622 miles closer to the perfect summer job

Today's sunset at the north end of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel

So I guess I finally have enough of my ducks in a row to tell you all about my plans for this summer...

I'm going home to NJ!

The perfect summer job landed in my lap... I'll be working for NJ Fish and Wildlife to monitor and protect beach-nesting birds.

Piping Plovers!

Least Terns!

American Oystercatchers!

Please don't anyone pinch me... I don't want to wake up if this is a dream!

: )

I set out early this morning with my bunny and my African violets and after 12+ hours in the car, we're all feeling pretty bedraggled.  I took the shortcut across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel to spend the night on the Delmarva Peninsula and will meet the ferry to Cape May in the morning. It's beautiful here (and there's still "sweet tea" available!) and I was treated to Brown Pelicans and frolicking dolphins this evening when I stopped at the scenic overlook on the bridge to stretch my legs. Plus, I can smell the sea again... But it's cold! I started the day with the AC running in the car and ended it with the heat blasting.

Some Piping Plovers and American Oystercatchers are already on eggs... I'm hoping to arrive on the beach with the Least Terns. I'm so excited! I can't wait to get started and share this adventure with you...

Trout lilies, by the millions

We very purposefully stumbled upon the Wolf Creek Trout Lily Preserve near Cairo GA this past weekend. Cairo (pronounced like the famous syrup) is not a place that you can easily stumble upon... it's really in the middle of nowhere. There's no hint from the roadside to the casual passer-by of the miracle contained beneath its trees.

Probably, I expected that the people who wrote the brochure were exaggerating.

: )

Nope... millions of Trout Lilies bloom in this very special place beside a stretch of highway that looks like every other stretch of highway in GA.

Trout lilies as ground cover, can you imagine?

I suspect that this was, for many years, a closely guarded "secret spot" of the local wildflower enthusiasts. I also suspect that it was only made available for public enjoyment when it became threatened by a road crew or a developer and the locals needed money to preserve it. Not that it matters any; it's now owned by county government and protected as the treasure it is...

Trout Lilies are a common harbinger of Spring in the Northeast; I don't believe they're very common in this part of the country and certainly not in this number. It's said that this is the largest concentration anywhere. The day we visited was overcast and it was almost dark by the time we found the spot... that's evidenced by the nearly closed flowers. We also found many, many Spotted Trillium and a couple (impossible to photograph) Twayblade Orchids. I'd think with more time there, I might've found all sorts of interesting things.

If you want to go out looking for Trout Lilies in your part of the world, pick a sunny afternoon (when the flowers will be fully open!) and look for them blooming on wet hillsides near streams. They're a spring ephemeral, so do all their work of blooming and setting seed before the forest canopy puts them into shade for the season. Go early while it's still freezing cold out. It makes finding them sweeter, trust me. Happy hunting and let me know what you find!

Snow birds

A snow day literally and figuratively falls from the sky, unbidden, and seems like a thing of wonder. 

 -Susan Orlean

We had snow today in Atlanta... real snow that caused my school to shut down early. I just saw on the TV that school's closed tomorrow too... a snow day!

I spent the afternoon watching the birds in their snow-induced feeding frenzy. I sat on the warm couch and photographed them through the window as they scavenged bits of dropped seeds and suet or quenched their thirst at the flowerpot saucer I kept unfrozen with warm water.

I'm happiest to see the bluebirds so close; we have four or five at time at the suet feeder when the weather is especially cold. They bring other nice birds with them. A couple of yellow-rumped warblers are often around and occasionally a ruby-crowned kinglet even visits!

Pine warblers... we have what seems like a lot of pine warblers. It's hard to know for sure how many there are because the males chase everyone else away from the feeder.

And they chase everyone else off their perch on the fence.

And they don't like to share the flowerpot saucer, either. Such pretty birds, like a ray of bright sunshine. It's still odd to me to see them in wintertime, but what a treat!

