The picture says it all!
Sunday, December 23, 2007
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
DECEMBER 2007
MAGIC!
Computers can be so frustrating. Just now when I wanted to scan a picture, my computer told me that the scanner wasn’t connected, although it clearly was. It also told me that, if I was using a SCSI connection, I should restart my computer. That often solves problems and seemed to be a good idea, under the circumstances (even though I’m not using a SCSI connection), so I did a restart and, lo and behold, the scanner was connected again as far as my computer was concerned. I could just see that little old elf in my computer racing around at the speed of light, flipping switches here and there, working his magic until everything was in order again. So, do I know what the problem was? Not really! That little old elf never tells me.
The picture I was trying to scan was one a friend of mine, Carol Stohs, sent to Dickie and me a few weeks back. It was one she had done a little magic of her own on. I imagine you can tell what it was. Dickie had said something to the effect that she wished she were taller, so Carol (the one on the left) granted her wish.
I imagine you have some wishes you’d like to see come true this Christmas. May it be so!
STILL BIRD-WATCHING
The weather hasn’t been exactly right for indulging my hobby lately. Cloudy days are not great for my kind of photography, but I did manage to get another shot or two of an acorn woodpecker storing acorns away for harder times. Perhaps you’ve never seen their work. The acorn woodpecker is strictly a western and tropical phenomenon. What they do is clear from the picture below. What you don’t see in the picture is how they do this to the whole upper portion of the power pole. Notice that this guy is just beginning to hammer the acorn in tight, so tight that a squirrel will not be able to get it out. This is food only for another woodpecker.
CLOUDS OF STARLINGS
Migrating birds have been coming through our part of the world lately. Most recently it has been huge flocks of robins that seem to find something to eat in our empty vineyards. There are literally hundreds of them together. About a week ago Dickie and I noticed huge flocks of starlings that, seen from a distance, looked like black clouds expanding and contracting. This is a sight people all across the United States can see, if they watch for it at the right times, since starlings are now found across the length and breadth of our country and Canada. That’s interesting in the light of the fact that there were no starlings in North America until 1890 when about 60 of them were released in New York’s Central Park by a group of people who wanted to introduce all the birds mentioned by William Shakespeare in his plays. The picture below is of one of these clouds of migrating birds. The whole cloud was about five or six times this many.
MR. JACK RABBIT
Occasionally, when Dickie and I take our morning walk near a local vineyard we scare up a jack rabbit or two. This is one of four that we spotted the other day. I think he was sure that, if he didn’t move, we wouldn’t notice him.
BACK TO SHOLLENBERGER
We still make regular visits to Shollenberger Park in Petaluma. It’s a great place to find water fowl. One of the most beautiful birds is the egret. His grace in flight is almost unmatched, in my humble opinion. Here’s one that I captured on our last visit.
As I write this, we’re still a few days away from Christmas so let me take this opportunity to wish you a happy holiday season and a great New Year!
Computers can be so frustrating. Just now when I wanted to scan a picture, my computer told me that the scanner wasn’t connected, although it clearly was. It also told me that, if I was using a SCSI connection, I should restart my computer. That often solves problems and seemed to be a good idea, under the circumstances (even though I’m not using a SCSI connection), so I did a restart and, lo and behold, the scanner was connected again as far as my computer was concerned. I could just see that little old elf in my computer racing around at the speed of light, flipping switches here and there, working his magic until everything was in order again. So, do I know what the problem was? Not really! That little old elf never tells me.
The picture I was trying to scan was one a friend of mine, Carol Stohs, sent to Dickie and me a few weeks back. It was one she had done a little magic of her own on. I imagine you can tell what it was. Dickie had said something to the effect that she wished she were taller, so Carol (the one on the left) granted her wish.
I imagine you have some wishes you’d like to see come true this Christmas. May it be so!
STILL BIRD-WATCHING
The weather hasn’t been exactly right for indulging my hobby lately. Cloudy days are not great for my kind of photography, but I did manage to get another shot or two of an acorn woodpecker storing acorns away for harder times. Perhaps you’ve never seen their work. The acorn woodpecker is strictly a western and tropical phenomenon. What they do is clear from the picture below. What you don’t see in the picture is how they do this to the whole upper portion of the power pole. Notice that this guy is just beginning to hammer the acorn in tight, so tight that a squirrel will not be able to get it out. This is food only for another woodpecker.
CLOUDS OF STARLINGS
Migrating birds have been coming through our part of the world lately. Most recently it has been huge flocks of robins that seem to find something to eat in our empty vineyards. There are literally hundreds of them together. About a week ago Dickie and I noticed huge flocks of starlings that, seen from a distance, looked like black clouds expanding and contracting. This is a sight people all across the United States can see, if they watch for it at the right times, since starlings are now found across the length and breadth of our country and Canada. That’s interesting in the light of the fact that there were no starlings in North America until 1890 when about 60 of them were released in New York’s Central Park by a group of people who wanted to introduce all the birds mentioned by William Shakespeare in his plays. The picture below is of one of these clouds of migrating birds. The whole cloud was about five or six times this many.
MR. JACK RABBIT
Occasionally, when Dickie and I take our morning walk near a local vineyard we scare up a jack rabbit or two. This is one of four that we spotted the other day. I think he was sure that, if he didn’t move, we wouldn’t notice him.
BACK TO SHOLLENBERGER
We still make regular visits to Shollenberger Park in Petaluma. It’s a great place to find water fowl. One of the most beautiful birds is the egret. His grace in flight is almost unmatched, in my humble opinion. Here’s one that I captured on our last visit.
As I write this, we’re still a few days away from Christmas so let me take this opportunity to wish you a happy holiday season and a great New Year!
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