Green!

I'm amazed at how quickly the colors change in the spring. It seems that the trees went from sporting empty brown branches to showing very young green leaves overnight. Bright flowers have emerged, and ferns are unfolding.

Painting the sky

Pulled by the ocean

It was a cool sunny day, a day where I needed to heed the call of my bicycle, but one where I also felt a need for an ocean visit. If the temperature had been warmer and the wind had been less, I would have combined my two desires.

A ride in the sunshine, fighting the wind, enjoying the sights around me...

A drive to the coast...

A walk along the narrow beach at high tide, conversing with birds, listening to the ocean...

The dog has the keys

Smiles in the morning are good things. I was driving to work when I saw a woman and a dog walking down the road. At first glance they looked perfectly normal, woman walking, dog walking, attached by a leash. But then, something made me look a little closer...

The dog was happily prancing along, firmly gripping a key fob of some sort (in his mouth). What appeared to be house and car keys were at his command. What a good morning smile.

Liquid mirror

It was a sunny spring day with a decidedly summer-like temperature. Mid-80s, wow! I headed out for a ride after work. It was going to be a ride, not photo play, but somehow my camera jumped onto the bike with me.

Ah, some magic, reflections in wavy water, a liquid mirror of sorts...

Rabbit, rabbit!

I'm so glad this rabbit agreed to pose for me again. I stayed far enough away not to intrude on his space. He (she?) kept munching on grass as my camera clicked and clicked.

Images in pink

Owned by birds

I visited a place today that is owned by birds. Really!

I needed to do something different today. I haven't walked along the moving water for a while, and at first I thought I'd head for the New Hampshire coast. But different had an appeal of its own; it was time to consult a map. Parker River National Wildlife Refuge jumped out and insisted that I visit. The wildlife refuge resides on the southern three-quarters of Plum Island, a barrier island near Newburyport, Massachusetts.

And yes, it is owned by the birds. From the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge brochure:

"Parker River National Wildlife Refuge was established in 1942 primarily to provide feeding, resting, and nesting habitat for migratory birds."

It has an Atlantic Ocean-facing beach that is closed from April 1st through at least July and sometimes into August. Why?

" To provide undisturbed nesting and feeding habitat for the piping plover."

Much of the refuge is protected, off-limits to human presence. I walked the Hellcat Interpretive Trail, a boardwalk to sand dunes and through a marsh. It was beautiful, even though the marsh was still decorated with the remnants of last year's plants, dried and brown. I can't wait to see it again, next time hopefully when the marsh is clad in green.



More photos can be seen in my Parker River gallery.

Two wheels rolling, two eyes looking

It was an early spring good weather week. Today was warmer than predicted, sun shining, a good day for riding. I'm still at early season short distances, but even with short rides I'm rolling past places that I haven't seen since in a very long time.

Rolling down dry roads feels good - even though I need to keep an eye out for very big holes in the pavement. And somehow the sights of spring still manage to jump out and cry "look here, look at me".

Trees in wood clothing

The trees are marching down the road clad in wood clothing...

New sidewalks and granite curbs are jumping in to place. I suppose the wood slats around tree trunks are protection from construction equipment. The sight struck me as somewhat odd though. It's a bit funny to see all of the tree trunks along this stretch of road wearing "clothing".

A mid-day wander

Working in a new office means I have a new place to wander when the urge to escape hits during the day. Ah, just behind the building there is a path through the woods, with a river meandering a short distance away. From computers to a walk through beauty.

What a nice change of pace, a short mid-day escape to clear my mind.

Contrasts

My original intent was to ride this afternoon, but somehow wandering by foot won out.

I chased the sun's magic highlighting fresh green leaves in the woods, and then I played a game of hide and seek with a rabbit. I went from crouching low to peer at his hiding spot under a bush, to sprawling on the ground to catch a photo of this beautiful creature.

Who's watching who?

Typing direction? backwards!

Do you ever wonder if your computer has a mind of its own? Today I was sure mine did.

I was happily working. I started typing my user id in a web form, and the letters started moving backwards. As I typed, the letters were heading to the left. I was typing, thinking that the letters should be entered on as I typed them, moving from left to right. Nope, the letters were backwards. I typed Denise, but on my screen it read esineD.

