Connecting Where We Can

I wander a lot. I try to wander with my camera in my hand. Today I did that and I gasped with joy when I saw how this shot of a cat near the yoga studio came out this afternoon. I am putting it here because if you click on it you can see it full sized.

Here is a link to a slideshow about a community of beekeepers in Boston. We find connection to the natural world where we can.

Don't Forget Earth Hour

Very Zen. The tree right outside my home office window this evening.

Next year I am so going to organize an Earth Hour yoga class. By candle light or maybe even by flashlight.

Haven't had time to develop my yoga warm up for bird watching practice yet but in the meantime here is an excellent half hour practice by my beloved teacher all about the neck and shoulders.

One needs to have some range of motion to do it but I highly recommend this practice.

Thank You Mr. Lewis

I didn't take this. One of the guys in my Beginning Birder II class took it with his SLR yesterday afternoon. This is a Lewis's Woodpecker. A very auspicious bird to see in Western Oregon. This guy was in a gnarly old oak down just outside the Ankeny National Wildlife Refuge near Salem.

I am sure the bird has a native name too.

It took 12 of us about 12 minutes of very concentrated peering to find him but once we did it was very exciting. I had seen one a few years ago at Powell Butte with Kes but still this one was a joy to watch.

My link today is for this cool new program for learning to identify birds by their songs called Lark Wire. I am so going to try this out when I find anything that vaguely resembles spare time. :)

Scant Protection

Took this earlier in the day. It was drizzling and a guy was standing under a sister tree to this one smoking a cigarette and looking at his cell phone. He was wearing a t-shirt and jeans, no coat or hat.

I mentioned laughing as I walked by that the tree was giving him scant protection and he looked up and said..."it's okay I am a born Oregonian."

It was interesting to me that he was taking shelter under a tree that was beautiful but only had maybe eight leaves on it.

Ah, Nature. Here is a link to a wonderful short video of an Irish Kingfisher, ummm fishing." and here is a link to the whole program.