Birds of Delta Ponds

Sunday, Mark and I went for a walk through Delta Ponds.  They're connected to the Willamette River, so I think that makes them an ox-bough.  The City of Eugene designated them a park, and it's home to water fowl, osprey, nutria, and otters.  We were hoping to see the otters we saw last Thursday, but we didn't.

Mark was better at spotting birds than I was, possibly because he thinks to look up, and I am usually looking at where my feet are going or am trying to frame a photo in my camera.  We weren't quite sure what this wood duck was at first because it was up in the trees.

Normally, we visit Delta Ponds in the evening, so we had to travel to the east side of the ponds to get good light and color on the birds.  This is my favorite shot of a red-winged black bird -- I like their call, too.

This is not a robin, it's a... um... oh, darn -- I'll have to ask Mark again.

 Across the lakes we saw a nutria at the edge of Goose Island.  Or a Goose Island.  This part of the ponds had Sentinel Geese, standing on every promontory and apparently keeping watch over the waters -- this one came down to see what the nutria was up to.

I think the Sentinel Geese were incubating eggs. 










Duck Butt!

 When we started our hike, we walked under an osprey platform.  Photographing it was tricky and I too a few bad shots of it.  Coming back, Mark saw another osprey snacking on a fish.  We would have liked to have seen it fishing, but watching it eat was cool, too.

Of course, I had to trick my camera into focusing on the osprey and not the branches, and there are many deleted photos of twigs and trees in the foreground.

We left the ponds, lingering for a moment to see if the otter might show, but it didn't.  In the distance, the osprey continued its meal.

Hiking Bribe Sandwich

For the last few days, Mark has been wanting to go up Spencer's Butte or Mt. Pisgah, but hasn't had enough umph to do so.  This was sad because being in the woods and hiking rejuvenates Mark.   I decided that if The Family went, Mark would be more likely to go.  I enlisted the help of The Child.  This required some negotiation.

Me:  "Mark's been wanting to hike, and I think if we all go, he'll be more likely to."

The Child:  "Oh... Kay..."

Me:  "So Saturday, we should all get up first thing in the morning and climb up Spencer's Butte."

TC:  "Uh -- but what about videos?"

Me:  "We'll start early so we get back early and you can still Saturday binge watch your regular allotment."

TC:  "Can't you go without me?"

Me:  "Bud, Mark's been kind of bummed about not hiking, and I could use your support helping him.

TC: "..."

Me:  "I'll pack a breakfast."

TC (eyes lighting up):  "We can stop at McDonald's and get a McMuffin?"

Me (trying not to roll my eyes or make hacking noises):  "Ugh.  No.  Um.  I'll make you a McMuffin at home and we can eat it up on top."

TC: "You'll make it with 'Merican cheese?"

Me:  "Yes."

TC:  "And those sausage links."

Me:  "I can get some sausages."

TC:  "No, they need to be those little sausage things they put on the side."

Me:  "How about I chop up the bacon and put it into the eggs?  With cream cheese.

TC: "Bacon?  (clearly tempted)  Maybe I could do a bait-and-switch.  You could say, 'Come on Mark, we're going,' and I could get into the car, and then I could slip out the back and into the house and you guys could go without me."

Me:  "If you don't go on the hike, there's no McMuffin.  Come on, bud, this is to get Mark into the woods.

TC (resigned):  "Okay."

* * *

Saturday morning I roused myself from bed, started the water for Mark's coffee (and my tea), and fired up the stove top.  The crescent moon shone about twenty degrees away from Saturn (alas, their conjunction the day before was clouded over).  

Luckily, we live near a meat market, so I had some Canadian Bacon slices and some American Cheese.  It wasn't the original bacon plan, but I vaguely remember ham or something being layered in the original breakfast sandwich, and -- more importantly -- the folks at the meat market had suggested Canadian Bacon when I told them I was making a Hiking Bribe Sandwich.  I tried pouring the scrambled egg-and-cream-cheese into a round cookie cutter to make a kind egg patty, but the the egg either seeped out of the bottom or adhered to cutter, so I just scrambled the eggs as best as I could and kept things as thick as possible.  Once everything was cooked, I assembled the sandwiches and wrapped them up in waxed paper for that cheap-fast-food presentation.

I packed sandwiches, fruit, beverages, and my camera, and -- amid accusations of being an autocrat -- got everyone into the car.   I want to say we got to the parking lot at 8.  It was mostly empty, which was nice, as on pleasant Saturdays Spencer Butte is a popular destination (editor's note: borne out by a friend later).   Someone chose the Steep Route up the west side of the butte, and we got a round of cardio in climbing up to the top.  

