Winter, the Great Backyard Bird Count

     It's a funny thing about the winter. You'd think that in the middle of it, when the wind is whipping and there might be snow on the ground, that the birds would stay away. But they do some migrating and a number of them "come around" the middle of February, during Audubon's "Great Backyard Bird Count". I saw cardinals at my feeder as well as at the local park on the river today, also mallards, Canada geese, and what looked like a fall warbler or juvenile grackle.
     In Virginia we have not had the snow of  Boston :( . We are actually in the drought, but, either way, the birds still come through. They can always go to the river to drink. And what's with the flock of herring sea gulls I saw the other day at our shopping center? Looking for a handout in the cold? At least the sun was out when I did some counting.

A Winter's Work -- with nature

    Mid winter and although we have not had a big winter's storm in our town, some of us have appreciated it so that we can get outside and actually walk in winter. Thoreau was a winter walker (in New England winter is probably a "good portion" of the year) and even noted he came in from the cold once looking like a human icicle he was so covered in ice. (And it's no wonder he had lung problems later.) So I have a few times walked at the local Bissett Park and worked on getting some needed vitamin D from the sunlight too. The trees have been brown and the river  nearby has leisurely drifted along, with a few seagulls flying by recently. Where are they going? Heading south or north? Inland or back out to sea? Maybe they are in a quandary about what to do next.
     I was also grateful it was sunny recently so that I could help pull up "alien" invasive plants that are overrunning Virginia Tech's "Stadium Woods". Stadium Woods has been in the news and it seems there is still not a definite decision about whether to "save" the woods or not. The 300 year old oaks there should be made part of a historic site.

Value of the Holidays

     When I was a kid I looked forward to Christmas for the usual reasons kids did -- the toys, the box of chocolates the family could choose from (just one at a time, please), the lasagna dinner in our untraditional, part Italian household. Our extended family was far away so we kept close to what we had at hand, though my Uncle Chester and Aunt Estelle, a few towns over,  seemed to have their own friends, and we rarely ever saw them. (Now, decades late, I'm in the same situation, very far from biological family, so I have tended to look to others close by if possible for creation of a family of my own.)
      This occurred when we first moved a few states away from New York. We met a group of couples at the local Catholic church and started to create a family, of sorts. We'd have monthly potlucks and hike together, especially since we lived in a mountainous part of Virginia with many trails in numerous areas. But they eventually left, and so did we.
     Now we live in a different area and our sons are grown and far away. As they get older, it seems more interesting (even fun) when they visit. It's especially nice that they have different specialty recipes they can cook for us during the holidays. This Christmas, for example, we had the untraditional Christmas dinner of  Kung Pao Pork. One of our sons joked that that was a "Jewish" dinner for Christmas. Maybe they were thinking of that movie, "A Christmas Story," where the turkey gets ruined and they go to a Chinese restaurant for dinner on Christmas.
     Adult children can make much better companions at Christmas time, as they will not throw a fit (haven't so far) about what they get for Christmas (though we try to get something they actually want). And they can help with cooking and playing games, and don't mind going for a walk on a day when the temperatures have gone up, or hamming it up for the camera. Really, holidays, if you're not together much and get along, can be a nice time.

Went to Hokie "Bug Fest" at Virginia Tech

     There is something that happens every October at Virginia Tech. This university, with its emphasis on science, showcases all kinds of "bugs" --- bees, cockroaches, spiders, the making of honey, bugs that glow in the dark. At the most recent "bug fest" held at the conference center at Virginia Tech, Dr. Fell,
one of the bee experts, told me that by 11 a.m. (the event was  held 10-5 Oct. 11th) 1100 people had passed through this free event. Everyone should learn a bit more about bugs.
    See more info at www.facebook.com/hokiebugfest .

