Beautiful Rhode Island

Zipped over to Rhode Island to visit my friend, Linda, for a week. She told me her husband was going out of town and did I want to come? Yeah, duh! We had a lot of fun together. We decided first off that we wanted to create Garden angels, which somehow we started calling our Garden Druids. Pretty much we worked on them almost the whole week (a little bit on them every day and then running out to shop, eat, beach it, etc. ) So it was a nice combo of doing a variety of things. We used a lot of organic items on them found at the beach or things we'd been saving "for just the right project". 

Here's mine at home in her new spot on the back porch: 

We hit the beach a few times looking for treasures, driftwood and taking pictures of the wildlife, rock stacking : 

Watched an Osprey momma feeding her crew

We also made our own upcycled dream catchers: 

and did some dyeing:

and lastly, you know i like my critters. they were to be seen everywhere!

we made the most of our time while enjoying art, friendship, cocktails, beautiful weather, nature and wildlife. couldn't have asked for a nicer more spontaneous vacation!

observing

there's been a lot of talk in the last year on the subject of "being in the present" instead of getting sidetracked by what has happened to us in the past or worrying about tomorrow. We are all guilty of this; as it is easy to get lost in our past. I just brought this up with someone recently as this person tends to reside in the past and when you reside in the past, you definitely aren't focused on what is going on around you. but i started thinking about it - how do we live in the present? how do we make ourselves participate on a daily level; what is the trick? after thinking about it for awhile, i decided one way to be present is to observe what is going on around you. take it in, notice, think about it, question it, learn from it and as you walk away take something positive from it. I thought i'd start posting some random observations from my walk through life and encourage you to share yours too.

So i'll start by sharing this observation with you. i looked out my kitchen window yesterday and was shocked to see this hawk sitting on one of my feeders. i ran upstairs as fast as i could and grabbed my camera. when i got back, i got to watch him through my zoom lens and was enchanted by the beauty of this bird. the colors of those feathers - oh how i wanted to pluck one from his tail! i watched him as he looked for food. his head turning in all directions as he searched. finally i could tell he was going to leave as he leaned forward and spread those amazing wings. quick as the shutter took its last picture, he was gone. then i called dillon to tell him what i saw.

mystery blue bird

today during all the rain, a mystery bird showed up in our yard. besides the bluejay, i've never had a blue colored bird in my yard, so i was quite excited. i'm guessing it might be an indigo bunting, but the picture in my bird book does not look like this bird - so am not really sure. anyone?

bird nerd

I'm sure you've been able to figure out that i am a bit of a bird nerd. i really enjoy photograhing them and wildlife in general. this morning as i was getting tucker ready for school i looked out at the feeding area i have set up right outside the kitchen window and saw a bird i'd never seen in our yard before (actually i've never see one like it at all). so i snapped a pic and just like that he flew off. getting out my bird book if found out that he is a Orchard Oriole. he wasn't in the feeder but on the ground and he was doing this funny little dance. reading in the book it says they eat insects, so my guess is, the dance with his feet was actually a "bug search". it was fun. i love getting to see new birds and even checked them off in my book! (told you , bird nerd!)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

now this is a picture of our friendly neighborhood woodpecker. he is very large and frequents our feeder alot. i've just never gotten my camera out in time before he flew off. well, he landed on the feeder moments after the Oriole took off, so i had my camera in hand. he does not like to eat when any other birds are on the feeder. he will actually stop eating and stare at the other bird until the other bird gets intimidated and flies off. then he'll proceed to finish snacking.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

this is the little chipmunk who lives under our deck and drives the westies crazy! he loves to come over to the feeder and snack away.

randomness

so a couple more days and i am out of here - heading to gorgeous San Diego. i have a few days to play and then 2 days of painting and fun with miss suzi blu. i think i am most excited for the sunshine. (unless a little black rain cloud plans of following me over there - which i won't be happy about....)

---------------------------------------------------------------


i'm still soliciting handmade cards of well wishes for JoAnna and Ron (see previous 2 posts). (and check out how great the fund is doing) i'd like to get a bunch of them! i've got a pretty box to put the cards in. any cards that arrive while i am gone, jeff will put into the box for me. right now my card is the only one in there and it's kind of lonely, but i know some are on the way- yay, thanks! (the picture above is the card i made them). email me at keeshagirl4@aol.com and i'll tell you where to send the cards. thanks.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

the other day, jeff and i went for a walk on the beach since it was actually sunny. on the way back home we drove by a pond and i saw some egrets (from a distance it looked like 2 egrets and a bunch of seagulls). so as we got closer, we realized it was not only 2 big egrets - but also 8 baby egrets! talk about a treat. of course, i did not have my camera with me and had an appointment to get to. so i had jeff go get my camera and after picking me up from my appt., we went back to see if they still were. yes! they were so fun to watch.

this picture was one of a few where i actually got all of them in one shot. so there's 2 parents and 8 babies.

an egret i spy

i've seen this guy a few times, but have never gotten a picture of him. he likes to hang out under the Belmar bridge by the Shark River Inlet. last year i saw him there when the tide was low, fishing under the bridge AND (i say that with great annoyance with myself!) i did not have my camera with me. so today i was happy to see him flying in to his regular spot.