A Blog for 2025

June 30, 2026 Happy Birthday Mimi, Nick and Mike. It was hot and humid and rainy today.  I went up to the rookery around 4 and hung out up there for an hour.  There was a sweet breeze.   Along a mile and a half I saw 2 groups of turkeys and a kettle of 9 turkey vultures.  Vultures were more skitterish of me than the turkeys, but I bet you I've taken photos of the turkeys before. Watching the 9 vultures was interesting because I could not see what they had in the grass and one by one they rose and went to the trees.  Two of them had things sticking out of their faces that looked like porcupiine quills. . I went over the canal.  The temperature went up and down twice while I was out, but the humidity was thick.  There was a Water Crow group at the Ct.  I'd never heard of a water crow before, but Merlin identified this group of small crows with an obvious voice.  Merlin said that they were beginning to appear in northern shores and rivers. ...

June 29, 2026 Today starts the heat wave. Not sure what the official high was, but I believe about 90 on the dot. Went up around 4 to rookery and there were deer around and lots of songbirds. The moon is rising right now, I wish I were on a hillside photographing her, but I'm not moving well.  But I know she is beautiful tonight,  if a little small, still sweet.  I have a few friends out there on the look out, though. I saw the cardiologist today and got a clean bill of health in regards to the heart.  The procedure was successful and I am not in afib any longer.  The ok to go on with any surgeries I may need was granted. I also finally got my lance perscription and insurance figured out and am determined to straighten out food more.  I have been depressed too much this last month.  I think food has something to do with it, I've gotten sloppy, so I'm going to get a little stricter with myself.  I also am going to spend more time with my writing in...

June 28, 2026 R.I.P. Havi.   It's all about belonging.  I work so hard at it and if I'm loosing energy and resilience will I slip away from belonging? We honored a 96 year old woman who wanted the last words at her funeral to be Fuck the Fascists.  So today at the end of her memorial inside the Temple we all raised our fists in power and shouted.  It felt good, We heard a lot of stories today about a woman who transcended in her own story, who pushed her own boundaries and grew.   We saw a female dominant family who work at making room for the world. When I sit in a crowd like that I look for the person I met first.  And then a let everyone fall into place and cross communities and I celebrate parallel living.  That's what happens in a community like ours.  And for someone like Havi, or like me, dozens of communities are represented in the  group and they don't necessarily all know each other,  We sing together as one around the hig...

June 27, 2026 EJ and I went to Annie's today and visited our friends.  Then we met Diane for dinner. But before we left I actually got more done than I have in a while.   Writers Read is up to date and Marlboro Remainders is on its way. And then we drove to Westminster West on a beautiful afternoon and caught up with each other.    I actually went to the rookery twice today.   I went before our excursion and tried to write a little and then I went back up after dinner for moon rise and sun set.  What you get tonight is photos.  

June 26, 2026 Happy Birthday, Pete Whiton. Happy Birthday, Elisha Tilton. Happy Birthday, Mark Chase. Lot of family birthdays on this 26th day of June.  Daddy would be 108. Made it to the Y this morning kinda just barely. I actually was in less harsh pain than I've been in in a while. The sharp pain in my lower back was quieter and allowing me to walk a little easier.  The pool was grand and the hot tub divine.    I had a session with my massage therapist today which was strong, it moved a lot in me.  At one point I felt as though she was holding the source of the pain and neither of us knew what she was holding, but it got hot.  I had a much harder time pulling myself back grounded throughout the session and once I left her I was disassociated.  I just let me be. I went up to the rookery for a bit.  It was 74 and very humid and for the first time this summer I felt the bugs.   I think that the color yellow dominated today, I actually sa...

  June 25, 2026 Wood duck family and new heron arrival at peace.  Babies kept heading towards the heron and then scooting back to Mom.  Watched them for a while. I've had this odd sense all day that I have been living parallel lives.  During my nap this afternoon I dreamt a group of family and friends were crowded around our kitchen table on Chestnut Hill eating some big dinner that Mom had cooked.  Paul and Barb were sitting across from me and Paul wanted me to start a song that Annie Hassett taught me the other day and he would come in with the harmony.  I said I'm not a strong enough singer to hold down the melody, and Barb, Edite, a friend of Mike's said they'd come in and help.  So I started singing the song and people joined me and Paul and Mike's friend were doing the harmonies.  It was beautiful.  Mom stood up and said, that's the best thing God gave me, you all doing music.    That was not the end of the dream, but it was i...

June 24, 2026 Happy Birthday, Gary!   Hope you're having a good time. Well, that was fun, I managed to photograph the sun for the last 45 minutes of its shining today.  It was not the inspirational sunset that last night was, but it had some moments.  I had fun.  I also saw a hawk chasing something on the ground.  He didn't get it and I didn't identify it.   I'm telling you, the world is quiet and peaceful one moment and hidden and violent the next. I went up to the rookery around 5:30, the humidity was about to rise, but basically everything was close to perfect.   My bird list is at least 20 birds long tonight and in the three different spaces I stopped and wrote, there were 3 separate communities of birds.  At the rookery, high in the trees there was a big gang of waxwings.  At Beacon Field there were robins all over the place and in the graveyard crows.