Sparrow parent feeding Cowbird fledgling, Woodland Park near Herndon VA, 5/19/12.
Oh, those tricky opportunist cowbirds -- they lay their eggs in other species' nests for the other birds to raise! This is the first time I've ever witnessed the result. You can see that this cowbird baby is already bigger than the adult sparrow feeding it.
Male Northern Cardinal at Woodland Park, Herndon VA, 2/26/12.
Despite my best intentions, a long weekend of travel disrupted the DB routine and I was unable to photograph birds last Thursday through Saturday. Thus I'm playing catch-up now with photos taken Sunday morning near my temporary outpost in Herndon, VA.
Luckily, I hit on a small sweet spot at the edge of the woods and found a number of my old northern VA bird favorites there.
Carolina Wren at Woodland Park, Herndon VA, 2/26/12.
American Goldfinch at Woodland Park, Herndon VA, 2/26/12.
Tufted Titmouse at Woodland Park, Herndon VA, 2/26/12.
Black-capped Chickadee at Woodland Park, Herndon VA, 2/26/12.
So that covers the five days of my trip, but I've got some bonus birds too...
Female Northern Cardinal at Woodland Park, Herndon VA, 2/26/12.
And finally, a juvenile Red-tailed Hawk being harassed by American Crows over Woodland Park, Herndon VA, 2/27/12.
Anna's Hummingbird female, DBG, 5/18/11.
2011 was my most birdacious year yet.
This year, most of my days involved birds in one way or another...
spotting, watching, feeding, identifying, photographing.
Birdacious...
There were birds seen through my windows:
Gambel's Quail family, front patio through window, 8/13/11.
Cooper's Hawk juvenile, back fence through window, 1/16/11.
Verdin at the kitchen window, 11/4/11.
And birds seen in our yard:
Calliope Hummingbird female, backyard, migration, 9/17/11.
Green-tailed Towhee, backyard, migration, 9/29/11.
There were birds seen at my beloved Desert Botanical Garden:
Peach-faced Lovebird, DBG, 10/3/11.
Greater Roadrunner with hungry young, DBG, 5/5/11.
Wilson's Warbler with worm, DBG, 5/10/11.
Cactus Wren bringing lunch, DBG, 4/23/11.
Elf Owl, DBG, 9//23/11.
Green Heron, DBG, 9/19/11.
And birds seen at many new-to-me places...
Yellow-rumped Warbler, Gilbert Riparian, 11/14/11.
Black-crowned Night Heron, Gilbert Riparian, 11/14/11.
Broad-billed Hummingbird male, Boyce Thompson, 8/22/11.
Cooper's Hawk mom with chicks, Boyce Thompson, 6/13/11.
Red-tailed Hawk juvenile, Tempe Marsh, 11/29/11.
Coyote and Snowy Egrets, Tempe Marsh, 12/1/11.
Great Blue Heron with fish, Tempe Dam, 12/1/11.
Snowy Egret, below Tempe Dam, 11/7/11.
There were birds seen in Bermuda, a new-to-me country where our nephew was married in April:
Great Kiskadees, Southampton, Bermuda, 4/17/11.
Cottage driveway sign, Bermuda, 4/17/11.
And there were birds rediscovered in August at the Chicago Botanic Garden, long ago the favorite haunt of my family's preschool days:
Cedar Waxwing, Chicago Botanic Garden, 8/28/11.
Ruby-throated Hummingbird (a rarity!) at Chicago Botanic Garden, 8/28/11.
There were bird families I met and followed on the web:
Bald Eagles via the Norfolk Botanical Garden Eagle Cam and the Wildlife Center of Virginia Critter Cam.
Red-tailed Hawks via the NYTimes/NYU Hawk Cam and also via Roger Paw's blog.
Watching regularly, I grew to care for these birds
as if they were residents of my own backyard.
* * * * *
I learned so much about birds in 2011.
