Pandemic Diaries Week #28

 23 September 2020

 

Our neighbor has a squirrel picnic table on their tree out by the road.  A squirrel picnic table!!!

 

I've seen these online, little squirrel feeding stations.  They are so whimsical, as if squirrels really have picnics outside!  I love whimsicality, so I just had to get some photos of this little table complete with benches.

I haven't seen any squirrels sitting here eating, and I don't know if the table and benches were built by the neighbor or if this was a purchased item.  I also have no idea how often fresh nuts are put out here for the neighborhood squirrels. 

On the day I took photos, there were peanuts on the table.  Okay, the table portion is really a rimmed area with screening, to hold the food and allow crumbs to fall through.  No clue what the little blue half-a-cup is for, maybe water for the squirrels to drink.

Don't you love it?

27 September 2020

 

Yesterday, my sister-in-law J and I participated in a scavenger hunt sponsored by the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge.  Here's the link to their website:  https://www.fws.gov/refuge/edwin_b_forsythe/

 

We couldn't imagine what kind of scavenger hunt would be held by the Fish & Wildlife Service, but it sounded like something fun to do, and it would get us out of our houses.  Something different.

 

We met up and I followed J to the refuge, since I really didn't know the way.  We signed in with the rangers, and received a general map and a list of photos we'd need to take as our "finds."  I commented that they had really cute socks, and the wonderful woman signing us in laughed and said something about we were the first people to sign in, you get the socks as your prize - handing us each a pair of these adorable socks covered with colorful birds (and birders on the foot portion)!!!  Wonderful socks!

 

Anyway, we planned to head to the furthest sites first, since she had to leave early to go home and teach a class from her computer.  Then I would try to complete the hunt with the places closer to the refuge center, which I know well.

 

This was definitely the craziest scavenger hunt either of us had ever been on!  The complete hunt had five places that are all National Fish & Wildlife sites or refuges, and we made it to two of them.  At each site, we had to find and take a selfie with whatever item was listed - things like an outdoor grill, a picnic pavilion, a specific sign, a tree that wasn't a pine tree, things like that.  Sometimes we had no idea what was wanted, but we did our best guess and took a selfie, or took turns taking photos of each other with the object or place.  (There was also a list of "potpourri," things to photograph that could be taken at any of the sites.)

Then we'd take the photos and the list to the ranger at the site, show them the photos on the phone or camera, and they'd check off the items on the list and initial them.

 

We hiked a couple of miles by the time we finished those first two far-away sites.  Traffic was picking up, it started raining on us on the drive, and J had to get home in time to send a link to her students for their Zoom room.

 

So she dropped me back at the Forsythe refuge, and I picked up a map of the place to figure out where I needed to go for the photos.  It looked like I'd need to drive the eight
mile wildlife loop,
which is where we've been before to see the osprey nests and chicks.

 

I drove along and easily found the observation tower at Gull Pond.  I had a harder time getting a photo of birds in flight there - or actually, I had a fine time getting some photos, I just couldn't find the birds on the photos when I tried viewing them on my camera.  Oh well, I did some sky shots and figured they'd be there.  And I'll admit I was more distracted by the swans off to one side than I was taking flying gull photos.

Heading on down the dirt road loop, I had to stop and take a selfie with the Atlantic City skyline in the distance.  I got great photos of the skyline if I used the zoom on the camera, but of course I couldn't zoom in on myself very well.  I took some selfies - and when I was home and put them on the computer, what a surprise to find my head and wild hair completely obscured every view of the skyline!  Funniest thing I've seen in a while, every single photo!

I took some photos of the ospreys hanging out around one nest, and also some of the herons and egrets wading in the water.  Yeah, I'm not the fastest person on scavenger hunts, I tend to find other interesting things to watch.

Another selfie with a trail beginning with J, and I was pretty much done with the items at the center.  So I drove back to the headquarters, and the same friendly woman who signed us in was there to check photos.  She said I was the last one coming in - I wondered about that.  I started showing her my photos, having trouble locating the birds in flight, and she said don't worry about it, I haven't given away third prize yet.  I explained we only finished three components, and still had two other sites to visit and photograph.  She said don't worry, here, take this passport book, you can get it stamped at every wildlife refuge across the US.  I thanked her, still confused.

Then another ranger came up, arriving from the nearby site that I had not yet visited.  He reported that only four people checked in with him from the scavenger hunt, but he also helped nineteen people who were really lost.  I said I was going to head to his site!  But they both said no, don't bother, things were closing up now.  Oh well!

