Just checking in

So I'm feeling pretty guilty about not having appeared here for months (!) after being so gung-ho about blogging regularly again. After a bit of reflection, I realize that I was mostly enthusiastic about others blogging regularly again. ;-) I've been busy with the new job, of course, and busy sitting on my butt in the air-conditioning. This knee thing has really thrown me for a loop and I'm just now getting to feel better after a month of physical therapy. Why that dopey doctor I went to didn't recommend it for me, I don't know. I'm just glad I decided to be proactive after suffering for 3 months with barely any progress and so grateful to have good health insurance to pay for it. It's really made all the difference in my ability to function like a regular person again.

We've planned a camping trip this weekend and I'm looking forward to hopefully being able to hike without pain. Other than work and physical therapy, I haven't done much so far this summer other than try to avoid the heat. I still don't know how people stand it here - I've got major cabin-fever! We're sharing season tickets for the Braves and have been going to a couple of evening games each month. We're discovering new favorite places to have breakfast on the weekends. We're eating ice cream more often than is probably healthy. My brother and his family came to visit for a couple days at the beginning of July - it was super great to see them and to show off some of the fun things we do here in the A. I've been reunited with my dog Luka from that other life and just last week said goodbye to the senior shelter dog, Sadie, that we adopted only four years ago. I bought myself a new camera lens - a super wide angle - and look forward to playing with that in the future. J and I went out the weekend that I bought it to take some photos of the tall buildings in midtown Atlanta, but ended up at the High Museum of Art as a way to escape the heat and enjoy some free air conditioning. I'm not much of an art museum type, but I enjoy the High and it's folk and modern art.

The photo that accompanies this post was taken there. I plan to be back here in a couple days to share some memories of Sadie - once we're back from camping in the mountains where hopefully it'll be cool!

Wildflowerin' gone bad

He who limps is still walking. ~Stanislaw J. Lec

I love wandering in the woods to find the first sleeping plants that awaken from the forest floor. It’s something of a rite of spring for me, despite the fact that I no longer have to suffer through a cold northern winter. Many of these spring ephemerals, as well as being beautiful, are important food sources for the first foraging butterflies and bees that emerge. Many are even downward-facing to better serve the insects that cruise the forest floor.

A couple weeks back we took an impromptu Friday evening walk to the nature trail at Stone Mountain Park; a friend had mentioned that it's one of the best local places to see a few of my favorites. It's an easy 3/4 mile trail that meanders beside a stream. It was lovely; the azaleas were blooming and as a bonus we saw our first Louisiana waterthrush of the season!

There were many blooming mayapples - so hard to photograph nicely - and some pink lady slippers that I want to go back to check on. I found foamflower, I think, though it's much taller than what I'm used to seeing in NJ. The common name comes from the delicate white flowers that look like foam. I love the extra long pistils on the flowers that rise above the white petals like little golden crowns. Books say that these flowers were often presented by Greeks as tokens of their love.

We also found green-and-gold which is another favorite. It blooms in shady woodland places. So pretty! I believe it's in the aster family, so you know pollinators love it. We finished off our easy evening hike by deciding to head off the nature trail and into the forest proper.
 


We didn't get very far before we had to cross a wet area where the stream ran across a bunch of flat rocks. Despite being extra-super careful when crossing those slippery, moss-covered rocks, I managed to fall and twist up my leg. Bummer! Two weeks later and I finally worked up the courage to see a doctor today... the pain wasn't going away and walking/sleeping/sitting haven't gotten any easier. I have to go back for an MRI, but the chance is that I've torn a meniscus.

:-(

 
I'm studying up on knee anatomy (in between wildflower guides!) and hoping that rest and time and the brace the doctor gave me will fix it up. I welcome any suggestions for how to include/disguise this hideous-looking brace in my professional attire. I hope next time I'll be more careful; wildflowers are a risky habit to have!

Calling all zombies!

This photo has nothing to do with the subject of my post, but.... cute kitty!

So!

A couple of friends on FB have been lamenting the demise of our blogs. We all seem to mostly agree that, coupled with life changes or varying degrees of laziness/lack of interest, the popularity and ease of Facebook put the final nail in the coffin of what was a very happy time in our lives. All the writing. All the sharing. All the feels.

;-)

We miss blogging and we miss our blogging community. Some still blog regularly, some occasionally, some never do - but a couple of us have decided to give it a go again and see if we can't get back some of the magic that we used to share here, in this way. Isn't that exciting?!?

Wonderful sweet Jayne suggested that prompts might be helpful to get our writing juices flowing again, if need be. I like the idea of prompts, so long as they're not too restrictive, or too predictable. So in thinking about it and considering how much we all seem ready to write / talk / make excuses (?) for why we STOPPED blogging, it occurred to me that an interesting prompt might be to think and write about why we STARTED blogging. Others of you may have already addressed this at some point in your blogging career, but I don't think I ever have...

So what do y'all say? Can this prompt lead you somewhere interesting? Will you join us as we try to resurrect our dead or dying blogs? Zombie Bloggers Unite!

:-)

Comment here if you're in!  We'll promise to read and give feedback; that has to be part of the bargain if we're to feel like a community again.

Many, many thanks... I've missed you!

Ahem

I feel so rusty at this, so awkward. It’s not so much because actually doing it feels funny, but more because of the contrast between how unfamiliar it feels to be here, and how entirely natural it used to feel.

It’s like returning to anything, I suppose. The yoga mat, or healthy eating… we don’t slip right back in where we we left off – or at least I don’t. It’s more like returning from a trip, maybe a long one. Abroad. I bring back treasures and memories, something tucked in my pocket, photographs, experiences that I hadn’t had before. I’d like to think I’m richer for this time away from regular blogging, but I doubt it.

At any rate, Atlanta really knows how to do Spring! Everything just comes into bloom at once. I wish I could bottle the crazy combination of daffodils-azaleas-dogwoods-cherry trees-forsythia-viburnums that is Spring here and send it to my friends who are still threatened with snow in the north. I wonder if we don’t appreciate the change in seasons more when it comes slowly? I used to think March was the worst… but here there were even a couple days when it was in the mid 80’s and I was left looking for shade beneath trees that hadn’t leafed out yet!

What’s blooming in your part of the world?

Snowy

 Considering all the time I've spent in Florida the last couple years, you'd think I'd have seen a snowy plover by now, right? Well, I FINALLY got my life snowy at the end of last year when we spent Christmastime at Cape San Blas on the Gulf Coast of Florida.

Cape San Blas is one of my favorite places on the "forgotten coast" - not too many people, no condos or hotels, and a 30 minute drive to a decent restaurant or grocery store. My kind of place!

I very nearly stumbled over this bird! It was so totally camouflaged in its winter plumage (and so tame!) that, were it not for its movement, I never would have seen it. I wonder how many others I've stumbled past without ever seeing...

You might notice in my photo that the bird is banded - only one leg is visible - I found out that this bird is a regular winter resident at St. Joseph's State Park on Cape San Blas, but that it breeds elsewhere.

Snowies are sweet birds - small and plain compared to the piping plovers I know so well - but pretty similar in their habits. And like other Florida birds, exceptionally tame. I wonder why that is?

Packing up

I finally took the plunge and moved my blog to Wordpress!

Please follow me there at:

Somewhere in NJ

Parasoled

It didn't feel much like the end of summer today; Atlanta is as hot as ever in the middle of the afternoon. We strolled along the Belt Line looking at the art on display and found these two sweet little girls...