A tiny toad, hoping my camera lens isn’t a gaping mouth.
A smirking bunny, father of hundreds.
A Scottish Highland cow with stylish, peek-a-boo bangs.
A sandhill crane, just being weird.
A happy mama with her ducklings in a row.
*Other colored lives that matter:
~All lives matter
–Photos by me
–photos by me
crane
tall, red-crowned
calling, dancing, bowing
legs like broken sticks
sandhill
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At first, I thought these were a couple of young deer behind the trees, as we don’t get many cranes in the wooded portion of the state. They are a very old bird, and have a peculiar walk. They remind me of some kind of dinosaur. With their sandy brown backs, it’s easy to see why they’re called sandhills.
–photos by me
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–photos by me
A family of Canadian “honkers” enjoying a late afternoon outing.
–Photo by my son, Aaron
My son Aaron and I are way back in the wilderness of Superior National Forest, and we’ve just stumbled upon a recently constructed beaver dam. Unfortunately, beavers like to lounge around inside their “lodge” where they’re high and dry, and safe from predators during the day. The construction project is all done on the night shift, so we’ll have to settle for some photos of the pond.
Mama is most likely tending to some little ones inside the lodge, as beavers have from one to four kits in the spring.
One thing there is no shortage of out here is woodticks. We must have pulled twenty or thirty of the little blood-suckers off our legs already. And then there’s lyme disease.
Well, it looks like there will be no tail-slapping activities here today.
* * *
found a beaver dam
a newly built beaver dam–
and no beaver. damn
–Photos by me
My new ride. Harry Potter had his Nimbus 2000. This is my Stimulus 2020.
There are so many nice, winding bicycle trails linking the small towns of the Iron Range now. Paved and groomed, they’re great for the “mature” bicyclist such as myself.
Like walking or jogging, there’s something about doing it that helps you jostle things into place in your head, and keeps the body balanced–which brings me to the quote by Albert Einstein:
“Life is like riding a bike.
To keep balanced,
you must keep moving.”
–Photos by me
llama
social, curious
grazing, spitting, playing
may save us all
camelid
Imagine my surprise when I ran into this woolly gal out in the woods! She had escaped from a nearby farm, but she happily followed me to it. The farmer told me that they used to have two more, but one wandered off and the other was killed by a bear.
Llamas, with their unique kind of blood, have recently shown an exciting potential for a coronavirus treatment. Go llamas!
–Photos by me
the morning fog will lift by noon;
for now the sun’s a pale moon
–photo by me
my son aaron took this shot of me the other evening. He’s such a creative photographer, I thought I’d throw this in to showcase his talent
–photo by aaron
I’m following a trail into the woods tonight to get a better view of the moonless, starry sky without the light pollution from the city. It’s getting darker as I go, and my eyes are finally adjusting. I can’t believe how spectacular it is–the sky is beginning to look like powdered sugar spilled on black velvet. Venus is so bright, it’s actually casting a shadow.
If only my camera could do justice to this celestial extravaganza!
It’s so peaceful out here. The pines are like gentle giants swaying in the breeze under a canopy of dazzling stars. I can’t help but smile.
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we’re made of stardust
ergo, our lives are truly
written in the stars
–photos by me
michaeljordahl 