At first, The Child ranged in front of us, but we overtook him about two-thirds of the way up.  The ferns on the lower slope were still flattened by last month's foot of snow.  Farther along, uprooted Douglas firs and ponderosa pines lay fallen on the ground or smashed against still standing trees.  Chainsawed segments had been rolled off of the path.   I'd worked up a sweat climbing the shaded side of the butte, and as my head popped up out of the shade, I discovered we'd been climbing in the lee of the butte, too.

Low clouds loomed in the distance surrounding the northern part of the valley, and trees in the meadows between Spencer Butte and Mt. Pisgah cast long shadows through the fog.  Mt. Jefferson poked up through the haze, and the Three Sisters huddled together in the gauze on the horizon.  Saturn and the stars were gone, but the crescent moon sailed the southern sky.

The brisk wind helped unfurl the ground cover, and we needed to anchor the leading edge to keep it from bunching up.  The Child foraged through the insulated bag and ripped into a sandwich.  I poured myself some tea.  Mark bit into a marshmallow-chocolate-chip-mint treat I'd bought, laughed, and said it tasted like the mint toothpaste he hates.  The Child gave the sandwich a rating of 10.  I passed out cloth napkins with a sense of smug accomplishment.  It wasn't exactly a Martha Stewart picnic, but as I sipped my tea, in my head I heard peppy, make-over show music playing.

Spring Moon and Jupiter

 This morning the Moon and Jupiter were in the sky.  I got better shots of them using the manual settings (the moon setting made the moon too bright).

On the gym front:  went yesterday and eased into my routine.  I'm doing the rows on an inclined bench so I don't make my back worse.  I'm feeling the cable pulls in my chest this morning.

Spring Equinox Full Moon

I'd been keeping an eye on the eastern hills, which glowed red in the sunset, but the moment of the day's end slipped by unremarked during dinner.  (Equinox Quiche, both of which have Q's in them.)

We were distracted by dinner and video games, so we missed the full moon rising during the first evening of Spring. 

 Mark wisely suggested taking photos in the front driveway, which is not as netted against the sky by power and phone lines.

 I fiddled around with various automatic and manual settings to get different types of shots.  If the shutter speed was 1/60th of a second, I got clear lunar features, but no clouds.  If it was 1/2 of a second, the clouds came through, but haze and lunar glare made the moon look like a sunset.

At some point Mark accused me of not actually looking at the moon -- I had, but he had a point, and I straightened up from hunching over the camera and stared and stared and stared.

Rituals and Emergency Preparedness

These snowdrops were blooming around the corner, so I used the macro setting on the camera to take this photograph of them.

The Equinox and Full Moon are in about 36 hours (Wednesday).  I thought that it might be nice to have a picnic dinner out on our lawn or deck, but the forecast is for mostly cloudy with a chance of rain. 

Which is good; I'm sure we need the rain.  But I'm not quite in the space where I want to do something semi-celebratory in the overcast and cold. 

On a more practical side, I was thinking that one action I might incorporate into the eight solar stations would be to renew emergency water and food supplies and consume supplies before they go bad.  (Yes, there was an earthquake awareness training at work today....)  Since you're only supposed to keep water for six months, a water container secured around Halloween would be used around May Day.  I can see how ritual water would be used... I have to think more about ritually eating emergency snacks. 

Artsy Cat Shots

 I took some photos of the cats the other day.  Smokey's photos came out looking odd, and quite a few of Cicero came out out-of-focus.  But I got a few artsy cat shots.

Story prompt:  if you found the right link in a fence, what would it show you? 

 Story prompt:  the humans didn't know what was lurking under the deck.

Story prompt:  In my past life, I was a priest of Isis in Egypt, during the Fourth Dynasty.

Final Days of Winter

Sunday felt like Spring had come a few days early.  The ground is still wet from the rain and snow of earlier weeks, but the sun was out and the grass was dry enough for mowing.

The Equinox will be in three days, and the full moon is just three hours afterward.

In a few weeks, the sun will set north of west, and the tilting shadows of  evening will be replaced by the side-swipe of shade from the southwest corner of the house. 

Andre Norton and Dreams

I just finished a new (to me at least) Andre Norton novel, "Scent of Magic," (written in 1998).  It was a fun, light read, and it reminded me of "Catseye" (1961).   I was reading for fun, but I was also lightly paying attention to how she jumped from point-of-view within chapters.   I think if I were going to do a homage or pastiche, I'd need to write about a young person, who is a member of a family/clan that has fallen from grace/privilege, working in an oppressive work place, who discovers and is aided by really smart animals, becomes the protege of someone with Old Knowledge, and is drawn into a centuries-old struggle between otherworldly Good and ancient Evil.   Extra points for blending tech, telepathy, and magic.

I think a side effect of reading for pleasure is that I'm remembering my dreams more.  Since I build pictures in my head as I read, I'm guessing that part of my brain is primed and ready for more when I sleep.  I dreamt Mark and I were trying to have a conjugal moment, but continued instances of no privacy -- one involving a after-show parade of 1920's flappers straight from a theatrical review -- prevented us.

