Orchid

I actually drew a picture today! Nothing profound or anything, just another of my rather typical doodles...

I'm not quite sure how much I like it...it's a bit wild on the color side for someone like me who typically gravitates toward black and white. In fact I took a photo of it in black white and am almost inclined to prefer this version...

Either way, I'm relieved to have experienced another day of creativity...I was beginning to think I'd lost the muse entirely. Plus, it was fun to listen to about 5 full hours of RadioLab and Radio West: two of my favorite public radio programs.

Birdsong

Today's sunrise was peaceful. Rather than just snap a few photos and hurry on to school I sat for a good long while on the piled-rock wall that runs all along Evanston's lake shore and watched the sun rise behind a curtain of clouds and turn the sky into a rainbow.

When I finally gathered my stuff and continued on up to NU, I noticed the air was increasingly filled with a near cacophony of birdsong...probably a bunch of amorous he-birds simultaneously advertising their desire to mate.

Until about a week ago the dominant seducers had been the cardinals...

but lately, bunches of red-winged black birds have taken over. I was fortunate to catch this one mid squawk...check out the way he puffed himself up and flared his wings...all part of the show.

And then of course there were the impatient screams of ubiquitous seagulls. I'm really proud of these next pictures by the way...it was a real challenge to get good mid-flight close ups!!!

There were also mellow warblings of robins, tweets and chirps from a bunch of little finchy-looking things, caws of mischievous crows, and a bunch of new songs from birds I'm as yet unable to name. Seems like the whole neighborhood's been catching spring fever! Me included...

Coolest Sunrise Ever

...but you have to look closely.

Sunrise Sequence

I'm about to head to the library and put in some good long hours writing the final paper for my Music & Memory class. It's turned into quite a project--I have 9 more pages to write before Saturday mid-day and really need to get busy.

Sunrise this morning was exquisite...and what's even better is this lovely ball of gas is predicted to raise our temps into the mid 50s today! I guess that's extra incentive to get a lot done on my paper--won't have to feel guilty about going out to soak up some sunshine!

It begins...

Nice eh!?

Red Sky in the Morning

Sunrise sequence...doesn't get any better than this.

Good Riddance

Happy 2nd day off of daylight savings time...yawn.

Sure is nice to be up for sunrise again.

Spring Ice

I know it's not spring yet, but the ice formations I encountered along my walk to school this morning seem to be the kind that could only occur when a sunny-warm-soggy-muddy day precedes a below-freezing night--and that feels a little springy to me.

This footprint for instance...

Yesterday afternoon--while the sun was shining and it was warm enough to walk around without a hat--some unlucky soul slogged through a muddy patch of grass on his way to firmer ground. Maybe he cursed under his breath upon realizing the extent of the mess accumulating on his shoes. Behind him, each footprint filled with water seeping up out of the over-saturated earth. Hours later--if one listened closely enough--the stillness of the frigid night was intruded upon by faint crackling as frost crystals began to grow from the pool of water still present in the footprint.

Here is a further sampling of some of the frosty formations I found this morning. The sun has been up and gleaming for a few hours now, so I bet most of these pieces have long since melted back into mud and sogg...

Though I'm certainly looking forward to warm summer days, I have to admit I'll also be missing all this amazing ice.

Happy March!