184: Odds and ends

Posted: March 26, 2011 | Author: Robin | Filed under: 365 Life in the Bogs Challenge, Adventures in art, Adventures in Life, Critters, Emma, home, Local Tourists, nature, Photography, pond, Spring, Walking, water, weather | Tags: beach, birds, Cleveland, Cleveland Botanical Garden, Florida, Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, postaday2011, swallows | 30 Comments

(Finch at the Cleveland Botanical Garden)

After a trip or a visit to a local attraction, I’m usually left with photos that just didn’t seem to fit into a post. I think of them as odds and ends. So, every now and then, I do an odds and ends post about nothing in particular.

(Chowing down.)

The problem, however, with a post about nothing in particular is that I have to come up with ways to insert some text in between the photos. Well, okay. I don’t have to. But I like to. To break things up a little.

I’m not sure what type of finches they have at the Cleveland Botanical Garden. They have quite a few of them in the Rainforest of Costa Rica glasshouse. They are cheerful little birds, willing to pose for a minute or two.

(A plant in the Spiny Desert of Madagascar glasshouse. Cleveland Botanical Garden.)

It’s another cold day here in the Bogs. The high today is supposed to be somewhere around 29. It’s hard to believe that we’re near the end of March and it’s still this cold. It’s also sunny and clear, something I’m trying to be grateful for.

A look at the 10-day forecast shows there is no warm-up in our near future. Spring has been put on hold. Or on ice.

I guess we’ll have to find other ways to keep warm.

Today's view of the pond

The swallows are back. When I was out on my walk this afternoon they were swooping and swirling over the pond. It looks like a flying dance to me. I stood for a while and watched. Every now and then one of them would swoop close to me, as if checking me out. I suspect I am not nearly as entertaining to them as they are to me.

A terrible photo of one of the swallows

I tried to photograph them but they are so fast that it is nearly impossible. I used to think the same of dragonflies until I learned they have flight patterns. Perhaps the same is true for the swallows. I’ll have to take the time to sit out there one day and watch. It was too cold for that today.

Ice formation in one of the boggy spots at the back of the pond

Remember way back to November when I posted the first signs of ice here in the Bogs? I couldn’t remember when it was, either, so I looked. Here it is, the bones of winter post. It seems like it was a long time ago.