Oh my, it’s been a hot one this week across all parts of the country. Here’s my dedication to the hot and humid heat of Hotlanta:
Feelin’ hot, hot, hot
Sticky, sweaty, frizzy mess
Come on October!
And because you’re probably singing it now, check out this blast from the past.
I was able to catch a few pictures with the good camera now that the babies are peeking their heads out of the nest a little. I’ll try to get more when there’s more light (and less blur). And check out the delightful sound of our baby birds: tweet, tweet, tweet
This is the second robin nest of the season this year, and we are keeping a close eye on things. After the bird homicide committed on our back deck on Thursday morning (Steve caught the falcon or hawk or whatever bird of prey red-handed/beeked), we are very happy that mamma robin has found a safe haven for her nest full of eggs (and now one baby bird) under our deck. While we haven’t had much rain the last few days, we’ve even put a plastic cover on top so that when it does, her nest and babies won’t get too soggy.
Baby mamma robin isn’t very skittish, and she’s allowed me to take quite a number of pictures of her in her nest. She is a proud mamma. I’ve also been able to get a few pictures inside the nest with the iPhone (there’s not enough clearance for a bigger camera). Here are a few pics that I’ve taken; I’ll continue to add more as the two other eggs hatch. Very exciting times!!
UPDATE! Baby #2 has arrived!
UPDATE! Baby #3 has hatched!
So I got this idea on my way home from work. There are many different days out there claimed for certain activities. On Twitter, for example, there’s #followfriday (or #ff) where you tweet the names of people you think are groovy enough to follow. Or, like our local radio station and probably many others – Two for Tuesdays – where they play two songs by the same artist. You get the point.
So I’m instituting my own day: Haiku Friday!!
Why? Because I can, and it’s fun. It’s haiku for crying out loud.
Why haiku? So “Haiku Friday” doesn’t start with the same letter nor does it have a catchy rhyme to it, but that’s what I love about haiku! I can’t remember in what grade I first learned it or how old I was, but I do remember loving it and loving the idea of creating “poetry.” Check out Wikipedia to refresh your memory on haiku.
Why Friday? Well what better day to be creative and have fun? You’re at work, it’s 4 o’clock, not time to leave yet but surely not enough time to start anything before you do. Great time for haiku!
Let’s get started! Everyone remember the one simple rule of haiku? That’s right, the 5-7-5 thing. There are three lines to a haiku poem: the first line is 5 syllables, second line is 7 syllables, and the last line 5 syllables. No rhyming necessary.
So here we go, my first haiku on my first Haiku Friday in celebration of this 4th of July:
July 4th weekend
Peachtree Road Race on Sunday
Our first 10k race!
So no pictures this time, folks. Just good clean poetry. And if you’d like to share your haiku on this Friday…
Have a great holiday weekend!!
I’ve spent some time wandering around the homestead over the last week, taking pictures along the way. Here are a few things I discovered (and subsequently photographed for your viewing pleasure):
We are dog sitting, Kaiser, my friend Michelle’s boxer. He is a laid-back, very sweet dude. And very unlike our crazy Cricket. I had the opportunity to take a few pictures of him throughout the weekend. While he tolerated it, you can tell he wasn’t really that into it. Funny, every time I grabbed the camera, someone got a little jealous….
I spent some time around Oakland Cemetery where many famous Atlanta folks are buried. There’s something really calming to me about cemeteries. When I was younger, I remember visiting my grandfather McCrerey’s cemetery in PA. Walking over a number of grave sites to get to my grandfather’s felt extremely creepy, like I was walking on top of people. Now I feel a lot of peace and solitude in cemeteries and really enjoyed spending a few hours in this one on Sunday until my camera pooped out on me (still not sure what that’s all about, but I’m keeping an eye on things). Here are a few of the photos I took. Enjoy!
My friend, Michelle, pointed me in the direction of this fabulous graffiti in Atlanta. We made a special trip out to it after dinner on Friday night, and this picture, well, it speaks for itself:
So I dusted off a book – The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron – that I’ve had for a number of years, but read a little bit of a long time ago and then stored it somewhere. And then I moved, and moved, and moved, and lost track of it, also losing track of the reason I wanted to get the book in the first place ~ I want to be more creative. I’ve spent many years using my logic brain. Not just in my career, where I’ve chosen safe and financially stable paths but also in my everyday life (“I should probably spend the day cleaning rather than enjoying the day or doing something to exercise my creative spirit.”) Over the years I’ve looked high and low for ways to express my creative side. There were pottery classes and drawing classes and guitar classes, etc. you get the point, and after every one I’d just go back to work and the real world and not spend much time doing any of those things.
So now I’m making a commitment to myself to let my creative self out and (hopefully!) thrive. It’s why I’m taking up photography, and why I hope to pursue other interests that once I start spending some time being creative, I think will come alive.
The first step to doing this, per The Artist’s Way, is to recover a sense of safety, giving yourself the freedom and permission to listen to your inner artist, nurture it and not judge yourself, or beat yourself up, or listen to unfair critics that may be jealous of what you’re trying to accomplish, what you’re willing to put out there. It takes baby step – painting bad pictures, writing bad poetry or taking crappy photographs. You can’t judge those first attempts, because that only discourages your artistic self from “continued exploration,” for improving and making oneself better. So you must make mistakes, you must stumble and get back up. You must ask the stupid questions about the camera you just purchased. And you should make slow and steady progress while not expecting perfection.
And on the perfection note, I also recently ran across a newsletter article by Wendy Watkins, a personal and business coach and creator of PassionFruit and The Joy Factor, as well as a fellow Decaturite. The article, 5 Ways to Get Started without Being Perfect, specifically addressed this issue of not starting something until we have it down perfectly. As a perfectionist in almost everything I do, this rang so true for me. Bottom line, in Wendy’s words “Don’t let perfection hold you back from taking the actions needed to achieve your perfect idea of what you want to be, do or have!” And I’m not. So here goes with some more pictures I took this weekend, at home and around Oakhurst. I know these aren’t perfect, and I’m 110% ok with that. My personal favorites are “Camo Cat” (we’re still not sure if Cricket ever saw the cat), “Dog Waste,” mostly because of the very fine illustration (where exactly is the poop coming from?) and “Mirror,” where Cricket’s like, wtf?
Here are a few of my very first photos with the new camera and of my less than patient, yet beautiful, model:
Indigoat Photo 