Almost perfect

I'm home now from Thanksgiving in NJ... tired but happy. I'm glad to report that vast quantities of mashed potatoes were consumed (as was a piece of Brian's homemade cheesecake). I found my winter coat and was thankful for it. Surprise of all surprises, I found time amid the holiday craziness to see some good friends, as well as some good birds. Thankfully, we did not forget the Brussels sprouts or the mashed turnips. There was a beach walk and lots of wide-eyed staring at the places I miss so much. I thought about my dad a lot.

Swapping the sun

October used to mean the last sunny Saturdays on the beach, the last warm days to throw open the windows, the last long rays of light. Life moved indoors to soup, flannel sheets and listening to the wind howl outside for a couple months.

It's not that way here; summer is the time to hide indoors with the windows shut against the blasting heat. I look forward to being able to enjoy time outdoors again without being drenched in sweat!

The earth still goes through her beautiful old cycle of change this month, however. Gone will be the sexy green heat and the cabaret act of summer. The sun's glaring footlights are swapped for a mellow gold moon. October's perfume is fallen leaves and wood smoke with a hint of apples. There will be chili again (and split-pea soup... hurrah!) and baseball for the hometown team (go Braves!)

What are you most looking forward to?

Our carnival life on the water

“Perhaps this is our strange and haunting paradox here in America -- that we are fixed and certain only when we are in movement... We never have the sense of home so much as when we feel that we are going there. It's only when we get there that our homelessness begins.” ― Thomas Wolfe, You Can't Go Home Again 

Hurricane Sandy wrecked communities rich and poor in NJ, from the Staten Island-meets-Miami style multi-million dollar homes of Bayhead to the blue collar bayfront bungalows near where I grew up. Its images were unimaginable and unbearable to me: of trashed boardwalks pushed into the sea, of an iconic roller coaster dumped into the ocean, of a road leading into the tide where homes used to be. From a thousand miles away and desperate for news of what was happening at home, it looked as if my childhood had been washed away and that the entire Jersey Shore that I knew and loved was gone.

Eight months later, towards the beginning of last month, I went home to NJ for a couple days expecting to find a ruined way of life there, but also hoping, still, to catch a faint whiff of the competing aromas that signal "home"at the Jersey Shore: the fried dough of zeppoles just before the powdered sugar goes on, the sweet muck of a local salt marsh at low tide, the extra garlic on pizza slices and the salt spray coming off the ocean. All of these live deep in the soul of NJ for me. I found all of it, at once, and witnessed small moments in the sad seaside ritual of rebuilding the storm-damaged communities that I hold dear.

I can't pretend to be untouched by grief at the total destruction of the shore towns that are a backdrop to a thousand stories in my life. But the Jersey Shore is more than a place; it's more than its wood-plank promenades and town squares on stilts. It's more than its carnival lights. It's more than a staging ground for summer. For many, it's an identity and an attitude. I love the shore best on foggy days when you can't even see the boardwalk or the ocean, but can only smell it. I love the dampness and the feeling that you can almost lick the salt out of the air. I love the dampness in the sheets at night when you go to bed. You'd never put up with that anywhere else, but at the shore, it just feels right! When you walk around at night, you smell the boardwalk everywhere. There's always a far-off murmur of traffic. It feels safe. It feels comfortable. It feels like home. All of these things, thankfully, remain.

*Photo of where a house used to be in Union Beach, one of the hardest hit communities in NJ.

*Post title from "4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)" by Bruce Springsteen

If looks could kill...

another grumpy PAWS Atlanta adoptable kitty!

"I dare you to take a flattering photo of me!"

Probably this is not her best look.

: )

Aside from the obvious cattitude, I need help from my photography friends with black cats and dogs. Unless there's sun streaming onto their fur, they so often look... well, blech! What can I do about that? Any hints?

One thing to love

I'm discovering that "city life", as it is commonly thought of, is not very much to my liking. There's no surprise in this for me, really. The pointless traffic and acres of asphalt leave me wanting for home...

