It's All Happening at the Zoo

The week I was going back and forth to Philadelphia for my testing I decided to make a trip to the zoo one day.  I've always loved the Philadelphia Zoo, which has the distinction of being our nation's first. I met my friend Gwen and her little one, Sweet Pea there. Join us.

 Flamingos always make me giggle.

There were a couple of women discussing this position with the little one they were accompanying.  We all agreed it looked like giraffe yoga.  Downward giraffe anyone?

 I was following my prep diet for the scans while at the zoo.  Last year I may have fought the otter for the fish.  This year my cravings were all about cheese, so I could just enjoy the otter's antics.  We also had an extended discussion with the otter's keeper.  We learned a lot about the breeding programs.  Essentially the worldwide zoo population of these river otters is descended mostly from the same mother and there are more hoops to jump through to get your otter laid than any sane person would even want to imagine.

 This bear seemed wholly unconcerned with any of that.

 We were hoping the peacock would give us a show.  He did not oblige.

Getting ready for a date and checking his deodorant?

"Listen, Glen may have on his aftershave but he still can't dance.  Just look at that ungainly display on the dance floor."

 GQ Lemur edition.

 The beauty shop at the primate house.

 Cutie

 Deep in thought or needing a smoke?

 Whoa, Mama!  the ground is waaaaaay down there!

 She seemed fairly annoyed by the people around.

 Sweet Pea's favorite toy is her stuffed lion.  It goes everywhere with her.  She wanted this lion to meet her lion.

Majesty

If you've ever read E. B. White's Trumpet of the Swan you may recall the main character Louis lives at the Philadelphia Zoo for a time and plays his trumpet for tourists.  The swan boats at the zoo are in honor of the book.

 Sass

 Just inside the entrance is this fountain.  I've loved it since I was a child.

Critters

I've been shooting all sorts of critters this summer....with Boom-boom my Canon....not boom-boom a gun.  It's a habit I picked up ears ago when Isaac was small and collecting the various insects, amphibians, and reptiles he could find in the yard was his favorite thing.  We'd take a picture, marvel a bit, look up the species, and put it back.  As I am lacking time to come up with a reflective or humorous post and as this past week has been a sucktastic one I am sharing the local fauna now in attempts to make myself think of more cheerful or peaceful things.  First up, the chipmunks.  As a kid I spent a lot of time in the mountains with my grandparents and feeding the chippies by hand was a favorite past time.  Since Mr. Lime and Isaac chase them off I was pleased to be able to sit in the yard peacefully with them one afternoon as they scampered around looking for seeds.


You talkin' to ME?  This little one cracked me up when I downloaded the picture off  my camera.

While I was in Maryland I was able to enjoy the goldfinches.  We get them at our feeder occasionally but I was able to get much closer to these and since I wasn't contending with the shade from our feeder their colors came out more brilliantly.  Here's Mrs. Finch.
















Mr. Finch.  You can certainly see how much more brilliant his plumage is.  Again, as a kid in the mountains, I was reminded of my grandfather. We kids could feed the chippies by hand but only my grandfather could draw the wild birds to his upturned palms as he sat in zen-like repose on the back porch.  I always thought he and the birds had a special relationship.  My aunt confirmed that with this story.

Back at home we found some other little friends.  This frog  has made a home in a hole in one of our fence posts. His drowsy look and his hiding space just sort of make me giggle.










Not far away from the fence post, Mr. Lime built a bird bath out of an old claw-footed tub.  About the time we found the fence post neighbor we found this little one had taken up residence in the birdbath.  He just seems a bit more outgoing and I can imagine him calling the other frog enticing him to come play while the other one moans about wanting a nap.

Finally, I nearly stepped on this little red eft one day on my way out to the car.  When I noticed him I had to go back in for my camera.  I can remember scooping them up and carrying crowds of them...um, herds...er, wriggles....whatever the collective noun for a salamander is...in my shirt by folding up the front hem and using it like a pocket.

Happy memories of years past and peaceful times this summer...aahh, that's better. 