So yes, we received a prize for signing in first, and I received another prize for coming in last!!!!

How funny is that!!!

And what a fun and crazy day!!!

 

Pandemic Diaries Week #26 & #27

10 September 2020

 

I've been going down to the beach for afternoon and sunset walks, hoping to find a day where the birds and the sea foam reflect the changing colors of the sky and the sunset.  

I finally found one day that came close to that early evening a few weeks ago, when the colors were perfect.  Close, but not quite the same.

And of course, birds fly by and aren't always cooperative about being

photographed.  They always have places to go and things to do.  They don't really care about artists trying to capture reflected colors on their white feathers.

Ah well, I did manage to find two delightful older women sitting in the tidal zone, where the waves wash up and ebb back into the ocean, leaving the sand wet and reflecting their colorful beach chairs like a slightly grainy mirror.  The two women stayed in the same location as the tide came in, low waves washing their feet and leaving that watery sheen underneath.  I walked a couple of miles, and these two were happily chatting away as the sun began to set and the colors changed around them.  Thank you, ladies, you made a lovely photographic composition!

14 September 2020

I've been staying busy with various art projects, including a few more crocheted mesh bags.  I changed yarns so I'm now working in a recycled cotton yarn.  I thought there was a nice symmetry or continuity to using recycled yarn to create reusable shopping bags - saving the planet one bag at a time.

The recycled yarn is a bit thicker that the yarn I used on the first two bags, so I had to revise the pattern a bit.  For music people, this is kind of like re-writing musical scores into a different key, or maybe for another instrument or voice.  Taking music for a soprano and changing it for a baritone.  For knitters and crocheters, I had to use a larger crochet hook, scale down the number of stitches per inch, and thus revise the number of stitches at the corners.  This took a lot of visualization of the pattern as well as a lot of math, but it was good brain exercise.  And given our more monotonous lifestyle these days, any way to exercise our brains and stretch our thinking is good!

 

I also finally figured out that the handles run across each side of the bag, as in across the front or across the back, and not from front to back as I had thought originally.  Whew, no wonder the instructions in the pattern didn't make sense to me!

19 September 2020

It turned cold this weekend.  I mean COLD!  Nights are in the upper 40s F (about 6 or 7 C!) and daytime highs might hit 64 F or so (15 C?).  I think the baseboard heaters aren't working, or maybe there's a master switch that turns them on first, but we are so cold!  Plus the AC units in the bedrooms windows don't fit well, so the wind comes through the gaps.

The wind picked up as well, either from the storms hitting the southern US states, or the weather changes caused by the fires in the Pacific coast states.  Or just climate change in general.

At any rate, I did start the park sign two weekends ago, and will eventually do a blog about the entire process.  But I thought I should add a few photos, since this took up much of my time off and on since late April or early May.

The first step was picking up the sign, which is made of high density urethane, or HDU in sign maker parlance.  Then a trip to the paint store, where I bought primer and my paints.  I set up the porch as my studio, and on Saturday gave the sign a few coats of primer - and of course this included working on one side and the edges, paint-and-dry and paint-and-dry.  Then flipping it to the other side, and a few more times of paint-and-dry.  I have a little corner in the living room where I'm keeping my materials and supplies, to the sign can dry there overnight.

On Sunday, I did the background color.  And while the letters are outlined with a channel for contrast color, I had to paint the whole thing green to get paint on those negative areas that are inside letters - you know, inside the O, or D, or whatever.  More multiple layers on both sides, and cleaning out any extra paint in that channel.

I leaned the finished and dry sign against the house and brought in the paint, brushes, newspaper, and the cardboard boxes I'm using to prop up the sign so it's higher than the table and not resting on the newspaper.

And when I went to bring the sign inside, a piece peeled off the bottom because the paint was still too sticky.  Uh oh!!!  The paint AND the primer peeled off that one section!  NOT GOOD!

 

Nothing to do but bring it inside, surround the sign with newspaper, and let it dry some more.  I did a little research, and it turns out that exterior latex paint needs 30 days to cure, or fully dry.  Just one more setback.

 

So, I contacted my friends at the Department of Parks & Recreation, as well as Public Works.  Parks & Rec got the final approval and they're in charge of signs in the parks, but Public Works will install the sign.  They seem to be excited, and are coming up with new posts to hold the sign.  And they're fine with hanging the sign in mid-October, when at least the background paint will be fully cured.

 

That's the excitement here in New Jersey.  Projects, sunsets, signs, and just trying to keep busy and not worry.

 

And be happy!