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Showing posts with label bird(s). Show all posts
Showing posts with label bird(s). Show all posts
Sunday, October 01, 2017
Sunday, July 31, 2016
Sunday, June 05, 2016
Friday, June 03, 2016
My Beautiful Chatty Robin
We have 2 robins in the neighborhood. Maybe more, but 2 I can tell apart. And they like hanging out on the corner of our balcony in the afternoon when it's shady. I love watching them and listening to them sing. My desk is only about 8 feet away, and I'm very careful to not scare them away, at least I try not to.
Sunday, May 22, 2016
Thursday, May 19, 2016
Wednesday, September 09, 2015
Back from Sabbatical
Wow, 5 months!! I never expected that I'd go 5 whole months without blogging. But I'm hopeful that life will settle down since...we've moved to our new apartment.
Well, that's not all that we've been up to for the past 5 months, but it definitely felt all-consuming.
At first, I really hated leaving our old place.
When we moved in 5 years ago, I knew then that it was probably the nicest place we'll ever live.
But this new place is turning out to be pretty damn nice now that we're settling in.
We moved 2 1/2 weeks ago, and all of the boxes are unpacked, but we still have quite a bit of things to put away.
It's not a fancy, modern high rise in downtown like our old place. We're only 3-4 blocks away but the neighborhood feels totally different. And we have an incredible view.
There's so much going on outside our windows.
We watch cargo and oil tanker ships come and go continuously.
We found a cool website that shows the location of any large ships and all kinds of information on each of them.
Our skies are constantly busy with helicopters, sea planes, seagulls, pigeons, crows and even...
Hawks!!!
There's at least 2 of them out there, and both of them have landed on our patio, welcoming us to the neighborhood.
Or wondering if we have any tasty small pets as an offering for them.
Well, that's not all that we've been up to for the past 5 months, but it definitely felt all-consuming.At first, I really hated leaving our old place.
When we moved in 5 years ago, I knew then that it was probably the nicest place we'll ever live.But this new place is turning out to be pretty damn nice now that we're settling in.
We moved 2 1/2 weeks ago, and all of the boxes are unpacked, but we still have quite a bit of things to put away.
It's not a fancy, modern high rise in downtown like our old place. We're only 3-4 blocks away but the neighborhood feels totally different. And we have an incredible view.
There's so much going on outside our windows.We watch cargo and oil tanker ships come and go continuously.We found a cool website that shows the location of any large ships and all kinds of information on each of them.
Our skies are constantly busy with helicopters, sea planes, seagulls, pigeons, crows and even...
Hawks!!!There's at least 2 of them out there, and both of them have landed on our patio, welcoming us to the neighborhood.
Or wondering if we have any tasty small pets as an offering for them.
Friday, January 23, 2015
Rodeo Beach
This is the 3rd year Jimmy and I have gone to Rodeo Beach for our anniversary.
The sites and views along the way never get old.
The lowering sun made the Bay Bridge glisten.
The Golden Gate Bridge always looks good no matter the time of day or weather.
And every year I can't resist taking this snapshot, even with all that yucky smog.
There's a little bit of marshland between the parking lot and the beach and for the last couple of years, we've seen a handful of egrets fishing for dinner. Or maybe those are cranes. Or maybe the one with the outstretched neck is the egret, and the other ones are cranes. Even after a bit of googling, it's inconclusive and I'm more confused than before.
We had a little more time this year to walk along the beach before sunset. This year Jimmy took most of the photos with our big camera.
He took a snapshot of me taking our annual photo. A selfie of our selfie.
Here's a 2 minute slideshow of some of our photos and videos of the sunset at Rodeo Beach on our anniversary:
The sites and views along the way never get old.
The lowering sun made the Bay Bridge glisten.The Golden Gate Bridge always looks good no matter the time of day or weather.And every year I can't resist taking this snapshot, even with all that yucky smog.There's a little bit of marshland between the parking lot and the beach and for the last couple of years, we've seen a handful of egrets fishing for dinner. Or maybe those are cranes. Or maybe the one with the outstretched neck is the egret, and the other ones are cranes. Even after a bit of googling, it's inconclusive and I'm more confused than before.We had a little more time this year to walk along the beach before sunset. This year Jimmy took most of the photos with our big camera.
He took a snapshot of me taking our annual photo. A selfie of our selfie.Here's a 2 minute slideshow of some of our photos and videos of the sunset at Rodeo Beach on our anniversary:
Friday, January 24, 2014
Sunshine on my Shoulders Makes Me Happy
It's hard to believe it's the middle of winter with this weather we're having. Certainly enjoying it, even though I'm concerned about the lack of water that's suppose to come out of the sky. Our weather is also creating that yucky brown stuff you see in this photo that normally doesn't exist in the Bay Area. But with this view, it's easy to overlook it.
Last weekend, we couldn't resist the beautiful weather and went on a short little drive up the coast. Bonus - we were celebrating our 23rd anniversary, too.
We watched the sunset just as this guy was catching his dinner.
This view from Fort Baker never gets old.
Sunday, June 30, 2013
Stellar's Jay
Capturing a photo of these sneaky birds is hard. As soon as they see you, or hear your camera click, they fly away.So I left my phone nearby and captured a few videos while I hid inside.
They're loud, noisy and messy, but they're pretty and fun to watch.
3 of them try to share, but one of them gets a little greedy and starts a fight.
This one is a messy eater.
Jimmy gives the nephews a hard time when they pick through the trail mix for the M&M's. He said that's what this bird is doing, looking for the M&M's.
