Heron

This heron was trying to blend in with the pine trees and marsh grass at Bethel Beach when I visited a while back.

I remembered taking quite a few pictures but  never got around to looking at them until today, more than a month later.

I can't believe the last time I posted was December 31.  

And how did it get to be February 11 already?

They say time flies when you're having fun, but January and February are never fun months for me.  They're typically the longest, darkest, coldest, most-indoors-est, least sunshiny-est time of year. I leave for work in the cold darkness and return home in the cold darkness.

There are signs that things are changing, however, and hope is on the horizon.  The daffodils in my front yard are poking through the cold, hard ground, and all of a sudden I'm noticing more songs from the birds.

The Chesapeake Bay Family has been plodding along mostly uneventfully.  My children, my parents and my sisters are all doing OK.  Son is currently teaching English to six-year-olds in Madrid.  He's headed to Machu Picchu in the summer to work for a company called Global Leadership Adventures (he also worked for them last summer in Costa Rica).  I'm seriously considering a visit if the stars and planets align.

I'm also looking forward to a cruise the end of March, a 70s music themed cruise .  It's my reward to myself for surviving these dreary months of January and February. 

Other than making the arduous trek from Mathews to Williamsburg during the work week and laying low on the weekends, there's not much else to report.  I just wanted to check in and make sure I still knew how to blog.  I do. 

I hope all is well in your world.

Blue Heron

Today since I didn't have to drive to work, I decided to visit Bethel Beach.

I parked my car and jog-walked three and a half miles.

On my way back to the car, I spotted this fellow.  

(Or gal, I don't know which and have no idea how to tell.)

Luckily, I had my camera in the car, and he was still hanging around when I drove back out.

The past few weekends have been very busy.  Middle Sister and I went to the Gloucester Wine Festival a few weekends back.  Last weekend, I drove to Dewey Beach, Delaware, to visit my two college friends.  (On the way home Chesapeake Bay Woman was trapped for five and a half hours on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel--on a bridge in between the two tunnels--due to an accident.  I could write a novel on that experience alone.) Anyway, this past weekend, Baby Sis and I drove to Louisa, Virginia, to see the band Ambrosia play at a gala for the Louisa Arts Center.  This weekend I'll be headed over that Bay Bridge Tunnel yet again to visit Ocean City, MD, with a friend.

In between, I'm making that soul-sucking long commute to work each day, trying to figure out how I can stay at home and make enough money to make ends meet.  Alas, I have six years and three months--but who's counting besides me--before I'm eligible to retire.

In any case, I've been trying to enjoy life in the free time that I do have. 

Today's trip to Bethel Beach and the brief photo op with this blue heron were just what I needed.

Have a great week.

Heron

This heron lives

and wades 

and fishes 

on Callis Creek in Redart.  

I caught him recently searching for supper amid the local oyster operation.

All is as busy as--if not busier than--ever in my world.

I hope all is well in yours.

Heron

Well, here it is the last day of May, and all I have to say is, where has the month gone?  

It seems like there was one sunny day, when I managed to see this heron across the creek.  

And then the rest of the days it rained.

(Please disregard the strange object in the upper left corner of these two photos.  Not only am I a self-taught photographer, I still haven't mastered use of my new camera, which is immensely smarter than I am.)

Yes, the month of May flew by in a blur of wind and rain interspersed with a day or two of the normal sunny, warm, gorgeous clarity that is typical this time of year.  Whether it's due to the rain or I don't know what, we've noticed the stinging nettles have arrived much sooner than normal.  There are tons of baby nettles lounging about in Queens Creek.  They normally don't make an appearance until late June.  Farm-grown oysters are growing at a very rapid pace, and there are way more snakes than usual for whatever reason this year.

Aside from those casual observations from this unscientific observer, life is whizzing by at break-neck speed.  I am looking forward to something settling down soon, but until it does I take solace in staring out the back window at sights such as these for instant blood-pressure-lowering relief.

Heron

This heron was loitering hanging out at the end of my dock one day recently.

Naturally, as soon as he saw me approach--especially with a camera--he became disgruntled.

It's a well-known fact that herons not only despise people, they also hate having their picture taken.

True introverted hermits they are, these herons.

It wasn't too long before he'd had enough.

Isn't it amazing how his coloring blends right in to that old, weathered wood (also known as the dock with missing boards)?

In other news relating to more of those I photograph even when they don't want their pictures taken, I visited Chesapeake Bay Son and Daughter at UVA this weekend.  In addition to eating at some great Charlottesville restaurants, we took a hike straight up the side of a mountain off the Blue Ridge Parkway.  No mothers, sons or daughters were injured in the mile of torture otherwise known as the Humpback Rock hike.  It's straight up in the air, practically a ninety-degree angle from the parking lot, at least that's what it felt like to me.  Regardless of how steep it was, the end reward for all that torture work was a spectacular view and a most memorable experience with my two favorite humans.

(I took pictures on my new iPhone, but I'm too lazy to post them here today.)

And now I'm back home staring out at a beautiful, sunny, fall Sunday afternoon.  Trying to figure out what I can get into next before Monday and the workweek arrive.

Have a fantastic week.

Heron

The public landing at the end of Route 611 in Onemo is probably my favorite.  

Last weekend I stopped in to say hello 

and noticed a very-clearly disgruntled heron fly off as I pulled up.

He didn't go very far, although I didn't know that 

until I used the zoom on my camera and discovered him 

eyeballing me from the end of the dock.