Apart from my own explorations, I thank the Monday morning DBG birders and the fellow photogs and generous bird experts at Birding--Arizona and the Southwest FaceBook group for broadening my bird horizons and challenging my photography skills.
It's been a birdacious year.
A week ago, almost to the minute...
"The Patient Husband"
we had arrived in Evanston and were walking from the hotel to our friend Bob's house, when we took a quick detour through the Rose Garden (officially the Merrick Rose Garden) at Lake Street and Oak Avenue, just two blocks from where we'd lived long ago.
John is a good sport when the camera in my hand gets the better of my attention. After his own tour of the roses (they were in fine bloom) he took my bag and sat off in a quiet corner, checking his Blackberry to pass the time. He never complains about my photo delays and detours.
Anyway, here's a link to the Flickr photo slideshow of our 48 hours in & around Evanston, more nostalgic than artistic for me. Wish now I'd taken more photos, but I guess we were busy taking it all in, which is as it should be.
(Program cover, featuring "Gilded Coral Nest" by ceramic artist Jennifer McCurdy.)
Our recent weekend in Evanston was planned to coincide with the American Craft Expo, sponsored by the Auxiliary of Evanston & Glenbrook Hospitals to benefit ovarian cancer research. Our three kids were born at Evanston Hospital, and my maternal grandmother and several friends lost their lives to ovarian cancer, so those aspects added special meaning to this benefit for me.
I took no photos at the show (not even sure if I could have, but bringing a camera just didn't feel right) so all photos below are images from the artists' promotional materials or websites.
We arrived Saturday morning at 10 when the doors opened. You always need a browsing strategy for big shows in order not to miss anything, and ours was to start at the back and work our way forward, row by row. Seeing all 150 artists took us 4 hours, and revisits took an extra hour.
Here are some of our favorite artists from the show, with links to their websites:
Fiber artist Sandi Garris. Very inspiring use of color & form, in both her geometric & organic styles. Her pieces are made of hand-dyed cottons, machine stitched, then mounted & framed.
Fiber artist Renee Harris. Love!!! My first time seeing her work in person, after admiring it online for years. Photos just don't do justice to her pieces. Fabulous textures & mixing of paper, cloth & stitches, beautifully framed.
Glass artists Peter Muller & Joe Peters. These sea creatures are created by Joe's borosilicate torchwork, while the portal bowls framing them are furnace blown and then cut and shaped by Peter. Incredibly detailed work. A perfect collaboration.
Ceramic artist Rick Hintze. We especially liked his earthy matte/crackle glazed vessels, but I couldn't find a photo of those. Great shapes and textures.
Basket artist Jennifer Heller Zurick. She harvests Black Willow bark and completely processes it herself. She then weaves it free-form into baskets, large and small. Extremely appealing pieces, very warm and intricately patterned.
Fiber artist Sally Jones. Sally had beautiful hand-screened silk tops and scarves. My favorite style isn't shown on her website -- her block-pieced silk scarves featuring 5 or more colors/patterns. She had sold out of the color group I liked best, and offered to custom make one for me.
Ceramic artist Larry Richmond. His work combines pottery with fiber and wood accents. Beautiful shapes, patterns and textures.
Jewelry artist Deb Karash. Deb is one of my all-time favorite artists. She's developed a process in which she applies layers of Prismacolor pencil to a patinated copper shape, seals it, and then mounts the colored piece with brass rivets to a textured sterling silver backdrop. Her pieces have all the elements I love -- a fanciful take on nature, distinctive hand-coloring & shading, a mix of metals, beautiful forms and impeccable finishing.
![[nightbird_b.jpg]](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_BMnG7Fc4iIM/RnArBqgaskI/AAAAAAAAATI/HsG8N1td5rw/s1600/nightbird_b.jpg)
Fiber artist Chris Roberts-Antieau. This was the first or possibly second time I've seen Chris's work in person -- she may have exhibited at a Reston/NoVA Fine Arts Festival some years ago. Anyway, her "Night Birds" above is one of our favorites from Chris's strange and wonderful show collection. As with many fiber artists' work, photos don't do justice to the texture created by embellishment stitching on her pieces.