Crosby Stills and Nash still activists, great concert

                                                      Crosby Stills and Nash now


     I recently, for my wedding anniversary, arranged for the spouse and I to see Crosby, Stills and Nash in concert in Roanoke, Virginia. The Performing Arts Theater seemed to be packed -- packed with folks close to the age of the aging activist group, myself included. But just because you've got gray hair or are starting to creak in a few places it doesn't mean that you don't still have work to do. And I think David Crosby pointed this out, indirectly.
    "There's a rumor this is a political band," Crosby said. "It was just one song," he said, as someone in the audience yelled out "Ohio." Then he said," Oh, three songs. Oh, 18 songs and three protest songs." Then Graham Nash pointed out how a Vietnam a monk  poured gasoline over himself and burned to death to protest the Vietnam War, and now, in Tibet, monks there are doing the same to protest China's trying to destroy the state of Tibet. Then they all sang a song called "Burning the Buddha". 
    The group could still harmonize and played favorites like "Marrakesh Express,"  "For What It's Worth" (Hey, children, what's that sound) and "Teach Your Children". The latter the whole audience got up for and then sang with them on the words.
But there were a few times when their backup band drowned out their singing a bit. When they did solos with one instrument that was probably the best.
     Where are the activist bands now? Who is protesting the overuse of big money in elections? Who is saying we need a "conservation policy NOW"? Who wants us to have decent healthcare in America, land of the free and home of the brave? We need artists talking about these things and having young people working for change.
     They may be gray haired and "up there" in age, but they can still sing and get people thinking.
So we bought a tee shirt and expensive wine ($7 bucks a pop) and enjoyed reminiscing with the music. Too bad young people are not activists today. Perhaps the demonstrators in Ferguson, Missouri feel they are protesting for justice....

Remembering some of my writers' conference in New York

      While I was at a writers' conference in  Hamilton, New York, in June, the husband sent me an email that he couldn't open his hotmail account. Now how was I supposed to help with that? It asked me a bunch of questions for secret passwords and special questions I didn't know about, or what was the subject of his recent emails--- how am I supposed to know that? Since we didn't have a phone to share, I sent him and his brothers and sister-in-law messages over Facebook. I think they eventually informed him I was trying to contact him, and through the Facebook account of his I "messaged" when to pick me up on that Thursday.
     On the third day at the writers' conference at Colgate U. I finally got to use the umbrella I had been carrying around. It was wet and the big white pine across from my window gently swayed in the wind.
     Greg Ames' reading about a older professor trying to challenge his students to many things (including arm wrestling) was hilarious. He also spoke at length about magic realism and fabulism, Kafka and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the latter of whom read Kafka and thought you "weren't allowed" to write like that. We also read Aimee Bender's "Rememberer", a fabulistic tale, where you change just one thing, her boyfriend devolving from a person into an amoeba she puts into the sea.
I don't know if I can write like that, but it seems I can have a flair for humor, probably more than for the serious, except in the case of nonfiction. I'd love to get a nonfiction book deal!

Sort of off the Right Track (Story of my life)

      One never knows about life's turns. We obviously took the "wrong" turn (a right to incorrect directions from this young guy at the tubing place on the river, who obviously has no idea where "Kentland Farms" and the river put-in is) and found ourselves taking all these turns away from the river. We were planning to meet up with fellow Master Naturalists and canoe the New, and then go to a picnic at the end of the route. But the spouse was tired and after driving around there and back (like 90 minutes of our time) he said he was tired and didn't want to just go to the picnic.
    It would have been a good diversion. I spoke on the phone the other day with my oldest sister -- what  happens in Vegas, will not "stay" in Vegas. My mother has 2 grown children hanging off of her and when she passes, a big chunk of change will be gone and they will expect us to fill it back in. Well, the husband is not about to agree to this. It is stressful thinking about the chaos that will ensue after she dies. I can't even have a decent conversation with the 2 siblings in Vegas, and my mother refuses to live closer to me here. What a mess.
    But I also gotten "off track" with regards to writing my novel. I need to do something as one day the leaches will be demanding more so I need to make some more. Hopefully my mother will be around long enough that I can make some money writing and be a little help later on.