moved

I've moved my blog to www.jessicablank.com

up past bedtime

Look what I found on my walk today. It was so close to the edge of the path curled up on a fallen log. There was a moment of magic when it peered out at me with it's little masked face. Then Sonic saw it. Then Sammy saw it. Then Sony. Then chaos ensued.

christmas bird count

The Saturday after Christmas I participated in my first bird count. We got to the forest before the sunrise and waited outside the nesting holes for these little woodpeckers to wake up. We waited. It was important for us to count these birds because there are so few of them left. We needed them in our count. They came out and flew to a tree where they met with their friends, a morning chat, and then off in to the forest. The Red-cockaded Woodpecker, it was kinda a thrill to see an endangered animal in the wild and even more so because I was with people who were so devoted to the birds.

The rest of the morning was spent walking through the forest in the drizzly gray with a pair of binoculars. I was what they called a spotter. I wasn't much help with identification. I just pointed at birds. Everyone was generous with their bird knowledge. They tried to help me with identifying by sound, "You hear that one it goes poe-TATE-oh-chip, that's a goldfinch." and told me stories of how they fell in love with birds. One guy carried around an ipod with bird calls on it and would trick the birds into coming out and letting us see them. I don't think I will ever be a hardcore birder but for a day I enjoyed the company of the bird people.

i go wherever they take me

A new year wouldn't be a new year without a new project (or two or three) so here is my new photoblog. I am going to try and take a picture of my feet every day this year. I'm posting them on my flickr site here. I'm calling the set "i go wherever they take me." It started because I am usually behind the camera and I guess to prove to my self that I was there I just point the camera down at the ground and take a picture. The collection of foot shots was getting interesting so I decided to make a project of it. Hopefully 365 pictures of my feet don't get boring!

resolve 2009

A new year starts tomorrow. My resolutions are ready:

1. DRAW: I am going to draw more, doodle, goof off, keep up with a sketch book, not worry so much about what or why I am drawing. Just draw.

2. RUN: I started running this year and next year, as far as exercise goes, I think this will be my first year of running. I have gotten over that hump where running is just too hard and am looking forward to going further and faster. Maybe doing some races and just enjoying a simple exercise that I can do anywhere at anytime.

3. READ: 2008 was an enormous goal of reading 100 books. I didn't make it. I read 45. This year all I am resolving to do is read one more than last year.

4. PLAY!

5. LEARN: Last year I had a lot of fun taking pictures and playing with my camera. This year I am going to buckle down and actually learn the ins and outs of my camera the different things it can do and that I can do with it so that I will improve my photography.

That's it. I decided it is a year of improving. I tend to take on new things, try new things, learn new things which is fun but it means I don't spend a lot of time on one thing and do that thing well. So here's to doing things well in 2009!

drip. drip. drip.

For Christmas Steve gave me a cold. I'm tired of it. My head if full of snot and it likes to drip, drip, drip out my nose.

eve

Christmas Eve. Steve built a little camp fire in our fire circle and we sat under the dark sky and chatted about the year to come. I sipped peppermint tea and poked the fire with pugs snoozing in my lap.

life list

Today Dad helped me construct a bird feeding shelf outside my big upstairs window. I'm really happy about it. I think it's going to be so much fun to see who comes to the window feeder. I put out all kinds of goodies. Then on top of my fabu bird feeder I got an early Christmas pressie from Gina. It was this field guide to birds. I am starting my life list today. Here are my first birdies:

• Northern Cardinal
• Carolina Chickadee
• American Goldfinch
• Chipping Sparrow
• Black Vulture

Not an impressive start, but I got the book late in the day and it's raining.

reboot

I look back at last year's posts and realize that I like this. I like having my little memories and ideas and moments trapped here so that I can look back. Remember. Smile. Frown. Laugh. See that time has passed but not as quickly at it sometimes seems.

confused?

If you still aren't sure who to vote for may I make a suggestion....

vote.

Flickr Fun

Here's how to play: Type your answer to each of the questions (the questions and my answers are below) into Flickr's search. Using only the images that appear on the first page, choose your favorite and copy and paste each of the URL’s into the Mosaic Maker.

