Busy Weekend!

After my Dr. appointment Friday, we went to the zoo with my parents, as I mentioned before. Here are a few of my favorite shots from what DH (the professional) took. I'm glad he got the Markhor because I couldn't see him well from my chair, even when I tried standing a bit.








I didn't bother to go up the boardwalk to the Lion enclosure, either. Boy, is my hubby good, or what?!?!?






These next shots are from yesterday. DH, Si and I went to Highbanks Metropark for a short visit to the nature center there. It is always fun to sit at the window and watch to see who shows up at the feeders. I loved the pics DH got of them all, but these are my 2 faves. There were about 4 little Red-bellied woodpeckers going back and forth between the feeders and the trees.

This Blue Jay had a nice little snack, too!








After a little while, I went out to the deck for some nature time with knitting. :-)

More Birding pics and a Meme

First the meme - please post your answers to these questions either in my comments, or on your own blog, and then let me know you've posted!

4 Things to know about me: I love puppets, I love to tell and listen to stories, being around people cheers me up, I'm generally a positive/happy person even in the midst of trials

4 things that may surprise you: I sometimes lose sleep at night worrying, I have never bitten my nails, I sometimes like to be alone, I used to be even more talkative than I am now

4 jobs I have had: Librarian, puppeteer, seamstress, music teacher

4 places I've lived: Columbus . . . Boardman, Ohio . . . Grove City, PA during college (only 2 for me)

4 favorite foods: sushi, cheese, dark chocolate with nuts, high quality ice cream

4 favorite TV shows: The Muppet Show, Ned's Declassified, Wild Thorneberrys, The Simpsons

4 places I'd rather be right now: on a beach, camping in the mountains, with friends at a coffee shop knitting, sleeping

4 people who will post answers: Yarmando, Aunt Gerry, Mom, CychoLibrarian and maybe Sock Princess (yes, I know that is 5)

Now for a few pics . . . here you see my Mom, Mike, Dave (if you look closely you can see him kneeling behind my mom) and another birder, all trying to identify a warbler. Warblers are all small birds, smaller than my fist, all about the same shape. They're tricky to ID because they're all the same silhouette. I was not up to the task, but I did enjoy seeing and hearing them.

This is a cool shot of the fallen trees. I like the rugged, un-touchedness of this.

Here is a cool log - rotted out and growing new plants. My mom called it "nature's planter" and her pic of it was better than mine, but I figure I'll be humble and show you mine. Sigh.

This is a little barn swallow posing for me. I was close enough to touch him, but he was being very indignant.

This is why - he was protecting his nest. You can see the tail feather sticking out if you look closely. This is right at the entrance to the visitor's center. Very cool. Did I mention we saw over 100 species on Saturday? Well . . . Mike saw them. I wrote them down, and I saw some of them . . . but not all.

Happy Birthday, Old Man!

Friday was my husband's birthday. We drove up to Lake Erie - Port Clinton, Ohio - and met up with my parents. Friday evening we went out to the lakeshore to watch for boats and see the sunset. Here are my dad and Simon. This is an echo from a picture we took about 10 years ago of them doing the same thing - I'll post that soon.

Here is Si, telling Pop-pop about Boy Scouts or something. It's great to see them talking like this. I find it very comforting and cozy.

Here are my mom and hubby, both watching things on the lake. I just thought it was funny, them facing different directions.

Here is the sunset. You can even see the lovely nuclear power plant there. Aaah - how romantic. It made me feel like we were the Simpsons.

And here is the first pic of Saturday - a Baltimore Oriole feeding on an orange. Beautiful. We saw over 100 species of birds Saturday!