One perk, though, is that the mass of humanity I live among is a stop on many a national book tour. I can slog my way into the ridiculous traffic that always looms outside the door and find myself, at the local Baptist church, in the company of some of my favorite authors. This week it was Khaled Hosseini touring for his new book, And the Mountains Echoed.

From Amazon.com:

"... a novel about how we love, how we take care of one another, and how the choices we make resonate through generations. In this tale... Hosseini explores the many ways in which families nurture, wound, betray, honor, and sacrifice for one another; and how often we are surprised by the actions of those closest to us, at the times that matter most."

If you've somehow never read his earlier books, please do find them. He's a wonderful storyteller. They are not easy happy stories, but wonderful in the way he leads his characters through a world of sadness and loss to a place of hope.

For many years I used Hosseini's The Kite Runner in the remedial reading classes I taught at the community college. For most of my students, it was the first novel they "willingly" read and discussed. Many of them, as well as my colleagues, questioned my choice of a novel about Afghanistan and one with such difficult themes. The thing is, while his books are mostly set there, they're not necessarily "about" that faraway place and it's the poetry of his words and his ability to speak to emotion and human shortcomings that make him a great read, I think.

I brought along my dog-eared copy to be signed by the author. I was embarrassed at the thought of actually having him sign it, with the state it's in... pages falling out, a hundred vocabulary words highlighted, my notes for student discussion scribbled in the margins.

: )

I was saved from offering him any explanation by rain pelting the church windows and the sound of sirens. We were told a "strong storm" was approaching and the signing line was hastily closed. Totally drenched on my way to the car, I asked someone what the sirens meant...

Add the possibility of tornadoes to the list of things that are not to my liking... where I come from, the only time we heard those sirens was on winter mornings to announce to the community that schools were closed for a snow day. Do they still do that where you're from? Those sirens are a happy sound in my memory! Talk about culture shock.

Please take the opportunity to hear him speak if you should be lucky enough to live somewhere that his book tour will visit. He feels like a very, very genuine man and is as great a storyteller in person as on the pages of his novels.

As always, let me know what you think! Let talk books!

Crafty kitsch

My fake plants died because I did not pretend to water them.
 - Mitch Hedberg

I found these adorable knitted cacti recently at a shop on the Atlanta Beltline. Any friends want to volunteer to knit me a couple? I promise not to kill them.

: )

Does this photo make me look more adoptable?

So I've been taking photos of some of the adoptable dogs and cats for the PAWS Atlanta website for a couple of months now. I started volunteering there shortly after we adopted Sadie. At first, I assisted their photographer by helping with equipment set-up and herding the animals during their photo shoot, but after a while the regular photographer moved away and I was promoted to full-fledged official volunteer pet photographer.

; )

As volunteer gigs go, it's pretty sweet! I don't have the fancy studio set-up that the other guy did and I don't usually have an assistant and I mostly don't know what the heck I'm doing, but it's so much fun! And oftentimes there are puppies and kittens to be photographed and loved on and snuggled some, too!

The cats are often a challenge, though. Or they're a different sort of challenge than the dogs. The last couple visits I've been met with running, hiding, hissing and spitty kitties. I try to reason with them, but not being a cat person, I can't seem to get them to understand that they're not doing themselves any favors by looking so... so... dangerous! 

; )

I would encourage anyone with photography skills and a love for animals to consider offering your talents to a local shelter. The time spent befriending the animals (even the meanest of scaredy-cats) is therapeutic to us both, I think, on a personal level as well as in the quality of the photos. A happy, comfortable animal makes for a more beautiful photo; both of which make their adoption more likely!

You can see the pets currently available for adoption at PAWS (as well as some of my photos of them) by clicking here.

Building a better taco

As a kid, I loved having tacos for dinner, but could hardly convince my dad to ever make them. I guess assembling all the proper parts was too much trouble. What I'm sharing tonight are not tacos, but something better, I think.