What is your first name? Jessica : What is your favorite food? peanut butter : What high school did you attend? Huntsville High School : What is your favorite color? green today, blue tomorrow : Who is your celebrity crush? Adrian Brody : Favorite drink? tea : Dream vacation? Sequoia National Park : Favorite dessert? apple pie a la mode : What do you want to be when you grow up? alive! : What do you love most in life? happy moments : One word to describe you? restless : Your Flickr name? jayembee

photo credits:
1. Jessica Got Kissed, 2. Breakfast 7.11.07 (breakfast meets bento), 3. Joe's Graduation-24, 4. 133: SOTTS will make you jump!, 5. TIFF08-5162, 6. coffee & the city, 7. Alpine Mist, 8. Day 72/365: There just ain't no better way..., 9. Young At Heart, 10. Call of the Raven (formerly Nature's Special Effects), 11. THE OLD BOG ROAD (NO 3) (Mar 21, 2008 #424 EXPLORE) KILKENNY, IRELAND., 12. NYC Trip Day Two - 107 Jayembee at Grimaldi's Pizza.jpg

baby copperhead

I caught this little guy yesterday (don't worry, I didn't catch him with my bare hands) a tiny copperhead. I thought the little yellow tail was interesting so I looked it up, it's a newborn baby copperhead. Yes, they are poisonous but so pretty and so interesting to look at close up.

Copperheads are pit vipers so I got to get a close look at the heat sensing "pits" on the front of its head and its tell-tell elliptical pupils.

electric sky

Images captured from a night-time lightning storm over Guadalupe River State Park.

simple life

Can i get up in the morning, put the kettle on.
Make us some coffee. Say "hey" to the sun.
Is it enough to write a song and sing it to the birds?
They'd hear just the tune, not understand my love for words.
But you would hear me and know:
I want only this, I want to live a simple life.

- The Weepies

still walking

Me and my camera and my dogs are still going for our walks. I have stopped posting my pictures on 300 walks, but I think the spirit of the idea still exists. I will admit that I may not make it to 300 and the summer heat has slowed me down, but there isn't a week that goes by without us plummeting into the the thick stand of pines behind the house, my camera in hand with my three pups leading the way. My newest experiment involves me carrying a large white piece of foam core board along too. I need to perfect the process. It is hard to hold the board up behind whatever I want to isolate with one hand and take the picture with the other. If I need to make any adjustments to the camera settings I have to put everything down, fiddle with the camera and then reframe. By then the dogs have gotten bored with me and wondered off.

kayakin' around

Went kayaking with a new friend at the state park today. It was such quiet, easy fun. We checked out the birds, spotted an alligator gar in a little pool, found a giant turtle shell. The older I get the harder it is for me to make new friends. I'm not sure if it is simple and I make it complicated, or if it is complicated and I just wish it was simple. I'm over thinking it - I think.

luna moth

Torn. Broken. Still magic.

that's us.

We succeeded in taking that picture [from deep space], and, if you look at it, you see a dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever lived, lived out their lives. The aggregate of all our joys and sufferings, thousands of confident religions, ideologies and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilizations, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every hopeful child, every mother and father, every inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every superstar, every supreme leader, every saint and sinner in the history of our species, lived there on a mote of dust, suspended in a sunbeam.

- Carl Sagan

racer

New snake. I think I have it identified. It's an Eastern Yellowbelly Racer, a juvenile. Coluber constrictor flaviventris. He was so pretty, but feisty, bit me twice.

wordle

Made a Wordle of this blog. It takes all the words and then makes a bubble with your most used words the largest. I just say just a little too much I guess. See it bigger here.

summer nights

Summer nights. Porch lights. Improvised pine cone tripods.

Long exposures. Self-timers. Puppy shadows.

My little house snuggled in the pine trees. Glowing a warm hello.

blanco river

Last weekend Steve and I went on the Outdoor Rec tubing trip, although it was cut short by a semi-serious, but well-managed tubing injury, we had a lot of fun. Here are all the peeps (not at the hospital) hanging out in the Blanco River after a fun day drifting down the San Marcos. Flickr set here.

tracks

There are some moments in life that are like pivots around which your existence turns -- small intuitive flashes, when you know you have done something correct for a change, when you think you are on the right track. I watched a pale dawn streak the cliffs with Day-glo and realized this was one of them. It was a moment of pure, uncomplicated confidence -- and it lasted about ten seconds.

- Robyn Davidson, Tracks

clever flowers

Yesterday I went for a hike at Huntsville State Park. On the dam two of my favorite wildflowers were blooming. Bee balm and passionflower, I love them for their beautiful strangeness. Pollinators were busy buzzing away gathering food, what I enjoy more then watching them work is watching the flowers work. Such clever flowers.