From a distance, he blended in quite well with his surroundings.

But zooming in, I caught him giving me the old stink eye.

The hairy eyeball.

(As only a heron can give.)

I had invaded his territory, and he was giving me 

the what for with his body language.

Here, he was basically telling me he was way taller than me.  

(I didn't argue.)

(I've learned over the years, it's futile arguing with herons.)

Then, when he realized I wasn't there to encroach any further,

nor was I disputing anything he was trying to tell me,

he finally

allowed himself

to relax.

I love herons.

And I thank this one for allowing me to invade his turf for a few minutes.

Happy February 29.

Heron

Wednesday evening, after a day filled with non-stop This and That and Then Some, I gave myself permission to sit down on the back deck for a minute or twenty as the sun was going down.

On the neighbor-across-the-creek's dock post, after a day filled with fishing, wading, preening, squawking, and his own version of This and That and Then Some, a heron was doing the same thing.

Giving himself permission to just sit.

And be.

Friends from my office visited me in Mathews recently and confirmed that just sitting and being in my back yard is all that's needed to reduce blood pressure.

(I didn't need a reminder, it's just nice to hear from new people.)

Of course Regular Life insists on sucking every bit of everything right out of me reminding me that it can't be all about sitting and staring for even twenty minutes! all the time.

I found out this week that I'll need to have my stupid gall bladder removed  some minor surgery soon, potentially during one of my busiest times at work.

Whatever.

The heron reminds me it's important to stop and sit sometimes.

And just be.

From the Yard

All of these shots were taken from my back yard, which some might call my front yard since the house technically fronts the water.  I'm a bit stubborn and slow to make changes, however, and I've always called it the back yard since we approach the house by car on the other side--which I refer to as the front yard.

That first paragraph absolutely exhausted me, I cannot imagine what it was like to read it.

Anyway, I never know what I'm going to see when I glance out back.  The other evening, I saw this eagle patiently perched across the creek.  We see them all the time in flight and in trees; this is the first time I've ever seen one wading in the creek.

Herons, on the other hand, are very familiar friends.  It's not at all unusual seeing them wading along, waiting for just the right morsel of seafood to happen by.

The first rainbow of the season made a faint but quaint appearance earlier this week.  

And this seems to be the week for sunrises.  The one below happened Thursday and was even more beautiful in person.

Mother Nature puts on some spectacular shows here in Mathews, and her efforts this week were especially noteworthy.

Welcome to the month of May, I thought she'd never get here.

Heron

This Millers Cove heron was enjoying the warmer temperatures Sunday afternoon.

I'm still in shock, pleasantly so,  that we've had three consecutive days of above-60-degree temperatures.

Baby Sis and I (foolishly) signed up for a half marathon in Virginia Beach a week from Saturday.  Given all the snow and nasty weather we've had, neither of us has done any noteworthy running since our Valentine's Day 10K at the New Kent winery.

I hope to take advantage of this week's warmer temperatures to get in a few sorry miles, but there's no way we're going to be ready for 13.1 in a week.  Of course we'll attempt it, ready or not, but we are fully prepared to watch in aggravation as the senior citizens zoom past us.

Doggone it.

Heron

Sunday afternoon I arrived home from yet another fiftieth birthday celebration, this time for my friend Laura Lane.  Several high school friends converged on an oceanfront hotel in Virginia Beach, and my college roommate Iris also was in town for her daughter's volleyball game.  There was lots of fun and frivolity, but not a lot of rest and sleep. There also didn't appear to be much behavior typically associated with fifty-year-olds.  One of the two rooms we were in was visited by the hotel security guard, who issued a warning for noise.

(Please note, I was not in that particular room.  I was as quiet as a church mouse.  Well, a more accurate statement is at the time the warning was issued, I was dancing the night away downstairs in the hotel lounge. So, for the record, I was not in violation of any hotel policies.)

A n y w a y... this heron spent the better part of  Sunday afternoon lollygagging on this pole across the creek from me.

At times he looked like a one-legged heron--especially from the angle below.

But eventually I caught him standing on both legs.

My own two legs are a little sore from Saturday night's dancing.  I view it as cross training for some upcoming races, one of which is a 10K on Valentines Day at a local winery. (Click here for details.)  I can't think of a better motivation to exercise than chocolate and wine.

And I can't think of a better cross-training exercise than dancing with lifelong friends in the middle of January in an oceanfront hotel in Virginia Beach.

Have a great week.

More From Bethel Beach

The marshland on the approach to Bethel Beach is something of a tree graveyard.

Although you can't tell so much in these pictures, there are many trees that still stand but are completely dead due to the salt water.  

As I was staring into the vast marshland, I noticed a heron.

As I've mentioned many times before, herons really don't care to have their photo taken.

And this one was no different.  He was highly suspicious.

He did allow me to take a few shots before squawking and flying away.

Today the Mathews cross country teams travel to Pocahontas State Park in Richmond for the regional meet.  If they do well, and they will, they advance to next week's state meet. Daughter is an alternate on the team, so she won't run unless there is an injury.  Nevertheless, we're all very excited.

I'm still struggling with the fact that it's November already, and, on top of that, the signs of December are cropping up.  Christmas decorations bombard you in the stores.  I've even heard some Christmas music coming from an office at work.

I'm really not ready for any of this.

Dear Universe, 

Could you please just slow down a bit?  The pace is way too crazy; we need time to enjoy the present.  
What's the hurry, anyway?

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Sincerely,

Chesapeake Bay Woman