Woody's Appearance

 Mr. Lime has long had a contentious relationship with the squirrels in our yard.  The birds are a different story.  He has built bird feeders and checked into which kinds of seeds attract which birds.  This winter he added a couple of suet feeders dangling from the main feeder.  They have attracted several woodpeckers, which have been especially fun to see a bit closer as the feeder is just outside out living room window.  With so many snow days recently I've had time to play with Boom-boom.  I hit the jackpot this week and caught three different species in one morning.  Here is a female Red-bellied Woodpecker.  She's about the size of a hefty cardinal.

 Next up we have a male Downy Woodpecker.  When I was taking the pictures they were flitting around so quickly I thought this was the same bird as the one above.  It wasn't until I got the pictures off the camera that I was able to see it was a different species and gender.  Sorry, fellow.

Here's another shot of the Downy Woodpecker that shows the markings more clearly.  Mr. Lime tells me identifying these as different from the Hairy Woodpecker is a challenged as the markings are so similar but the main thing is the beak length.  Apparently Hairy Woodpeckers have beaks as long as their heads.  I'll refrain from comments correlating beaks and other bits. You may thank me later.




Here is the bird I never imagined I'd be able to capture with Boom-boom, the Pileated Woodpecker.  This is a female.  We've heard them in the neighborhood for years and every once in a  great while we have a fleeting glimpse of one as it flits through the trees.  They are shy creatures.  Since we put up the suet feeders the Pileateds have dared to come closer to the house.  I was thoroughly excited when this girl clung to the suet feeder for a good long time so I could play paparazzi.

And now, gentle reader I shall share a story from about 8 years ago, which was shared way back then on a long since defunct blog I shared with another blogger.  I figure it's unlikely any of you have read that.

One weekend, since there was much sickness in the house, we watched a lot of movies. During one movie scene a particular character referred to another one as a "pecker." The entire family, save Isaac giggled. Not wanting to miss any of the humor, my then 10 year old son asked what was so funny.

I informed him that pecker was slang for penis. He laughed, then paused to think and came back with, "So, that really makes woodpecker a funny name for a bird."

I replied, "Yep, and even more so when you consider that "wood" is slang for an erection." He doubled over laughing. Mr. Lime became disgusted with the entire conversation and told me I was being inappropriate.

I intoned the poor boy would be forced to learn the alternate meanings for "bird" on the school bus.

Yes, I am that mother.

Field Trip to Philly

Last week I had my last visit to the hospital for three months.  It was just time for a scan to make sure my radioactive self was getting back to normal.  Mr. Lime, Isaac, and I decided to make a day of it since the appointment was early in the morning and we had the rest of the day.  I took Boom-boom along.

Our first stop was at Reading Terminal Market for a bite to eat.  This place makes me all sorts of happy.  Where else will you find Amish families selling baked goods, preserves, and fresh meats across an aisle from a sushi chef?  There's obviously an abundance of Pennsylvania German foods but there's a wide variety of other ethnic cuisines available as well.  Organic produce, quality breads, and be still my heart, CHEESES!  There were multiple cheese stands but Mr. Lime and I fell in with the artisanal crew who let us sample several cheeses.  After weeks of no dairy I splurged on some very expensive and very delicious cheese as a way to celebrate the end of my treatment.  Excuse me a moment while I savor the memory.....mmmmmm....


My other way to celebrate was to go to the Mütter Museum in order to see a multitude of medical oddities.  During the course of my treatment it was discovered that my thyroid was quite unusual....like one of four in the last century unusual...so I thought going to see other medical weirdness would be an appropriately warped way to celebrate the end of treatment.  It's not set up as some sort of side show exploiting folks with afflictions but was established as a manner of augmenting and furthering the education of physicians.  I also thought Isaac, whose favorite subject is anatomy and physiology, could be lured to a family outing if he got to see jars of gangrenous limbs and preserved body parts.  We also beheld such wonders as an enlarged human colon which looked like it couldn't possibly fit in a creature smaller than an elephant, an ovarian cyst the size of two soccer balls, a 7'6" skeleton, and a vast collection of skulls.  There was also an interesting exhibit drawing correlations between possible origins of folk tales as related in Grimm's Fairy Tales and human deformities.  I quite enjoyed that part. The museum does not permit photography.  Those of you with more sensitive constitutions may thank me now.  Those of you interested should definitely make it a stop if you ever get to Philadelphia.



