Discovery Drafts

Wordless Wednesday

Last week, we celebrated Rio's birthday. Rio is my cousin Jayne's three-year-old Doberman pinscher.  He, like his half-sister Honor and brother in spirit Austin, is an incredibly well-behaved therapy dog who gets a lot of wary glances when he is out and about.  All three dogs are devoted to my cousin.  Austin, who is eight, is very sick with cancer and a heart problem.  When my nephew Adam met him last summer, he took to the old boy.  Even though Adam was in Connecticut last week, he was able to attend the party and visit with Austin. Jayne says it's better to get a photo of them with their mouths closed, but I go for the happy look.  Here's Honor: Clyde partook in his stately way. Maeve was at the party with her Havanese pal Beau, whom my cousin babysits just about every day of the week.  He is a lovable kook with very strong opinions about what he should be getting up to at any given moment.  Anyway, he and Maeve sat for me for this photo: It'

The neighbors' impatiens looked exceptionally pretty the other day--not quite the cliche of the flower pot that I've grown used to.  (Or maybe I'm seeing things differently these days.) Today's Flowers

Skywatch Friday

Wordless Wednesday

I've been in Providence, RI, since July 14 for a teachers' workshop of debatable value, but I have had many good walks all over the city, and every day reveals a new marvel.  For one thing, there is plenty of graffiti in this city.  Most of it is of the sticker variety--safe and pretty, funny and strange.  It's all well and good until it winds up on something very beautiful in its own right.  (That's a subjective statement, to be sure.  Graffiti on historic features irks me no end.  Stop signs and Dumpsters are fair game, though.) Walking along the River, I came across the city's memorial to the Irish people who either perished in or endured the Great Hunger and came to this amazing place. The memorial has a walkway and granite blocks bearing an explanation of what happened.  There is also this: Echoes of Michelangelo's Pieta are pretty obvious.  The son with his back to the loss and his mother as he s embarks on a new life in the New World is pre

Here are a few images from Topsail.  They are the ordinary things that make my day.  The first is seaweed on the Seaview Pier, and the other is a flower soaking in the light of the setting sun. Today's Flowers

Roger Williams watches over Providence, Rhode Island, from a hilltop just outside of the city.  The park where this statue stands is unusual in that you can't look up at the state's founder and say, "Cool dude," to yourself and ponder how much granite went into the making of his over-sized pilgrim slipper, never mind the rest of him because he has his back to the park.  I've been up to this site a few evenings this week, and it's nice to have his back with the many other people who come to the top of the hill to take in the view and watch the sun set.  It's a quiet place where young and old sit beside each other and the very young dance in the grass. Skywatch Friday

Wordless Wednesday

For me, this is the most exciting sight in the world. The the right of this image, you can detect the regular pattern of indentations in the sand.  They are turtle tracks.  Mama turtle made her way up the beach near our crossover the other night and entrusted our dune--and us--with the future of her brood. Check out the deep indentations in the sand. They are the marks her body left as she pulled herself forward along the beach she first knew when she came into the world. Sea turtles start their lives two feet below the surface of the sand.  After they break through their shells, they climb their way up to the surface and then make their way to the ocean.  Around here, they do that with the systematic, highly organized help of the turtle people, who do all they can to keep a safe, clear way between the nest and the shoreline for as long as it takes from the nest's due date to the final hatching. Here you can see the tracks mama made when she came down the du

Today's Flowers

Last week Adella and I got up early and went down to the pier to catch the sunrise.  We had the cameras ready to go the night before, so we had only to roll ourselves out of bed and get down the road.  The few fishermen who were up were silent and peaceful as can be; the only sound on the pier was our cameras.  We felt like intruders, but we got over it.  What a beautiful morning. Skywatch Friday

This is a young loggerhead turtle languishing in a tub in a North Carolina aquarium.  Every year, the aquarium at Fort Fisher takes three hatchlings and keep them for a year.  They release them, according to the girl at the turtle tub, when they are strong enough to make it in the ocean.  Yeah.....  So what about all those other turtles who are not the beneficiaries of human intervention?  Yeah. Wordless Wednesday

We got some new wheels for summer on the beach.  My daughter and her cousins have made triking cool.  These tricycles are a good, fuel-efficient way to lug junk to the beach and back. The beach is the best part of vacation.  It's everything and nothing. Dell had a go at the stand up board kayak thing.  Whatever it is, she didn't fall off--even if she did need a tow! We've gotten up early to try to catch the spirit of early morning on the water.  It is a wonderful and quiet time. The evenings are great, too. In short, it's all good. Our World Tuesday

It is not growing like a tree in bulk doth make man better be; Or standing long an oak, three hundred year, To fall a log at last, dry, bald, and sere, A lily of a day is fairer in May Although it fall and die that night, It was the plant of flower and light, In small proportions we just beauties see; And in short measures, life may perfect be. (Benjamin Johnson) Today's Flowers

Skywatch Friday

Wordless Wednesday

Last week, we visited Fort Fisher, which is south of Wilmington and was an important defense against Union naval forces during the Civil War.  The earthworks are in pretty good shape considering their age and Mother Nature's lack of concern for sites of historical significance.   This directional marker makes it pretty clear that times change, and Mother Nature doesn't get much consideration in the process. Of course we checked out the canon.  We couldn't see above the earthworks, though, and we wondered how much seeing your target had to do with firing at it. The walk around the fort took us through a marsh teeming with young birds and frogs and filled with tall grasses that kept these marvels hidden, for the most part. After our visit to the fort, we proceeded to the aquarium, where we met this box turtle prowling about for lunch and this albino 'gator who didn't much love being stuck in a kiddie pool when there's so much real water out