Very weird.

Oh, you want to know how I fixed it? It didn't fix itself, and I wasn't able to find the lone puzzle piece to stop the odd behavior. Logging off of the computer and logging in again somehow reset the computer's brain.

Before the leaves

Life is starting to emerge from the trees. I find it surprising that the first colors emerging are tinged with red. I always think of red as the color of autumn leaves, but it appears to decorate the spring as well.

Comfort food

What's your favorite comfort food?

Today mine is peanut butter and bananas. My (somewhat evil) peanut butter lately is "grind your own" made from honey-roasted peanuts. Yum. That little bit of sweet combined with the flavor of peanuts makes a perfect spread for a just right ripe banana.

Riding between raindrops

The weather forecast for today was for typical April showers, an 80% chance of rain. It was raining when I woke up, raining, raining. By mid-morning, the rain had stopped and the sun was shining. Hmmm...

I waited until the roads were dry, and then I listened to my bicycle's cry for a ride. My feet drew circles in the air, pedaling, enjoying the sunshine and the surprising warmth. It was barely in the 60s when I left home, but the temperature seemed to creep upwards as I rode. I shed my extra layers and comfortably continued in a short-sleeved jersey and shorts. Yes, I was skirting the "protect your knees", "keep them covered in temperatures below 65" rule, but it felt right.

Sunshine, warmth, a little bit of wind. Smiles exchanged with other riders, passing conversations with people along the road. Ah, riding felt wonderful.

Getting close to home as I finished my long and winding loop, I noticed change in the air. Clouds started gathering, white and fluffy, morphing to gray. The winds grew stronger, and it felt like the temperature was dropping. Ah, home just in time...

The sunshine was sandwiched by quiet rain in the morning and thunderstorms in the late afternoon. What a wonderful gift!

No layers!

Today was a vision of the season to come. Blue skies, sunshine, wind, warmth...

I arrived home at the end of the day to hear my bicycle calling. It was time for a ride, a ride through warm air. The temperature was at the edge of cool, just above 65 degrees. You know what that means, don't you? No layers! It was my first ride of the season in shorts and a short-sleeved jersey - no knee warmers, no vest, freedom!

It appears that today was just a glimpse at warmer weather with the forecast for the next few days calling for much cooler temperatures and rain. It was a day of enjoyable warmth; now I'll need to look forward to the next gift from the weather wizard. It is spring, isn't it?

Solving a puzzle

The pieces of the puzzle? Me, camera clicking, bicycle wheels rolling, feet tramping, searching for beautiful places, seeking people who live in those beautiful places, rambling, absorbing...

Three full months of the year are gone, and I still haven't completely settled on vacation plans for 2008. Decisions have started though.

I need a long weekend relatively soon. My planned escape is a bit further out in the future than I'd like, but escaping from work right now would have me returning to a still crazy project. I'd rather get to a reasonable resting point in the office before I disappear, even for a short long-weekend. My first escape? I'll be starting with a long weekend (repeat) visit to Zion National Park in early June,

Funny, I have a September trip partially planned while plans for rolling on two (bicycle) wheeles - probably in July - haven't jumped out of my head yet. Right now I'm leaning toward a New England or Atlantic Canada wander. One of these days I'll figure it out, hopefully soon.

A puzzle, a conundrum, still to be solved...

Gray beauty

I believed the weather forecast for today; I expected to see a bright blue sky this morning.

Instead, my eyes were fascinated by waves of floating mist, softening edges, hiding things that I know are there. Still bare trees, dressed in fog... A gray sky decorated by a bright white orb, the sun attempting to break free...

Rainy spring days

Walking, watching... and look! Tiny patches of color are emerging.

Camera chasing clouds

More purple

Purple crocus, backlit by the sinking sun, pure beauty...

Changing pages

Hmm... I thought I was done, but maybe, maybe I'll never be done. I was just pulled in to making one more change to denisegoldberg.com.

Can you find the change? I think I'll share it just in case you don't go wandering. My keyword page has morphed into a "find" page. It shows popular photos (want to see more? remember to click the green thumbs up on images that you like), allows you to select photos by date range, and still presents a chunk of my keywords. The full keyword list is still available as a link above the keywords on the find page.

Curious? Wander over to my find page.