After the museum we still had time to wander because we had paid an exorbitant parking fee and I intended to get some degree of its value out of it.  We walked around the city with Boom-boom, much to Isaac's chagrin.  He hates when I have my camera because I make too many stops.  Mr. Lime has learned to accept it.  In fact, we noticed this reflection of one building in the surface of another at the same time and he wanted to make sure I didn't miss it.

 We made it to City Hall after several blocks of wandering.  I had to visit Billy Penn.  I wanted to take a picture of one of us shaking a fist here so I could say we CAN fight city hall but no volunteers were forth-coming.















Across from City Hall is a sculpture park with this work "Government of the People" by Jacques Lipchitz.  It's a messy business, not unlike the sausage-making in the market, eh?

Nearby is Love Park with the famous logo.

Across the way the road leads to the Art Museum, one of my favorite places.

Eventually we headed home passing the Pennsylvania Railroad.  Monopoly anyone?

Finally, one of the other things I adore about Philadelphia is the proximity of old to new.  I'd never want to see the beautiful old architecture completely demolished and removed but time does march on and new things come along.

As my life moves on from here I want to remember to keep the best parts of my old self and ways as I move on in what I am considering a new start with new chances and as I try to make the most of that.

Happy Mother's Day

 For Mother's Day one of my requests was to be able to take some family pictures.  We usually do that on Easter but folks were flung in all different directions.  My family indulged me on Sunday.  Aren't they a lovely looking bunch?

We all get a bit bored with traditional, everybody say, "Cheese!" pictures. So we decided to get some good actions shots.  What?  You don't canoe in your moss covered front yard?  Well, I can't help it if you lack a sense of adventure.

We needed to practice looking our best.

I wanted Calypso to be well-groomed so I decided to emulate a proper chimpanzee mother.










Diana found the whole process very tiring.

Isaac is 6'3" now.  I needed to squish him down a bit to fit him in the frame with shrimpy little me.










Everybody ready?  Smile!

Oooh, look what some smiles and a black and white filter does for this bunch.

Run Like the Wind

 

It's that time of year again when my young man's fancy turns to track and field season.  In the past he has competed in the high jump and hurdles.  This year he is running hurdles and 4x400 relay.  Last week I made it to the first home meet.  He place first in all three of his events.  I missed the first race (110 hurdles) but made it in time to see the second and third events.  In the 300 hurdles he was so far ahead no other competitors were even in the frame...not that I am bragging about the boy or anything....ok, I am.

I love that my 70-300 mm lens on Boom-boom can really pull him in close.  Isaac hates seeing me take his picture so I can go way up into the stands and not annoy or distract him but still get a nice shot.

Post-race catching of breath.  I look at this huge guy (6'3") and wonder where on earth my little boy went.  Though I can honestly say that when he was little and taking running leaps to jump over anything he thought he could clear I did predict he'd be a hurdler.  Mr. Lime, who is a jock, didn't put much stock in that prediction. (insert smug grin)

Receiving the baton for the second leg of the relay.  Our guys were behind.










Staying on the other runner's shoulder.  That's fancy track-speak for staying behind the guy intentionally so you can see what he's doing and decide when to overtake him.  Since I actually enjoy this sport I'm trying to learn...unlike what I refer to with a shudder as "the football years."  I loathe that sport thoroughly and on multiple levels for various reasons.  My ignorance on that sport was carefully cultivated over a lifetime and even Isaac couldn't change it....but I digress.  I like track and field...a lot.

Starting his kick to take the lead.  Wanna know one reason I like this sport?  It's simple and clear cut.  Whoever runs fastest, jumps highest, and throw farthest wins.  There aren't ridiculously complicated rules and time outs for no apparent reason and other stupidities.

Oh yeah, he's got this.











Eat my dust, pal.

Still two more legs of the race to be run, which our guys won, but it's always nice after you finish your part to be congratulated by a coach for doing well.....and to have a pretty teammate  rub your shoulders.