Spooky

Gorgeous Hike, But in The End a Sad Tail

I've been sick on and off for far too long, and was totally having stomach ailments all weekend. However, I got some time to tromp around totally alone in big stretches of forest on the Maine coast and during those walks I didn't think about how I felt sick, I just examined old stone walls and poked a milk snake with a stick and photographed mushrooms.



I bushwhacked through brush and saw a squirrel fall down from a tree on a broken branch. I kept to the gorgeous shoreline on one side and never worried about being lost.

There was much evidence of deer and rabbits and that odd, wonderful presence of the woods. There were tons of birds singing everywhere and it seemed like every tree next to me had several chickadee, at least one busy little nuthatch and a junco or else a solo Downey woodpecker hopping about. I flushed what I expected to be a grouse but had a big beak like a rail? (in the woods by the ocean?) and crows croaked to each other above me.



Things seemed magical and suspended.



I saw this perfect hiding tree -- it was hollow like a dug out canoe. And it had a long slit you could watch the water from.



While examining it, I saw I was not alone. A sleeping raccoon!



But alas, as I took a good look through the camera at the angle of that paw, and after the fifth acorn I threw actually hit her and she didn't move, I realized this sleeping beauty was never going to find her masked prince. And when I couldn't think of any other likely way for a raccoon to have died in a spot like that besides being shot by a hunter and then not falling down as expected, well I noticed how sick I was feeling again, and very tiredly slogged my way back.

Worth the Wait

What a nice night to hang around by myself on a deserted street with an expensive camera.

Holy cow, what's that I see?

Heffalumps! On Memorial Drive

On their way from the circus train in Cambridge to the Fleet Center for the circus.

Poor elephants.

Idea for You

Take this idea and make some money: Dance Dance Revolution for toddlers. Does this exist? I've never seen it. I mean they have Dance with Elmo type videos, but where's the interactive part?

PS: Even if you get rich with this idea, my kid will waste yours at "If You're Happy and You Know It."

Babes in the Woods

There is nothing cuter than watching wee people in the forest.

The VP Debate

So I drew during the debate again. Palin was so distracting with her dopey way of speaking that I ended up scribbling quotes all over the page next to her and writing a lot less next to Biden. In the end I wrote SUBSTANCE under Biden and FIGHT under Palin.
I was angry that I'd left my smaller sketchpad at my studio so I had to start my really nice large new one with a picture of Palin.

The only positive thing I have to say about Sarah Palin is I hope a lot of smart young women and girls are watching her and are just incredulous, their mouths open, eyes narrowed, faces slightly turned as though waiting to hear it's all a joke, thinking "Holy Crap, if that ludicrous woman can be in the White House, certainly I can."

Meanwhile remember they're just the leader. Yeah, I said "just" the leader. Of a whole LOT of people who do much of the actual work. Change can be brought about by you and me. Did you even go to vote for your local politicians? You know those "little elections" that get these people on their way to govern our lives? Have you made your life greener lately? If you're fed up watching the black hole of our economy, the barely hanging on planet, and more, what can you do today? Be the answer.

My friend Tamar explained to one of her sons that the fact that Sarah Palin thinks we can fix global warming without knowing (i.e. admitting) what causes it was like if she kept hitting him in the head with a hammer saying, "I don't know what's causing your headache, but I'll try to fix it." This made a difference. My friend Pete who runs www.ifkidscouldvote.com upped the percentage of his profits going to the Obama campaign. Me, for now, I'm taking my 1.5 year old into the woods to play and explore and get in touch with the earth more than she can in my concrete neighborhood, and I'm making plans for how to more efficiently heat my home this winter.