Wood artist Janel Jacobson. Her tiny netsukes and other small wood carvings are so lovely. Spring Song, the piece pictured above, measures only 2.2 x 1.3 x 0.8 inches. Incredibly tiny details!
* * * * *
ACE was truly an inspiring and memorable show. We spoke with many of the artists, who were eager to share information about their inspiration and their methods.
What struck me over and over was the importance of layers in artistic work. The ability to think in and conceptualize the layers or stages of a creative process. The use of physical layers of raw material in the construction of the work itself, whether glass or fiber or whatever. The layers of meaning that the piece holds for the artist as maker, versus the public as viewer/ enthusiast/ buyer. The layers of past, present and future connected by evolving craft traditions and techniques.
So much food for thought.
Sixteen years was far too long to be away from the Chicago Botanic Garden. But we finally squeezed in a visit yesterday morning -- a side trip to our whirlwind weekend in Evanston, where we lived long ago in our pre-kids days. The weather was perfect, the garden was more spectacular than ever, and I even spotted a few favorite birds. You can see my short CBG Flickr slideshow here, or click through the photo set yourself here.
Now I remember why I used to visit the garden often when we lived in Chicagoland. What an amazing and beautiful pIace.
Last weekend, our nephew Erik Hedblom married his longtime love, Tess Hiller, on the beach of the Fairmont Southampton in Bermuda.
Such a beautiful wedding day... blue skies, aqua sea, pink sand.
A blissfully happy couple, joined by their families & friends.
And a robust celebration that lasted well into the night.
You can see my photo slideshow, or click through the photo set on Flickr.
We're just back from a quick trip to VA to visit our boys and celebrate son Chris's birthday.
Saturday afternoon, we visited some favorite Loudoun County wineries.
These iPhone photos were taken at the pondside area at Doukenie, which was our first stop. It was a beautiful sunny day.
The fresh spring air and a picnic lunch of salami, cheddar, freshly baked bread and a bottle of good red had everyone smiling.
A photo from our final afternoon in Rome, last Monday...
Peeking in through the open door of a shop called Elisheva, on the Via dei Baullari.
Eye candy and foot candy!
Love this photo.
Makes me wish my feet were about 20 years younger.
Finally, some photos from our tour of the Vatican. We were lucky to have a guide that does an early morning tour, so we saw the Sistine chapel in the company of perhaps 100 rather than 1000 or more people. No photos are allowed in the Sistine Chapel, so I was on best behavior and kept my camera turned off, though it was difficult.
Luckily, other areas of the Vatican are camera friendly, so here goes:
This is the painted ceiling of one of seemingly miles of Vatican hallways. The artistic effort involved in creating these spaces is almost beyond comprehension.
And of course, you know if there's a way to include birds here, I'll find it. These sculptures of mute swans done by the Boehm porcelain company were a gift from New York (city or state, I can't remember which) and they are exquisite.
This stained glass window of Madonna and Child looks almost like a modern interpretation of an older style.
Here's another ceiling view, this one in a sort of hallway alcove. The blue pigments used remain so brilliant.
The Swiss Guards in their colorful uniforms stood outside the entrance to St. Peter's Basilica.
This is the famous Pieta, completed when Michelangelo was 25 years old. It is now displayed behind glass, after being damaged by a vandal.
Finally, this is my favorite photo, showing the light streaming in through the high windows of St. Peter's. The arched ceiling's ornate carved decoration is covered in real gold leaf, and the Latin phrases around the top of the walls are done in fine mosaic tile. The artistry itself and the wealth needed to create it are mind-boggling.
I had no idea beforehand of the beauty and wealth contained in the Vatican Museum collections. In four hours of a guided tour, we barely skimmed the surface. It was simply amazing.
