Spring

 

Sunday bird blogging

I saw this titmouse in January; the park isn't quite so brown now as spring approaches.

That seed in the beak, held so delicately, made me think of a joke my stepfather used to make about my mother—She eats like a bird, a peck at a time. I'm sure I was taught in some dreary lesson in elementary school that peck refers to a unit of measure, as well as the more common usage describing what birds do with their beaks, but I doubt that most people would even get that pun anymore. (Unless they're old enough to also remember the song my grandmother used to sing to me. I love you a bushel and a peck, a bushel and a peck and a hug around the neck.)

My students love idioms, and I usually start my class with one, explaining the meaning and showing how it's used. Yesterday I did a whole lesson on idioms about food: I've got bigger fish to fry, don't cry over spilled milk, not my cup of tea. It was really fun, but unexpectedly exhausting. The last half hour of the class was fairly lackluster as the students were basically struggling to stay awake.

Saturday reflections

I took this picture from the window of the Uber after the surgery a few weeks ago; looking for things to photograph is one of the ways I deal with stress.

Astronomy Tuesday

I know I posed a Cassini image of Saturn just a few weeks ago, but I can't resist this one: Saturn's moon Hyperion. This small (approximately 250 kilometers across—small for a moon) strange object looks to me like something I might pick up on the beach, and so I suppose in a way, it's not strange at all. Unlike so much of what we're able to see in the universe now, it looks almost familiar.

Image Credit: NASA, ESA, JPL, SSI, Cassini Imaging Team

Sunday bird blogging

It's been another one of those weeks. Here's a handsome Northern Shoveler in the Central Park Reservoir by way of compensation.

Astronomy Tuesday

Evening on Mars.

The Curiosity rover took this picture last month. That fan effect is called crepuscular rays; they're seen when the sun's rays shine through clouds near sunrise or sunset. They're very familiar to those of us on Earth, but this is the first time they have been seen so clearly on Mars.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/SSI

Sunday bird blogging

One belated titmouse for your viewing pleasure.

A minor surgical procedure to remove a tiny, but unfortunately malignant, wart above my eyebrow left me with a black eye, a two-inch incision, and no energy for anything beyond minimum prep for yesterday's class and reading mysteries on my Kindle.

Astronomy Tuesday

The Cassini probe may be gone, but fortunately we still have all of its amazing images of Saturn. This is from 2006.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute;

Sunday bird blogging

A female downy woodpecker hanging out in Central Park last winter.

Saturday reflections

A storefront on Madison Avenue a few weeks ago.

Oops

Missed a few regular postings here—just the usual business of life, like trying to get in all the overdue doctor's appointments and new job paperwork, plus going in circles on upcoming lessons that just aren't coming together.

Spring may be a month away, but the pigeon trees are already in bloom.

Saturday reflections

Yes, sometimes when I'm waiting at a red light, I take pictures to pass the time. Why do you ask?