Take yourself out for a walk in nature! It has become my favorite weekly ritual, helpful to clear the head and to enjoy nature, of course, but also enjoy my own company. And to be inspired. I guess most people already know this about nature walks and hikes, but I just thought I would share some of my photos. These are mostly taken along the Lanana Creek Trail in my town of Nacogdoches, Texas.
Of Course, I had to begin with the bird sculpture! Caw…Caw!
I did spot a buzzard hanging up on one of the electric poles!
A cloudy sunset!
These were not all taken on the same day, some were in the morning and some in the evening. But yes, even just down the road, maybe even in your own hometown can you find inspiration. Life. Enjoy!
I extend a wing out to you in hopes I can wrap you up and keep you safe! Mushy wings!
Crazy lady and birds. It’s always a crazy lady and something. Cats, or just plain crazy. I’ve hit the deep end. I’m filling up my new journal everyday with a birdo or two. And romantic thoughts of nature and life! So you must suffer the onslaughts of one Birdo after another Birdo and so forth until I’ve exhausted my hyper fixation. You’re here, you’ve known this, I am repetitive. There is no linear progression. Just loops and loops of the same mumbo jumbo. And again and again. Ugh, dumbo jumbo more like it.
Life is always going to be messy. Total chaos and sadness!
I watched a movie recently where it’s set in a small town by the sea, and everyone is effected by this love letter that was left lying around a bookstore. And people keep finding it and thinking someone wrote it for them. Eventually you find out in the end who wrote it, but it’s an adorable film (adapted by a book by the same title, the Love Letter by Catheline Schine). I just thought the line that the character played by Tom Selleck (spelled his name right?) let me see if I can paraphrase:
Helen: Can you forgive me?
George: Forgive you for what? For being human?
Messy, fucked up…that’s the good stuff, Helen.
I think everyone in the town is living, loving all because of this letter. And messing it all up in the process.
I’m truly dumb. In the heart. But I wish I owned my own bookstore or worked at one.
What would birds listen to if not their neighbor’s own song, or their love’s own song? Even their own song? I don’t know why I drew headphones on him. Just curious about the songs that move people, the songs that even move weirdo Birdos.
What moves you to sing and even dance? I have a whole playlist of 6+ hours of songs that I listen to while in the kitchen, which I made a few years ago and realized it was my music sanctuary. Not just in the kitchen but just dealing with my life back then. Here I am though. Still self discovering.
Here it is! If you care to know what this birdo listens to:
Wandering the trails around here never seem to bore me. Each time I visit the trails I encounter something new, a new creature or something interesting on my path. A new rock, which I do put back! (Because the boys used to collect too many rocks! And the long story about my camera bag.. I collected rocks in Arkansas and forgot to put my lens cap back on and scratched my lines up regrettably and permanently 😦 ) or sometimes I do get the itch to skip it across the creek.
And yesterday of course I found a hawk feather! You know my sudden surprise at seeing a bird feather! What mysteries does this feather hold? I’ll wonder…I will keep it and carry it with me each time I go for a walk. A sort of protection I guess. You do remember I met a hawk at work, and I saw some more on my morning walk. Oh the thrill this weirdo birdo had.
I’m going to comprise a bunch of links to my bird doodles for you all to read. In case you forgot that I like birds. You’re welcome!
I think that about sums the birds all up! I didn’t know there were so many!
The first one (birds! And trees…mostly trees) was the second blog post I made back in 2010, so 14 years later…who is still writing about birds, huh? I went through and read my older posts. So much has changed, I don’t even know, I mean motherhood and growing up and all. I cried and I smiled and I don’t know, I wasn’t expecting to hear my voice! because I thought I never had one. But I heard it. It’s just a voice full of love. Or something like that. What a way to figure it out. I’m just glad I still have these pages here to remind me that I do have a mushy good voice, and that I am terribly human.
I do like a good broken winged bird. And one who looks like she’s not giving up hope just yet. What is hope? I feel like an Emily Dickinson poem would fit nicely right here. Hope is the thing with feathers.
She’s starting to be okay with being broken and disappointing everyone. She’s still here trying though.
And this weekend we encountered one of the coolest moths I’ve seen besides the Luna moth a month back. A cecropia moth! One of the largest in North America. Here is my rendition. Oh gosh the wings are not perfectly sized. Oh well. Disappointing!
Here it is post mortem, sadly it was dying when we found it.
Here it is alive, so beautiful! All the moths seem to find my porch. I know why though, sadly they’re attracted to that big light that I can’t get rid of. They’re all just dying from obsessing over the light. I don’t know what to do. I hope at least it got to mate and continue the life cycle. One could hope!
Code Mush 