Not A Puppet Show

It's not the puppet show, but I did get some fun videos of Lily riding her bikes in front of the house a few days ago. Pure comedic gold this kid is sometimes.

This clip includes her first "spill". What a tough cookie!

I like to call this one "NASCAR practice" . . "Safety helmet's on!"

And the commentary in the last one is just classic Lily. A brief and reluctant appearance by Avery at the end is something of a novelty. She's a touch camera-shy.

As a bit of an aside, we were at Avery's soccer practice and a friend kept an eye on Lily for me while I coached. I heard from Lily from time to time throughout the hour, but really wasn't paying a lot of attention to what she was doing. When practice ended, I came toward the sideline and was informed that Lil was demonstrating her new favorite song to the parents, one that none other than her Meema taught her. The lyrics are approximately as follows:

I see your hiney
All white and shiney!
It makes me giggle
To see it wiggle!

Did I mention that practice was at 8am? What a great song to wake up to, eh?

Distance Shortener

Lily wanted to put on a little show for all of her non-local family this morning, and I've borrowed a friend's video camera for a while, so I decided to take advantage of it. It's in two parts . . enjoy!


Part I.



Part II.

Photography Practice

It seems like certain things just shouldn't be so difficult. Take, for instance, photographing a juvenile American Goldfinch on a tree limb no more than 20 feet away, at 8am on a cloudy morning. To the naked eye this bird was a very pretty golden color, midway on the spectrum between brown and the brilliant yellow of the adult male. I took 10 photos of him on any number of different camera settings, and none would produce the color I saw when I put the camera down. This photo seems to have the best color of the tree, but the bird just seems brown. Harumph.


Yesterday I was perusing my cherry tomato plant and I came across three separate caterpillars clinging to its stems. I thought this one would be a good subject upon which to practice my close-up skills. Let's just say I'm still very rough around the edges.



I always love those shots of dew-covered plants. Roses glistening with dew drops seem to win all the photography contests, don't they? Somehow green cherry tomatoes and a wilted dying leaf just don't give that same effect.

Oh well, at least they're digital and I'm not wasting film. Perhaps I should actually read the owner's manual and learn what all those different buttons I'm pushing are supposed to accomplish . .

Things that make you go hmmmm

Did you know that if you Google "Great Blue Heron Poop" that my blog is the very first result??? How did that happen? I don't even think my blog is the first result if you Google "Stay-at-Home Dad's Guide to The Galaxy".

In case you're wondering why I was Googling Great Blue Heron Poop at 9pm on a Wednesday . . I wasn't. I was going through my recent visitor activity on Statcounter.com, and one of the things I always check out is the Referring URL. Basically if someone clicked a link on another page that led to my blog, it's recorded there. The nice thing about Google searches is that the URL contains the text that was searched to net the results. Some other interesting searches that have recently produced visits to my page are "wilson's snipe recipe", "lil panties", "cherrystone camping", "lili poo stay way", "amazing amanda instructions", "blow up toddler beds", "toddler bed cannot escape sleep", and "how to do a fox hawk hairdo". Oh, and how could I omit "american airlines nonrev dress code policy". I'm not making these up folks.

Anyway, in honor of the impetus for this rambling post, I leave you with a photo. Enjoy!

Eastern Shore Birding & Wildlife Festival

I'm super excited to announce that I've made plans to attend this year's Eastern (Virginia) Shore Birding & Wildlife Festival in Cape Charles, VA. I have never been to a large-scale birding or nature festival of any kind, so this will be my maiden voyage.


In addition to the adventure that comes along with birding a new location at the peak of Fall migration, I've added additional intrigue with my decision to camp outdoors rather than stay in a hotel. The camping bug really bit me last month when Avery and I went to Morrow Mountain State Park for the weekend with a group from CharlotteAreaDads . I tossed around the idea for a few days before I had totally committed to the trip, but as details came together and some well-directed Google searches netted me a high-quality option for camping, I made up my mind and locked it all in. The campground I chose is called Cherrystone Camping Resort , and while it's not exactly primitive camping it will still offer me the chance to be outdoors and spend the weekend totally immersed in my surroundings.

The festival is September 18-21, with the majority of the activities crammed into 48 hours from Friday at noon until Sunday at noon. I sent my priority selections in last week for the festival's many program choices. They offer a wide variety of field trips to some of the local National Wildlife Refuges, parks, and even some on private land. And while birding is the focal point of the festival, there are also numerous butterfly and dragonfly workshops, some of which I look forward to taking advantage of. I will keep you updated as the date gets closer and I find out exactly which trips and workshops I will be attending.

Barn Swallow Nestlings

We went to James Dorton Park in Concord this morning to take advantage of some sub-90 degree weather, just planning to play and get some exercise. The birding at the park is typically pretty good, but I decided to leave the binoculars behind and just spend some time playing with the girls.

That lasted all of 3 minutes.

Lily wanted to finish her post-gym snack at one of the picnic tables under the pavilion. I saw no reason to object, and as we approached I thought to myself, "Self, this would be a good place for structure-nesting birds to build a nest." 30 seconds later I heard the begging peeps of nestlings coming from above, and I looked up to the rafters to find these cute little Barn Swallows. I of course headed right for the car and grabbed the bins.



They examined us briefly and were quiet again, although very alert. They are quite obviously almost fully developed and I can't imagine they're overly comfortable in that nest.


They looked around for their parents for a few minutes, and occasionally they would preen and scratch themselves.



In an act of unparalleled courtesy, I watched the middle bird do a 180-degree turn, stick his little bird butt out of the nest, and promptly poop on the pavilion floor. This is apparently S.O.P.


Uh oh! Mom's coming! Cheep! Cheep! Cheep!


"Ooh, is it my turn Mom?"


Mom never landed. She flew in with lunch presumably in her mouth, hovered noisily, and in a lightning-quick instant passed the food on to the young. With the camera set to take numerous shots in succession, I could never get more than two frames with the adult bird in them in succession.


My last observation and then I'll leave you to click and enlarge the photos . . isn't that nest cool? It's centered on that bolt and then presumably just stuck to the wood with mud. What craftsmen those swallows. Ha, another new cliche . . "Crafty as a Barn Swallow".

Freckle-faced Kid

Mandi asked me the other day to try to get some close-up photos of Lily's face full of freckles. I kept putting it off, thinking I'd wait until I could do it outdoors in the natural light. Well it's been 3 or 4 days, and the feeling that I was procrastinating was weighing heavily on me. I am, after all, a list-checker-offer. Give me a list of stuff to do, I want it done an hour ago. So, while she was eating her lunch today I snapped a couple of shots. Ok, so I took 14. Sometimes quantity is the only elixir for a fidgety subject.

Taking a bite of her sandwich. "Why are you taking pictures Daddy?"


"Can I finish eating please Daddy? Can I see the pictures Daddy?"


"Please can I eat Daddy!?!"