Phoneography Challenge: Nature 10/7/13

Another first Monday, so our photos today are from nature. Nature’s one of my favorite subjects, making it difficult to decide what photos to use. I went back a few summers to a day when I was meandering around the small lake near our house. It’s a wonderful place to get a bit of nature in the city but if I walk for exercise, I don’t take my iPad or camera because I stop too often. When I go for pictures, I know it will take some time to work my way around the lake.

I spotted the bird (probably a crane) and s/he was nice enough to stay put while I took some photos. The second photo is one of my favorites, my “Monet’s Lilies” picture. They’re both unedited and taken with my iPad.  I like the not-quite-sharp, slight muted quality of both the shots, although it wasn’t something I did intentionally.

A happy Monday to you!

Natural vitamin D, Pink Martini and Monet

On a day when by afternoon our lovely deck resembles the bottom half of a Foreman grill, it behooves me, after an 8 am foray to Whole Foods to score organic strawberries for $1.99 a pound, to walk while the temperature is still a “balmy” 80 F or so, with humidity even higher. Natural vitamin D, here I come!

I stride out on the black, heat-soaked, asphalt path that winds over a mile around the neighborhood lake. My Nano has Pink Martini crooning the tunes from “Splendor in the Grass”. If you haven’t experienced Pink Martini, do so immediately. You haven’t had fun until you’ve heard China Forbes sing “Now You’re Gone” and the response from NPR correspondent Ari Shapiro , “Now I’m Back”, sung tongue firmly in cheek.  (Have you ever tried to sing with your tongue in your cheek?  It’s not easy!!)   Here’s the story of the song and a great shot of the group: http://www.npr.org/2009/10/27/114167342/pink-martini-a-tale-of-two-songs. Here’s a live version of the song:

My first obstacle, other than the heat and humidity, is the gaggle of geese hanging out around the lake, producing prodigious amounts of goose poop in their own inimitable fashion. Not a fan of government subsidies, I’d gladly subsidize anyone discovering how to get geese to deposit their multitudinous offerings in some sort of cosmic litter box or teach them to compost without littering. I’m not holding my breath.