patricks Cathedral on Fifth Ave in Manhattan and sit for a while. I listened for a few more minutes. The rain began to come down harder, almost drowning out the birds. I placed my camera under my coat and headed home.

Red and Blue Cat

My wife recently purchased a framed stain glass window hanging. It has quite a bit of red and blue in it. In the afternoons it casts a constantly moving red and blue light on the living room floor. One of our cats follows the red light across the floor. I am not really sure if she is following the warmth or the lights but she is a bit eccentric so Im betting on the light. She lights up each afternoon.

Wednesday Wanderings

Trees along a stream at dawn

Southwest Missouri

Bird Tracks

Southwest Missouri

Reflection

Southwest Missouri

Stream Bed

Southwest Missouri

Just a few photos taken the other morning as I walked along a stream over in Missouri.

Looking for Light

Last Thursday we had a visit from some good friends, people we've known for 30 years. They live a few hours away so we see each other several times a year. Our children spent summer vacations together camping, fishing and exploring areas as diverse as the Boundary Waters area in Minnesota, The Sangre de Christo Mountains in Colorado, and the Missouri Ozarks.
My friend and I set out at first light to look for what we have called 'the golden light'. A short period when the sun first rises and the world becomes illuminated with a rich warm tone. Hes an amateur photographer as well and a die hard film guy, myself switching to digital a few years ago. So as we hiked we argued pixels and manipulating images as well as whether change is good.
We saw buffalo and approached them just before the sunrise and tried to get a few photos. We stopped counting the white tail deer at 25 by 8:00 am.
A pair of northen harriers glided over the bluestem surveying a meal, a coyote crossed the road in front of us. The photos I have here though are of the five or so minutes when the sun rose just over the horizon peeking though the clouds approaching from the southwest. We stood in silence, no more arguing, and watched the scene develop before us. The only sound being the shutters clicking. As the sun faded my friend turned to me smiled and said; "very cool". We headed back to roust his teenage son and our wives whom we had promised to take fishing the rest of the day.

Easter

One of the silver maples on our place has decided enough is enough.
Its time to get spring going, and as such has flowered.
Happy Easter!

A Walk In The Woods

For three days earlier this week we had constant rain and temperatures in the forties. Finally late Wednesday afternoon the sun began to fight back. I have been for the most part housebound, lost in novels I have read and reread, this was my chance to escape!
I suggested to my wife that we go for a short ten minute hike to look for signs of spring. This turned into an hour long hike through a local spot near town we know of that winds through a few miles of land donated by a wise citizen several years ago.
We saw turtles basking on logs, heard spring birds, and saw some signs of buds but the trees and forest still seem a week or so from singing "spring is natures way of saying lets party".

But to be out again with my wife in the warm sun, listening to the first choruses of frogs and songbirds reminded me of how much

we all look forward to a new spring.

Two White Horses

Crawford County Kansas

I like this silhouette of the old rocking horse against the sky, taken in December. Thanks for all your well wishes. I'm feeling better every day, next week I am going out to wander out of doors.