Day 19.016: Storm

It’s still snowing at time of writing as it has been since yesterday afternoon. The snow eased off significantly during the day today and I was able to shift most of what will need to be moved to allow life to return to normal. It took several outings in between (remote) work meetings etc. 

Current state:

Neither photo really does it justice but I really didn’t want to go outside. 

All of which is a temporary distraction from the “immigration enforcement” which has been affecting our neighbors here in Portland this last week and in Minneapolis for several weeks with disastrous consequences - both those that could have been predicted and those that could not. I trust that in time that storm too shall pass, but for now - as with the snowstorm - all we can do is alternate between doing what we can and waiting it out. 

Day 19.015: Exile #2’s Sunday Column #540

Exile #2 writes...

Well, the expected snow has begun. We probably have about 5 inches now but it’s going to be snowing heavily until the wee small hours and even after that continue on into Tuesday morning. Thankfully Exile #1 made it home from Florida before it all kicked off as airport chaos is ensuing.

In other news, this box caused a little excitement when it arrived earlier in the week. It was not, as it would seem to be, an enormous Toblerone but the expensive stick that we ordered for E5N1. Although I had witnessed him measuring his arm and choosing the appropriate size, I was still surprised that all that packaging was for this little guy!

Day 19.014: Cold at the cemetery

Our nature group gathered in full sunshine at 2 pm instead of around dawn (our "normal" gathering time is 7 am) but that didn't save us from the cold in the middle of this bitter spell of weather. 

I didn't take many photos, but this is some of what we saw.

This bald eagle circled over us as we gathered:

Our tree of the week is eastern hemlock:

I'd never observed it before, but this is apparently normal cold weather response from a rhododendron (apparently it will recover when the temperature rebounds):

The river - surprisingly had some liquid water - honestly it's hard to understand why - but most of it looked very solidly frozen:

A non-bird flyover turned out to be the air ambulance:

It was a fun outing, but we were ready to get back into the warm.

Day 19.013: Florida mammals

I’m home and have started going through the photos I took on several short walks around Clearwater Beach with my camera. Here are a couple of mammal encounters - including zero manatees. 

I saw dolphins on a couple of occasions but only got pictures after I spotted two tour boats near the beach from my hotel room balcony and guessed they were watching something. The distance made it easy to catch their brief appearances. 

The other encounter was rather closer. I turned around after photographing an egret and found an opossum walking towards me. I managed to step aside and take a few pictures. 

Day 19.012: Mixed messages

I was getting mixed messages from this sidewalk hardware:

This week in Clearwater Beach has been good. Nearly time to go home!

Day 19.011: Steinbrenner Field

After a day of meetings, we spent the evening at the George M. Steinbrenner Field - the spring training venue for the New York Yankees. 

At other times it’s the home of the Tampa Tarpons and their mascot was in attendance:

Several of my colleagues got to hit a few pitches and others did some fielding practice. I settled for taking some photos. 

Day 19.010: Beach

Maybe it was worth a bit of trouble to get here!