What did you see on your walk?

Louise - someone else ID'd them as purple, or more likely house finches on top and the bottom one as a dark-eyed junco.

I missed the little junco the first time. I love them. We have many of them in NH. How nice that they were sharing!! LOL

Hey - isn't anyone walking????? How about sleepwalking??? Come on now, get those sneakers on and get out there! I know you're walking from the car into the house....so what did you see????

I didn't get a shot of this today, but we scared off a beautiful night heron this morning as we walked up to stand on the seawall by the river. Just below me in the rocks was the night heron, who took one look at me and flew away. (Hey, it was morning and I didn't have any makeup on!) I couldn't get the camera open fast enough to catch him, but he was very cool!

This is not a great shot, but we did see a large hawk who has been hanging out in the 'hood. He was perched on a phone line. I had to take the shot looking into the sun, so .....not the greatest shot, but you'll at least get the idea. Ooops - I just previewed the photo and this isn't the photo of the hawk.....This was one of the sky colors that didn't end up photographing well. I'll post the hawk in a minute......sorry!

ok.....here's the hawk.......

Looks cold - 75/80?

I was happy to find a place to have lunch

Have to take your word on the hawk.
I do like the view down the sidewalk there.

Here's my bird pic - it's a hawk ;)

Yeah - in looking at that pic of "my hawk", I can see why you might be skeptical. I could be passing off a hummer as a hawk from that distance! I do have SOME principles though......LOL Of course, down here, the hummer is harder to see than the hawk! That sidewalk leads straight to the seawall at the river. That's where we were coming from when I took that hawk shot.

Nice lunch shot, Al.........nice to see that you cleaned up the table after lunch! LOL Thanks for walking with me!!

Not going outside 'till it warms up.

Saw the big hawk again this morning - this time sitting on top of the chimney of the house that is in the first post of this thread. I was dying not to have my camera, but still hadn't gotten a new battery. We got one this afternoon, so I'm hoping Henry Hawk will be hanging around the area tomorrow.

My battery is fine ;)~

No nongulls around, although I should be able to get some eagle pics pretty soon I would think.
Practice your surfing?

Al - now that I have my new battery, I sure am hoping I can get a close-up of this big hawk - it's a credibility thing now!! LOL Honest.....he's really big! Not as big as the bald eagle that landed in our yard the first week we were here, but BIG. No surfing......too many non-friendly critters in the River! Do you really have eagles where you are?

We have 2 eagle nests within a mile of here. One is hard to get close to - the other one is a hundred yards of the street. They should be back on their nests in late January.

Awful to say... I've never seen a bald eagle.

If you can make me some wings...

not by a long shot!

i think i saw that movie - the bird man of...

I have a new battery for my camera, and this morning was "very interesting" on our walk. Three doors away from our house, we came upon this osprey in the top of the Hong Kong Orchid Tree......

...and then, the illusive hawk (the one that Al accused me of fabricating...LOL) obliged by appearing close enough for me to capture him. Isn't he cool??

We thought we saw a jellyfish floating in the river, but on closer scrutiny, it turned out to be a paper floating just under the surface......

Nice pics Louise!

Thanks, Harper! How are you doing?? I think about you often! Hope life is treating you well and continues to do so during the holidays!

Awwwww! I'm hanging in there. Well, mostly I'm great and I'm grateful daily. Just got notice from my son's teachers that he's getting failing marks. That has been very difficult, but we're healthy and happy! Woohoo!

I dare not go out for a walk today. I didn't even like standing on the stoop, but I took these pictures for you.

My dog Shadow was enjoying it!

Not quite sure how the gnome was feeling, but he still wears his happy face.

Oh, Wow! I like looking at it from down here! LOL! It does look pretty....

I feel for you concerning your son's grades. Having been there....there is just no way to spare the kids some pain. I hope he adjusts and turns it around at school. The best advice I can share is to not give him the burden of being your surrogate spouse. And.....I worked very hard to never say anything negative about my son's Dad and to just listen and be there. It is not an easy situation for anyone. I have several friends who villainized their ex-spouse to their kids - who became pawns in a tug-of-war emotionally. They couldn't seem to see the painful impact on the kids. You have to bite your tongue sometimes (even now), but it is so much better to show respect for their other parent. When my DH and I got married, we included vows to our kids in our ceremony. One vow was to always respect their other parents in our home. I think it meant a lot to them to hear that said out loud.

Cool shots, Harper! I love little Shadow....what a cutie!!

Awww, thanks Louise. Actually, in spite of us getting divorced, I get along very well with my husband. However, (I feel like a soap opera) Sam's dad and I split long ago. He lives an hour away and Sam goes for weekend visits. I make sure I never say anything bad about either of them. My father spoke poorly of my mother to me when they got divorced and I hated it.

Sorry to hear about your son's difficulty. Do you think he may be affected by what's going on? Or is he getting to that age where he's into other things - friends, etc.?

That's a much better shot Louise.

Harper - You have that roaming gnome guy there I think.

Thanks, Al. He really is cool! So is the Osprey. Last winter he was up in that Hong Kong Orchid tree most mornings when we walked, and that was before I knew how to use a digital camera at all. This year we were thinking that he had been locked up in Sing Sing since he hasn't been in "his" tree since we've been here. Then, voila! This morning, there he was.

Harper - sounds like you have taken a good approach with Sam, and maybe Victor has a point.....could be just the age that boys start goofing off for effect in general! LOL

Thanks Victor. I think it's the beginning of the end: THE TEENAGE YEARS. Ugh. He's good overall. Home life has got to get to him sometimes, like it does me, but I use the opportunity to teach him how to get along even though everything's not always 'peachy keen'. His social skills have improved tremendously. He and I both have gratitude in spite of what's going on.

Al: roaming gnome? Mine stays put. Well, he did move once, but he didn't want to. I picked him up this spring when it was still cold out and he came with me, but his feet stayed firmly planted in the soil. After that, I had to glue him back together and give him a serious chastizing.

This message was edited Dec 13, 2007 7:56 PM

these are my nasty little gnomes, named useless and worthless. and they are. they do nothing but play and laugh all day and make rude remarks to passersby! they hate their santa hats so i make them wear em all winter! that'll show em.

that is so cute!

Cool. Did you make them? What do you feed them?

Those things remind me of the movie the Langoliers. If thats the case they eat everything!

Kudrick, those are sooo cool!!! I love them!!

Kudrick - have you found the Happy Birthday thread yet???? I haven't checked yet tonight to see if you have discovered it. LOL

Your mischievous gnomes look like they could be real troublemakers! Very cool!

they are nasty, nasty, nasty!! i feed them used cat litter, it's the only thing seem they like, but if any neighborhood cats go missing, i'll know where to look!

langoliers! absolutely. they was my first thought when i saw them in the uncommon goods catalog. i am a diehard king fan.

saw the birthday threads. very nice. had a good one.

uncommon goods has a new gnome this year: she is applying red lipstick and holding a compact mirror. she too looks very nasty!

they also have one holding a flower!!! (it's on my christmas list)

What did Useless and Worthless do for you for your birthday?

they bit me