The Moon and Orion (Again)

 We got home just as the last of the blue left the evening sky.  The moon was between Orion and Taurus.  I managed to get a wide shot with Sirius in the lower left-hand corner and the Moon on the other side of Orion on the upper-right.

 I played around with various settings.  I hadn't realized how much haze the camera was picking up, and I wish we'd gotten home a little earlier because the bluer sky would have compensated.  The best shots seemed to be with the Moon Setting.  When I tried manual settings, the shutter speed was too fast.

I tried to get a shot of the Moon and the constellation of Taurus, but the pictures didn't come out with the V of the bull showing up so well.  I think the camera's auto-focus works best when the moon is half full.

The Moon and Aldebaran

 After I came home from writing Tuesday night, I saw that the Moon and Aldebaran were out. 

 Rain had been forecast, so I was a little surprised to be able to see them.  Instead of going to bed, I grabbed the camera and took pictures of them.

 Of course, the clouds rolled in.  This isn't always a bad thing, as they can add some interesting effects (and moonbows!). 

Tomorrow night, if it is clear, I'll see if I can get the Moon and Orion in the same photo.

Orion and the Moon

When I was an undergraduate, I could always tell how late I'd stayed up by how far up in the sky Orion was.  I knew that I'd stayed out way too late if he was on the left-hand side of the rooftop.  It was a little like having an older brother looking down at me (and sometimes shaking his head) as I unlocked the front porch.

 The sky has cleared. and I've been able to take pictures of the stars and the moon.  I'm guessing this will change soon.

Lingering Snow

I haven't been writing or exercising much because my back is still out of whack from snow shoveling last week.  It's probably a pulled muscle, and I'm crossing my fingers that I'll recover completely in another week or so. 

In family news, we went to a freshman orientation at the local high school.  It has about the same population as my old high school, so it didn't feel to weird to me, at least.  The child seems mildly excited about it, and we saw a number of kids he knows, so it won't be like he's going to school in a foreign country or anything.

Weather wise it's been cold, which means that the snow that fell last week is still lingering on the north sides of buildings and in mounds in parking lots.  There was about two hours' worth of snow yesterday, but it really didn't stick to anything.  There was a snow rainbow during this, which we decided should be called a snowbow (not to be confused with an obscure wind instrument).  This is good for the snowpack, and has improved the drought outlook for the coming summer.

Kitties Sleeping

 Before Cicero became part of our household, Smokey used to sleep with Mark and me.  Ever since that day about two and a half years ago when Smokey hissed and ran out of the bedroom, we've felt a little sad that the 16 pound older cat was displaced so quickly by a 4 pound kitten.

Okay... um, yeah, Cicero is a descended from barn cats and has no sense of boundaries.  

And, Smokey has been known on occasion to do a sumo-ninja move by rolling with a Cicero pounce, resulting with Cicero landing on his side instead of on Smokey like he had planned.

 Fast forward to this week, where I discovered them sleeping and actually touching.

And, of course, as soon as I typed this, Cicero went up to Smokey, who was on the bed, and started biting him.  Sigh.

Anatomy Lesson

Oregon Snow Week

Last Monday I pulled something in my lower back shoveling snow out of the driveway.  Let me tell you, it is humbling and annoying to not be able to put on one's own socks.  The muscles in my left hip decided they wanted to help my back muscles, and their contribution was to seize up my hip and make everything spasm if I tried to do anything approaching lifting my left knee.  Luckily, rest and drugs have restored most of my flexibility, and I can now do things like tie my own shoes and get into and out of cars (or out of bed) without the use of a cane.  I'm afraid The Child may have learned some new swear words. 

Eugene has been functionally shut down by 13 inches of snow for most of the last week.  Luckily, we didn't lose power, but lots of people in the area did.  The local school district had snow days every day but Friday.  The University shut down Monday and Wednesday, and opened last Tuesday and Thursday.  I learned that, even though there's no clutch in the car, I still drive a bit with my left leg (ouch!) and that potholes in the road really do transmit vibrations through the car's frame.

Today (3/3) the snows has mostly melted off of the streets and sidewalks, but anywhere were that is shaded still has snow.   The small hills of snow in store parking lots remind me of my winters in Minnesota decades ago.

On the writing front:  I got a two day rejection.   Between not being able to sit in one position for any length of time and the roads being too icy for travel, I haven't gotten any actual writing in.  I have been reading for pleasure as much as a speculative fiction writer can.

On the gym front:  Arg.  I'm pretty sure that I should hold off on the rowing exercises for another week.  And the cable core twists.   I guess I'll have extra time for the ellipticals.

A big shout out to Mark for having to deal with an invalid.