Jay calls these "Poor Man's Tostadas" and we had them for the first time last week before our first Braves game of the season. They came together quickly and were delicious! We started with a corn tostada instead of a taco shell... important to the stability of the end product, I think. We used warmed refried beans spread in a thin layer over the tostada as the base for the yummy things and as a "glue" to hold it all together.

We made a meat-free version, hence the "poor man" title, with boiled carrots and potatoes in place of any meat. On top of that we added a crumbly Mexican cheese called queso fresco, diced tomatoes and diced jalapenos.

The final touches were sour cream, fresh cilantro and a green tomatillo salsa.  All very yummy!

A proper approach is necessary, so that you don't lose the whole thing in your lap. It's definitely worth the trouble balancing it all, though. I'm trying to dream up something besides potatoes and carrots that might be used as an alternate... any ideas?

These days

I'd been waiting ever so patiently (not) for that glorious day that felt like Spring for the first time and it finally came on Saturday last. I sat in the sun for a couple hours and finished the latest Barbara Kingsolver book. It's a good one; I'd recommend it, especially when combined with some overdue sunshine.

I seem to have lost all tolerance for cold weather. Probably that happened around the time that I moved here and threw away most all of my winter clothing in the process.

Spring happens differently here... everything is coming into bloom at once. Daffodils and Redbud and Forsythia and Azalea are all screaming for my attention at the same time.  It's hard to relish any one thing.

In an ongoing effort to keep myself busy, I'm starting volunteer training later this week to be a docent for Trees Atlanta in their Beltline Arboretum program. I'm doing this so that I can lead bird walks on the Beltline for Atlanta Audubon and be able to sound as intelligent about trees and art and the history of Atlanta as I do about birds. We'll see how that goes.

: )

I've been reading a lot of cooking blogs these days and I think that, more than anything, this attests to just how out of sorts I'm feeling. I hate cooking, remember? I do enjoy reading about it, though, and enjoy the excuse of trying out a new recipe because I saw it on a favorite blog. Anyone have a good cooking blog to share? The blogs I enjoy the most are written by people who seem to approach cooking the way I do... as something like a science experiment. I like reading about their failures and mistakes because it makes me feel less incompetent myself...

Do you like scones? I have a couple recipes that I use often... a favorite is maple walnut scones. I tried dressing them up a couple weeks back with frozen blueberries that were leftover from some we'd picked last summer. I was wholly disappointed with the results... those frozen blueberries had no flavor whatsoever!

It turned out that the frozen blueberries I'd used were actually black beans. Ask me what they were doing in the freezer. Ask me, too, how I didn't realize they were black beans instead of blueberries.

It's good to be able to laugh these days.

A bunny, on loan

Maybe some of you that are bunny people heard this story about a nearby bunny hoarder. It ended up that many of the rabbits "rescued" from the hoarder were turned loose in an RV park so campers could "feed and enjoy them" as the above article says.

The local chapter of the House Rabbit Society, thankfully, stepped in to re-rescue as many of the bunnies as possible from the terrible fate that awaited them in the "wild" of the RV park.

The GA House Rabbit Society has put out a desperate call for help with the surviving bunnies... they need donations for the care of the sick and malnourished bunnies they rescued and they're looking for foster homes.

This is where Lucas (pictured) and I enter the story. I decided to foster him for a while to make space at the shelter for these recently rescued bunnies. He's a cutie-pie. I can't let him stay very long or I'll fall in love.

: )

A picnic indoors

We went for afternoon tea yesterday at Glenridge Hall with some other supporters of Atlanta Audubon... we'd "won" the opportunity to be treated to this special event by bidding in a silent auction at the 40th Anniversary Gala back in October.

Never having been to tea in a multi-million dollar mansion before, I was a little stressed out about what to wear and whether it was proper to eat the finger sandwiches with my hands and so forth, but it turns out that afternoon tea, like Alice Walker says, is really just an indoor picnic.

With fine china, of course.

: )

We also were treated to a tour of the place, which was a lot of fun. We're hoping to schedule a couple bird walks on the property this spring, so if you're in the neighborhood (Jayne!) keep your ears open for more information.

