A Blog for 2025

April 17, 2026 Kind of a sick day, but ok. Happy Birthday, Donnie Blackwell.   Donnie and I celebrate our birthdays together often, but my being under the weather has  minimized my coordination skills,  Hope your birthday has been fun, Donnie. I got taken out again tonight.  I feel very celebrated.  I feel very attended to by all sorts of people across the country.  Thanks you all.  It made being sick much  easier. I did not make it to the Y this morning.  It felt so wrong, but getting out of bed and moving seemed to be impossible.  I felt totally foggy and unable to focus on moving forward.  My eyes were not focusing entirely and I just needed to close them and lie still, so I did until around 10:45 when I managed to get up and get dressed. Read the paper did the puzzles washed a couple dishes. went back to bed. Got up about 3:15 and headed for the rookery.  The bird count was good and the light was sweet and if I had a d...

 April 16, 2026 Happy Birthday, Moriah.  Hope your day was warm and wonderful. This day has started strangely for me.  I woke by 4 a.m. and  started remembering all my birthdays.  On the evening of April 15, 1953 my mother was playing a concert in New Haven with the New Music Quartet.  Walter Trampler, Claus Adams, I don't remember who else played with them, but she went into labor with me half way through, finished the concert and then drove to Norwalk to deliver me around 3 a.m. on the 16th.  That was my first birthday.  Now can you imagine the concentration she had?  Her ability to stay on task and finish playing a piece of music, then driving almost an hour to the  hospital and meeting my Dad there and delivering me.  Apparently Dad claimed me as his and immediately called me Lindy instead of Linda.  After 73 years do you think my system has any memory of that night?  My Mom said it went the way births were supposed to...

  April 15th Much calmer day, today, and I was in less pain today than I have been in since January. The cortisone shot not only lessened the pain in my knee it reduced the pain in my back so I could stand erect.  I walked down my staircase frontwards for the first time in 2 months today.  Now the bad side to the cortisone is that it really messes with my blood sugar, but for today I will take it and besides it's why I stayed in  my own spaces.   T. came to visit and made me smile.   We'll take the no pain and the visit and call it a good day. The rookery is active.  It was 81 there and the air was absolutely still, but the geese were doing their thing and the beaver was saying hello.  I saw no big birds, lots of red winged black birds and the tufted titmouse was loud and clear as usual. The beaver pond has life in it, too.  There is a goose couple and a wood duck couple who have made friends, or are at least neighborly.  And t...

                            April 14, 2016 Today was an unusually odd day of outside forces, both weather and manmade variables.   At 5:30 this morning I woke up from an alarming nightmare that I had started my house on fire.  The house mutated 3 times into 3 different house with 3 different fires.   At first I thought I had put the fire out but then Annie and Kora came downstairs and when I went to show them it the kitchen was ablaze and the flames were reaching a hole into the ceiling where I guess Kora had been.    We then moved out of that room calling 911 and we were in the front vestibule of the Chestnut Hill house and the entire staircase was in flames.  I knew my Mom had just been on the phone there.  We got out the front door and I woke myself up. It took a good half hour for me to get out of the aftermath.  I went downstairs and when I came back the sun was r...

April 13, 2026 The American Black Duck dominated the rookery today.  They actually were making some noise, too.  They're more sophisticated than the mergansers and bigger than the wood ducks. Today they were very present. When I woke up this morning I was a little afraid that I wouldn't be able to hold my body upright and come down the stairs.  I think I am so determined to get in the pool that I just keep making the steps I need to get there in hopes that after a few minutes my body will move through it. This morning took a little longer, but I got there.  And the pool was essential.  And the smiles of my  pool community were essential, too.  It felt so relieving to be in the water, again I just wanted to stay there all day, or in the hot tub.  Although staying too long in the hot tub at the moment makes me nervous. The question is; did I over do it yesterday, and the answer maybe, yes, but I don't think I'll change my behaviour. I don't want to ...

April 12, 2026 Happy Birthday, Eli Bridges.  We miss you, buddy. Went back to Bluegrass Church this morning.  Had a great time.   The Greeter The Band The Music Hall at 10:00 a.,m. I had a good time photographing the band today, but when you can't get up and move around its a little dampening.  Taking photos of Tracey Grammar is a blast though.  She is so animated and present in her work.  I always get 4 times the amount of photos of her than the others.   I have a much harder time photographing Jim Henry for just the same reasons that he is such a remarkable performer.  He acts as though it's no sweat, just rolls out of his fingers, you have no idea he's pulling off this remarkable sound. And Annie is right above me and too close so I can't get a good perspective, which is too bad, because she too is animated.  It really is fun shooting them and singing with them. This gig is a blast.  They are doing it again on May 17th if you wan...