Sunday, oops, Monday bird blogging

A snowy egret wading in San Francisco Bay.

I really did mean to post this yesterday, but the amount of work after the first class of the semester is not much smaller than the preparation before the class. I have to grade the assessment tests and the writing samples. I have to post all the class materials in Google Classroom. I have to send followup emails to the students who registered but didn't come on Saturday. I have to verify all the email addresses and phone numbers and create a WhatsApp group. I have to crop and label the photos I take of each student so we can all learn each other's names. I made a good start yesterday, but need to finish up today. This week I have two tutoring sessions, several appointments, and a professional development class, and, oh, I also need to finish prep for the next class.

I love love LOVE this job, but it is part-time only in theory.

More Black Hills woods and water

Random things I saw at Magdalen College

 

Saturday reflections

Another castle, back in Oxford this time, reflected in one of the city's many waterways.

Saturday reflections

Flowers reflected in the river at Magdalen College this morning.

I'd rather pretend I'm here

 

Saturday reflections

Another look at the infant Mississippi River in Itasca State Park. The reflections are pretty feeble, but it's what I've got.

Wading

It's technically summer, but it was raining much of today and not very warm. But that didn't stop these brave adventurers from wading through—the Mississippi River?

Today was the first leg of our road trip out of Minneapolis, and one of the places we stopped was Itasca State Park, which contains the headwaters of the Mississippi River.

It's hard to believe that that unimpressive stream of lake overflow is the same Ol' Man River that goes from Minneapolis to New Orleans. There are more pictures, but I'm too tired to look at them.

OK, that is just insane

Braving the chilly Hudson River in just a speedo, I mean. We've had very little weather that even qualifies as warm recently, and none of the heat and humidity that's typical for this time of year.

Saturday reflections

This one has been sitting in the folder for a while—the no longer used El Ferdan Railway bridge in the Suez Canal.

Back in Antarctica

Looking down on the landing site in Mikkelsen Harbor. This picture gives a sense of scale that I wasn't always able to capture—how small I sometimes felt, with the mountains and glaciers just looming above us.

Another phone picture

This was taken from the couch in my stateroom, in Antarctica obviously.

We were somewhere in the vicinity of either Neko Harbor or Paradise Bay. I probably got up off my ass at some point and went out on the balcony to get a better picture, but I love this reminder of the sheer magic of that trip.

Here's an iceberg

Plus a poem:

When it's over, I want to say: all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.

When it's over, I don't want to wonder
if I have made of my life something particular, and real.
I don't want to find myself sighing and frightened,
or full of argument.

I don't want to end up simply having visited this world.

That's Mary Oliver, from When Death Comes.

We talked about the Harlem Renaissance in my class on Saturday, and read a couple of Langston Hughes poems, which the students loved. One student suggested that they could memorize a poem in English as a homework assignment, so I spent yesterday putting together 15 poems/excerpts that I think they would understand and enjoy. (Not necessarily to memorize, although if anyone wants to do that I'd be thrilled.)

And more spooky Antarctica

Also near Neko Harbor.

The light changed as fast as the weather did. It went from dazzlingly bright—if overcast—to sepulchral and back again very quickly.

More spooky Antarctica

Mikkelsen Harbor.

Saturday reflections

Neko Harbor, and a picture that really shows how spooky Antarctica can be, with the mists draping over the mountains and the water that looks almost black in the dim light.

Saturday reflections

Taking a brief break from the Southern Hemisphere, here is another look at the koi pond in the Botanical Gardens in Miami.

That's better

Humpbacks are often more cooperative with photographers because they frequently show off their magnificent tails when they dive. This was the first picture I managed to get, while the ship was repositioning to Paradise Bay during lunch.

Saturday reflections

An iceberg near Paradise Bay (before the sun came out.)

Glaciation

Some of the glaciers slipping down the mountains towards the water in Paradise Bay. (You'll have to zoom in on some of the pictures for a better look.)

For a sense of scale, you can see Brown Station in the picture on the lower left.