A Photo a Week: Birds…belted kingfisher

Nancy, you’ve put up a challenge I can’t resist today: “Birds.”  Since you’ve posted a hummingbird shot, I won’t.  Instead, I’ll share a photo of a belted kingfisher that I took several years ago.  On my way back from watching some fishing birds, egrets and herons, I happened to look up.  There at the end of a bare branch surrounded by green was a bird.  I had my telephoto and snapped the picture with no idea what bird it was.  For some reason, I had an idea that a kingfisher was much larger, but this little guy looks as if he has enough attitude for any bird of any size.

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A drift

Merriam Webster has numerous definitions for “drift” but persevere and you’ll arrive at:

8 :  a grouping of similar flowers planted in an elongated mass.

On my photography walk last week, once I entered into the wooded part of the park, I was adrift in drifts of wildflowers, not all of which show up well in photos.  Of course, no person planted these elongated masses of flowers but nevertheless, there they are.  (As an aside, a photography walk for me is one where I deliberately set out with Nikon and lenses in addition to the ever-present iPhone and don’t even plan on getting any exercise other than the most rudimentary walking.  Call it soul food.)

At any rate, there were still wildflowers aplenty, which I featured on my blog Friday and Saturday.   Here then, is a drift of wildflowers and, I hasten to add, taken with said phone, not my Nikon, lest Sally whip me with a wet noodle.  🙂

May you be adrift in flowers today, whether literal or figurative!  Perhaps I should also include “virtual.”  And happy May Day, which is celebrated with flowers as well!

For Sally D’s Mobile Photography Challenge: Nature

Wilder

More wildflowers today.  Have a happy and beautiful Saturday!!

Spring beauty (beautiful, but resilient):

Colors of the season

The Chicago Christkindlmarket opened in Naperville this year at Naperville Settlement.  Booths of Christmas products mostly from Germany, food, and drink combined to bring the both sorts of flavors of the season to a spot only a few miles from our house.  We met friends there the first weekend, on a cold night decorated with gorgeous snow.  In addition to the market, there was a festival of lights, a few of which I’ll share with you.  Here’s hoping your Christmas/holiday season is filled with light and happiness.

Thursday Doors…Naperville doors

We live in Naperville, Illinois, a western suburb of Chicago.  Joseph Naper, with family and friends, arrived in July 1832, giving us a fairly long (for the US) history as well as a great place to live in the here and now.  Here are a few non-historic doors from my wanderings.

 

Cee’s Oddball Photo Challenge 2015, Week 14…mummified

Not only is it Easter, but it’s Oddball Photo time.  In NE Illinois, the temperature is certainly spring-y, moving up and down day by day.  Early in the year, we took advantage of a nice day to go for a walk along the DuPage River and in one of the downtown parks, spotted this fountain, garbed for winter but waiting for spring.  I’m not sure how soon it will be active, but I imagine the water just waiting to bubble up with joy when that moment arrives.  We’ll be feeling the same!

Christmas lights

Driving around looking at Christmas lights is one of the things we enjoy doing each year. Naperville has lots of amazing lights and we saw a number on Saturday night. Unfortunately, it was raining, but I hope they’ll get your Christmas spirit going anyway.  

Our Christmas service is at 5 pm (I’m singing a duet of “Mary, Did  You Know” and wearing yet another hat), then we’ll have food and drink with friends, deliver the last bike for our 2Wheels2Kids project (four total for our first year–not bad), maybe see some more lights, then end the evening at home, listening to a reading of the Christmas story and opening the gifts in our stockings.  Then it will be off to bed, filled with anticipation for the joy and excitement of Christmas Day.

May your Christmas Eve be filled with anticipation and love.