No whining in paradise

Isn't there a saying about a rainy day at the beach being better than almost anything...

: )

So it rained while we were in Florida and when it stopped raining it got so cold and windy that being outside on the beach was almost unbearable.

Almost.

We got to do all the things I was hoping for and it was still fun, but the weather did put a damper on things.

Florida is magical to me, regardless of the weather, really. During the many hours on the road, driving back and forth on I-75, I found myself remembering a road trip my family made to Florida when I was a kid. I don't remember much about that trip beyond the rain and that I had to sit next to the leaky window in the backseat of my dad's Cadillac.

Any trip to Florida still holds a certain level of excitement for the Jersey Girl in me. Growing up, the lucky kids got to go to Florida on vacation.

: )

But having been able, recently, to visit different parts of the state, I'm seeing it differently now and starting to form opinions about favorite places to spend time.

That's a good thing, I guess. The magic isn't at Disney anymore, but instead in the places that aren't so developed. The roadside orange groves and blooming bougainvillea delighted me. The palm tree-lined streets are charming, but for all the traffic. The birds are amazing... I've never seen so many Osprey!

So... I came home without even so much as a sunburn. I've a bucket of seashells from Sanibel to sort through and some lovely photos of Florida "junk birds" like this Yellow-Crowned Night Heron. Plus the memories of a couple rainy days in paradise...

Getaway plans

seashells cover the beaches, tinkling like wind chimes as they tumble over one another in the waves

Our next throw-everything-in-the-car-plus-the-dog-roadtrip-to-escape-the-city is on for next week. We'll be spending a couple days on Sanibel Island and then a couple days around St. Pete. A visit to Ding Darling NWR as well as Fort DeSoto is on the agenda. We're hoping also to fit in a dinner date with a long quiet blog friend while in her neighborhood.

J is plotting our course over his beloved maps. Me, I'm looking forward to...

blue sky dawns * shelling on one of the best beaches in the world * pelicans! * salt spray * white sand underfoot * key lime pie * driving with the windows down * roseate spoonbills * at least one drink with an umbrella * wearing flip-flops for a couple days * watching J make drip castles in the sand * laughing gulls! * my polka-dot bikini * palm trees * sunshine * sandy feet * sunsets * floating * hermit crabs * sandbars * humid salty air * staring at the horizon

Winter sun

If there's a sunbeam and a soft spot, FatCat's there.

Is this a look or what?

I think the ribbons on her ears are a nice touch.

Sadie's embarrassed by them.

I like them and think she looks adorable.

Jay, the good sport who walks her in the park, thinks they're ridiculous.

He was ready with a story should anyone ask:

"They're antennas; she's actually a robot."

I like that, too.

Sadie: starting over with a "senior" shelter dog

We sat in the parking lot of the shelter and very nearly went home without her, for a second time. Then we twisted each other's arm and, just like that, it was done.

A new dog!

Some very basic and important part of me is made happier by having a dog. I'd been trying to deny that the past couple years since splitting with the ex-DH, but all the practicalities in the world couldn't change that part of myself.

So... meet Sadie!

She's 10 years old and a mix of perfectly polite and adorably unsure of herself. She's cowering under the desk as I write this during a thunderstorm. Her first inclination when feeling anxious is to climb on top of something. She wanders around, following behind us like a houseguest that's run out of tourist attractions to visit. She's scared of cars and utterly oblivious to the cat who's in a state of permanent hiss.

Nobody slept the first night. Last night we slept shifts on the floor beside her. For tonight I'm stil hopeful. Little by little her head and tail are coming up and she's making tentative eye contact.

Who knows what her life before was.

Her eyes are sad, sad, sad.

We mean to change that.

Blue daze

Of the twenty-five (!) or so plants that I'm experimenting with out on the deck these are, by far, the happiest. It was so beautiful out there early in the season... I should have thought to photograph the flowers sooner.