Flicker

Flicker / Oil on black canvas / 5x7 / $68, including shipping!

this bird has flown! 

TODAY WAS A BUSY DAY in Wachapreague. Dredging that has gone on for months has finished, and today, cranes and flatbed trucks showed up to haul the dredging equipment and pipes away. 

This excitement was amplified by the fact of an extremely high tide, which washed over the marsh, and over Atlantic Avenue, and over the docks. The dredging-exit men ended up standing in water pretty much the whole time they were working. 

My friend Carol is visiting again, and we were watching for the high tide. Lots of folks in town were. People were out walking and driving, looking at the water being where it shouldn't be. 

Peter and I always went out to see this stuff, and he would have loved today's sights especially. 

The photograph above is actually from Sunday. The tide was so high it covered the dock! 

Below, the dredging operation 

***

A Last Thought 

"The great tides and currents which engulf the rest of men 

do not turn aside in their course and pass the judges by." 

- Benjamin Cardozo

Hairy Woodpecker

Hairy Woodpecker / oil on black canvas / 5x7 / $68 includes shipping

GRAY AND COLD AND RAINY today, and windy - a storm in advance of the first hurricane of the season.

On Saturday, when the forecast for that day and Sunday showed temps in the low 80s, I decided to put my winter clothes away and get the summer clothes out. Yesterday afternoon, I had to  pull some of those jeans and long-sleeved shirts, and so I am dressed right, but the chill has made its way to my bones. Somehow, it often seems colder after a couple days of summery heat.

The dogs are all sleeping, and have been sleeping very deeply since our quite damp - well, OK, wet - walk this morning. I think there must be something in their little dog brains that tells them to sleep sleep sleep when the barometric pressure falls. I would wager that's because, centuries and eons ago, there was little chance of catching anything to eat when it was raining - and so, sleep was what made sense.

I made this painting while I was in Arizona, where summer came in February. I had put it in a box and forgotten about it, but found it over the weekend. It makes me think of the orange and red landscape of Arizona, the huge turquoise sky, and the weeks I spent out there with my dad and Paula, and all my Arizona friends. It feels like a long, long time ago.

***

For Today

Like Rain It Sounded Till It Curved

Like Rain it sounded till it curved
And then I knew 'twas Wind -
It walked as wet as any Wave
But swept as dry as sand -
When it had pushed itself away
To Some remotest Plain
A coming as of Hosts was heard
It filled the Wells, it pleased the Pools
It warbled in the Road -
It pulled the spigot from the Hills
And let the Floods abroad -
It loosened acres, lifted seas
The sites of Centres stirred
Then like Elijah rode away
Upon a Wheel of Cloud

- Emily Dickinson

Pileated Woodpecker

Pileated Woodpecker / Oil on black canvas / 5x7 unframed / $68

sold!

AS I WATCHED A WOODPECKER do his business on the white dogwood in my front yard, I began to wonder why woodpeckers don't get concussions. Or maybe they do, and one never hears about it? After all, I have few chatty woodpecker friends. 

Apparently, according to Samantha Hauserman, a biologist with Arizona State University, woodpeckers' hyoid bones (all you detective-fiction fans know what they are) are arranged more or less like seatbelts inside their skulls. These bones protect the woodpecker's brain, and help its skull absorb the shock. 

Though it looks like your average woodpecker is hammering away at the same spot again and again, he is really varying his pecking pattern in a way that spreads the force of the blows around. 

And finally, Woody has a sort of overbite to his beak that helps distribute the force of the pecking blows. 

***

Gratitude

Today, I am grateful for the love and the warm snuggles that my dog friends share with me. I am grateful for their good cheer, their buoyant celebrations, their delight in pretty much everything. In their own ways, they are models of behavior for me. 

***

For Today

The Dog

The truth I do not stretch or shove

When I state that the dog is full of love.

I've also found by actual test

A wet dog is the lovingest.

- Ogden Nash