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| 2014: The river was over the stone walls (04-03-14-flood) |
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| 2016: it must have been raining (04-03-16-geese) |
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| 2017: The river was flooded again (04-03-17-island) |
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| 2023: Returning grackles (04-03-23-grackles) |
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| 2024: April is for grackles (04-03-24-grackle01) |
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| 2025: An early great blue heron (04-03-25-heron) |
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| 2026: only one mallard in a swiftly flowing river (04-03-26-duck) |
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| 03-22-26-turkeys |
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| 03-20-26-grackle |
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| 03-14-26-broadmoor01 |
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| 03-04-26-geese02 |
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| 03-25-26-island |
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| 03-03-26-geese02 |
I was surprised to see my first great blue heron of the year at the dam this morning. I do have a sketch of one flying over from February last year but they usually arrive and settle in late March or April. I hear that they spend the winter months near the coast where the water doesn't freeze so much.
The river has opened up a lot in the last week after a few days of warm temperatures. It stalked about and poked in the usual spots. It even hopped in, belly-deep to hunt in the old cattails. My guess is that it won't stay; the water's too high and that's where the best fishing is, just below the spillway. Now if the heron would tell my tulips and daffodils that it's safe to come out!
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| 03-13-26-heron01 |
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| 03-13-26-heron03 |
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| 04-19-21-heron01 |
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| 04-22-21-heron01 |
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| 08-14-15-mallow |
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| 07-28-21-mallow |
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| 09-06-25-mallows |
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| 10-01-25-mallows |
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| 10-16-25-mallow01 |
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| 10-20-25-mallow |
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| 02-18-26-mallow01 |
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| 02-18-26-mallow03 |
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| 02-18-26-mallow02 |
I am always enchanted by the pendulous seed balls of sycamore trees throughout the winter. They are Nature's Christmas ornaments. But with a big snow coming to Massachusetts later today, I wonder how many will fall to the ground weighted down by snow and ice. We shall see. Stay warm and vigilant good people!
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| 11-23-20-sycamore |
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| 01-07-22-sycamore |
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| 11-26-22-sycamore |
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| 01-28-23-sycamore |
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| 11-29-23-sycamore |
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| 01-22-26-sycamore |
We've had a "January Thaw" the past few days. I wish I could say the same about other parts of the country (and the world).
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| 01-11-26-puddle |
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| 01-12-26-river |
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| 04-27-20-puddle |
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| 02-28-25-puddle |
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| 01-01-26-goose02 oil pastel, watercolor, 11 x 17" |
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| 01-01-26-hawk charcoal, ink |
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| 01-01-26-branches charcoal |
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| 12-21-25-island |
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| 11-30-25-island |
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| 11-22-25-island |
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| 11-04-25-island |
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| 07-08-25-island |
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| 01-01-25-island |
In the past few weeks I've been building a database of all my sketchbooks. I'm currently cataloging my books from 2020. I record the starting and ending dates, elapsed days and notable events or ideas that occurred to me and were recorded in a specific book.
So far, I've processed 152 sketchbooks starting in the year 2000. Five more years to go to get up to this year. Because I'm a completist, I'll go back and record the 20-30 books that I have from before 2000. And the database evolves as I work through things so that will mean going back through everything at some point soon to get all the records to a similar level of detail.
And this made me think about this date, December 8th and what natural observance I made on it in the past few years, 2020 to 2024. I wonder what I'll see and draw today?
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| 12-08-20-mergansers02 |
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| 12-08-21-geese |
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| 12-08-22-hawks02 |
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| 12-08-23-cattails01 |
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| 12-08-24-yellowhouse |
