Two of my pleasures, in one poem: reading and looking at birds. Oh man. Not sure I’d always choose birds over books, but on these beautiful fall days, when the sun is warm and the birds are migrating (and especially when I have the chance to get outside and band them), birds definitely win out. Though I do love to lose myself in the words of others, it’s hard to ignore the amazing poetry flying overhead and all around. Continue reading
reading
A Few Things That Make Me Happy
A Few Things That Make Me Happy
A List In No Particular Order
Anhingas also make me happy. Because they’re awesome. I mean, come on. Look at that eye makeup and hairdo. Red eye, blue eye-liner, green eyeshadow, artfully disarrayed frosted spikes. Hotness.
Everglades National Park, Florida
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savoring a cup of tea while wrapped in a blanket in front of the woodstove.
Or savoring a cup of tea while sitting on a rocky beach in Cape Breton Highlands National Park in Nova Scotia, because you don’t have any pictures of leisurely tea drinking by the woodstove.
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waking, realizing there is no real reason to be up yet, and staying in bed, eyes closed, half awake/half asleep, dreaming.
Camping up on Black Balsam, in Pisgah National Forest, North Carolina.
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the smell of walking through a pine forest in the cool just after dawn.
H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest, Oregon. I took this in May 2010. If I recall correctly, it rained pretty much the entire three months I was in Oregon.
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the sound of woodpeckers tapping and hammering on branches.
Red-cockaded Woodpecker, Carolina Sandhills NWR, South Carolina. I spent a great deal of time chasing them around in the woods. It was fun. Other than the chiggers and the poison oak.
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getting sucked into a good book for hours, and only coming up for air when you desperately have to pee. Or eat.
This has nothing to do with reading a good book, but surprisingly I don’t have any pictures of me reading. So here’s a picture I took of a Lava Gull and chick in the Galapagos Islands back in 2008. The adult is in breeding plumage, which is why it has the red eye-ring. And, it’s eye is closed. It’s napping. Parenting is exhausting, from what I hear.
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having progressively logically ridiculous conversations, that are in turns creative, silly, and in a strange way logical.
Like planning our post-apocalyptic commune, or our skunk ape/NASA/unicorn conspiracy theory, or pretty much any time Meghan, Patrick, and I opened our mouths.
Skunk Ape Research Headquarters, Ochopee, Florida. Based on the drawings (which are based on a first-person description from someone who wasn’t the artist) in the “Skunk Ape Research Handbook,” that is totally a gorilla statue, not a skunk ape.
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the smell of a rock wall, on the 2nd or 3rd pitch of a multi-pitch route.
Climbing Castleton Tower with Max. I recommend climbing desert towers with someone who doesn’t say, “You know, if this tower fell over we’d be screwed” as you reach the belay on the 3rd of 4 pitches. Near Moab, Utah.
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singing along as loud as I please to a good song on the radio.
Thankfully I have no pictures of myself singing, so here’s another cool bird picture (you can never have too many). This is a Purple Gallinule, a sweet bird that lives in Florida. They live other places too, but this one lives in Everglades National Park. Well, that’s where I saw it. Maybe it was just on vacation.
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snuggling with my dog in my tiny bed
Extra happiness: snuggling with both a dog and a cat. All those blond pet hairs covering your person and clothing are just pet love stuck all over everything in your life.
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riding my mountain bike down Game Creek trail, where I discovered one of the meanings of the world “exultation.”
One of the many beaver ponds along the trail. Bridger-Teton National Forest, Wyoming.
And here’s a video of what is probably a Ruffed Grouse on Game Creek. It’s a good thing I ride slow, otherwise I might have run it over. These birds could definitely use some street-smarts.
Look both ways before you cross RUGR!
Books I Read* This Weekend
*I can pretend I read each of these in their entirety, but that wouldn’t be true. Some of them I finished, others I just read a few chapters. Though it may not appear so, I do in fact have other responsibilities, and wasn’t able to just spend the entire weekend on the couch. I had to like, get up and eat a few times. And attend to the well-being of three little dogs and one little sister (none of which are technically mine, I’ve just unofficially adopted them all).
As you might be able to tell from this list, I tend to read a variety of subject matters. It’s important to be a well-rounded reader. Makes life much more interesting that way, don’t you think?
Embrace knowledge and reading.
Or at least large rocks.
Books I Read This Weekend:
- Travels In Siberia, by Ian Frazier
- Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? by Mindy Kaling
- The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures, by Anne Fadiman
- The Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern
The first two I finished, the second two I continued/officially started. Almost done with The Night Circus. It’s excellent: a darkly colored tale of magic and romance and striped circus tents. I’ll probably finish that one in the next day or so, it’s hard to put down. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down is also a good one, though slightly different subject matter (as you could probably tell by the full title). I had seen it in various bookstores when I was traveling in Vietnam, but didn’t want to spend the money and then have to haul it around during my travels. Found it at Goodwill once I got home, so I snapped it up for 50 cents. Very, very interesting. Also recommended, if you’re looking for a non-fiction read about the medical field.
Lots of cups of tea, lots of books, lots of reading.
Tales From A Wandering Albatross 