Friday, July 01, 2011
Hello July
We're welcoming July at the hideaway. Jimmy's taking his 1st full week off from his new job in the City and we're spending the whole time in the mountains. Doing much more work than playing, in fact we've already been here 6 days and we haven't even gone riding in the ATV yet. We're grateful for a visit from jimmy's buddy John, because we actually went out on the boat for a sunset cruise on the lake. Will post more pictures soon...back to work!
Friday, June 03, 2011
Tuesday, March 01, 2011
Attack of the Birds
Today was a beautiful crisp and sunny day.
I wandered to Crissy Field and took in the views of the Golden Gate Bridge, in utter awe that we actually live here.
I bought a book "One Sketch a Day: A Visual Journal" and had just finished a super quick sketch in pen of the bridge.
I sat relaxing, enjoying the view, enjoying the sun and sipped my coffee. I also had a treat in my bag, a perfect 4pm nibble.
Within seconds, a flock of tiny black and brown birds swarmed upon me.
Some more bold than others.
I talked to the birds, telling them "No. Sorry. I won't feed you." While their begging eyes almost wore me down, I don't like to feed them, especially when they are already too accustomed to humans feeding them crumbs.
But their brazen attitude allowed me opportunities for up close and personal photographs, even with the camera in my cell phone.
I just set my phone on the ground next to me and clicked.
I'm sure this lady thought I was crazy, but that didn't stop me. I'm shameless sometimes, I gotta admit. Thank goodness I'm in SF and there are so many crazies that I fit right in!
I wandered to Crissy Field and took in the views of the Golden Gate Bridge, in utter awe that we actually live here.I bought a book "One Sketch a Day: A Visual Journal" and had just finished a super quick sketch in pen of the bridge.I sat relaxing, enjoying the view, enjoying the sun and sipped my coffee. I also had a treat in my bag, a perfect 4pm nibble.
Within seconds, a flock of tiny black and brown birds swarmed upon me.Some more bold than others.I talked to the birds, telling them "No. Sorry. I won't feed you." While their begging eyes almost wore me down, I don't like to feed them, especially when they are already too accustomed to humans feeding them crumbs.
But their brazen attitude allowed me opportunities for up close and personal photographs, even with the camera in my cell phone.I just set my phone on the ground next to me and clicked.
I'm sure this lady thought I was crazy, but that didn't stop me. I'm shameless sometimes, I gotta admit. Thank goodness I'm in SF and there are so many crazies that I fit right in!
Thursday, June 24, 2010
SD24: Fishing
Today we went to Pinecrest Lake and it was all about the fishing.Fishing isn't our hobby, we leave that to the pros.
Not these people. While they may be very good fishermen, the can't compare the the professional fishers of this lake.
The Osprey makes his calculated move.Sorry for the blurry photos but I'm just thrilled that I was able to catch this in action.
He gracefully skims the water with his tallons down.
And practically without any effort
he scoops his prey in his tight grasp.
A successful catch!But he's not finished. Oh no, why stop when the fishing is good?
Several minutes later, we spotted an osprey flying directly towards us.
And I'll be honest, I didn't even notice till we got home and I took a closer look at these photos.
That osprey also has something in it's tallons! Although from this view, it almost looked like a mouse or rat or possum.
but as he flew away from us
it was easy to tell that it was another fish.We saw 4 or 5 different osprey fishing this beautiful lake.
but i applaude the humans who keep trying. At least they can enjoy the amazing views while they try.
Thursday, April 08, 2010
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Scolded by a blackbird
Blackbird: "Where have you been?? You've been neglecting your blog again!"madretz: "Yea, sorry about that. um...I've been...busy?"
Blackbird: "That's no excuse! Besides, you haven't been busy. Seriously. You have commitment issues."madretz: "Commitment issues? No, if you saw how committed I am to all the silly Facebook games I play, you'd realize how committed I really am. I spend hours every day tending a farm, running a restaurant, interior designing two homes and managing an amusement park. I do not have commitment issues."
Blackbird: "Then you just need to be committed - you crazy addicted facebook junkie."_
Sunday, March 22, 2009
The Mission, Noe Valley and more
The Mission District has its gritty parts, so we've been told, but we've never really driven through the neighborhood so we decided to do a quick tour. We really didn't get into the heart of the neighborhood, stayed close to Mission Delores, the Castro and into Noe Valley.
And all of those areas certainly looked to be in our comfort zone of safety. Great public transportation with BART and MUNI closeby. The homes were beautiful, many historic Victorians, yards and streets well maintained. But by the time we got to the Mission District, it was really starting to rain so my photo ops were limited.
Rainy view looking towards downtown from Twin Peaks.There were several more neighborhoods we would have liked to explore but there's only so much we could do in one afternoon. But a few other neighborhoods that would be mighty fine to live in, that I didn't go into detail about because we've explored before are: the Marina, Cow Hollow, Western Addition, and the Richmond and sure why not put Pacific Heights on that list, too. In general, we would prefer to find a place in the north part of the city. As I keep looking at this cool map, I keep finding more neighborhoods that are nice. And lots of neighborhoods I've never heard of. Check here and here for a list of all or most of SF neighborhoods. Sorry folks, the Tenderloin is not on my list of most wanted.
While I'm doing this quick review, I have to thank Stacey for letting me know that Nob Hill (and Russian Hill) certainly does have apartments available with a reasonable budget! I checked craigslist and it's definitely do-able. See, this is why I needed to explore the area more and with your help, I'm learning that some neighborhoods are attainable and others aren't as scary as they are reputed to be.
Our only peek of sun all day, shining on Cow Hollow as it turned to dusk.
Great Blue Heron in Crissy Field.
Dusk-time views of the northern parts of the city. Domed building on the right above the pier is the Palace of Fine Arts on the eastern edge of the Presidio.One last neighborhood in tomorrow's post.
_
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