Sunday bird blogging

Another look at the irritated crow in Glacier National Park this past summer.

It's been quite cold, and it's lovely to be able to snuggle inside all day if I want to. I usually use a weighted blanket in the fall and winter; I don't know that it really helps me sleep better but I do love the sensation of lying under a pile of warmth in a chilly room. But after I hurt my knee, it was hard to turn over in bed, and impossible under all that weight. I sleep with the window open a few inches (in New York apartments with steam heat, the thermostat is the window) but sometimes it goes from pleasantly chilly to downright freezing over the course of the night. I'm hot. Then I'm cold. And I missed my weighted blanket.

All of this is to say that after weeks of being annoyed about this, it finally occurred to me that I could just buy another comforter. Not weighted, just a regular comforter. Now I'm warm when I need to be, and I can turn over no matter how grumpy my knee is feeling, and I feel like an idiot for not having thought of this sooner.

Saturday reflections

This appears to be a defunct handicrafts shop on the main street in Faringdon, seen this past summer. The reflections are mostly in the shop name, though I do like how the window reflections and that rusty grate below them make a face.

But the sign on the door says that G & L Evans is in attendance during business hours, and available by phone 24 hours a day. Google tells me that this is a funeral provider, which explains their availability, but not why they are operating out of this rundown storefront.

More urban poetry

I always wished I had a better version of this picture—I was on a bus heading back to Lisbon from Belem in 2011. I loved those yellow chimneys under that sky and wished that I could see them better. But at least I have this picture.

Urban poetry

Washington Heights last winter. Taken from the window of my car, which gives me a (very brief) moment of regret.

Sunday bird blogging

This picture is a couple of years old, but I don't think I ever posted it.

Tufted titmice always make me smile, and I'm already happy because I had a great class yesterday and now I have a week off.

Don't pet the fluffy cows

A bison calf trotting obediently after Mom in Theodore Roosevelt National Park.

A large herd of bison decided to stand in the middle of the road and were in no hurry to move on, so we had plenty of time to watch them while we sat in the long line of cars. Many pictures, which I will share—really!—at some point, but this is my favorite.

The road goes ever on

Somewhere in North Dakota this past summer.

Between living with a pissed-off knee and weeks spent fighting off a a really vicious sinus infection, I have not had time or energy to devote to anything beyond the necessary weekly prep and teaching chores. (The embarrassing amount of clutter in my apartment at the moment provides ample evidence, but I'm definitely not going to document it.)

So I'm going to try to clear out some of the clutter in my blog photo files, and post a few things that don't require much explanation.

Sunday bird blogging

Pigeons on the Upper East Side.

Urban poetry

Evening on the Upper East Side this week, as the long nights begin again.

I hesitate to say it because I've been wrong many times in the past several weeks, but I think I am finally better. I haven't coughed once today.