Feeding Time 2

On my way to work, while at a red traffic light, I observed this crow flying up to the electric cable with a piece of bread. He held the bread with his foot and nibbled at it.

I love crows.

Later, at Wal Mart these birds helped themselves with some seed.....

Cute!

See/read about more animals adventures at Friday Ark and

Today I am grateful for Matt who gave me a big loaf of bread I keep in the car for the birds.

Another Furry Thing

It's a caterpillar.

Unfortunately I could only capture it in a coil.

Ecpantheria scribonia, larva [?]

More photos at Friday Ark.




Today I am grateful for the nor'easter eing over.

November Nor’easter

"Heavy rain and very windy conditions…especially near the coast. While inland winds will barely reach 30 mph, winds along the coast could easily gust between 45-50 mph for several days.

Wind and rain are combining with high tide cycles to cause coastal flooding along the Virginia coast. Beach Cam shows the storm in progress".

That was the forecast.

Even though the wind is strong, luckily I am not experiencing flooding around my house, as shown in the four photos below

I do, however, have a wet dog, as he seems to like this weather and keeps wanting to go outside.

I took the following photos from the computer where people in the community uploaded their views:

Today I am grateful for my home.

Furry

As I walked to my car, this morning, I noticed this furry creature scurrying across my driveway: he seemed so busy and determined. I had to pull out my camera.

Which is the front?

Dasychira obliquata, larva or

Halisydota tessellaris

See more interesting creatures at Friday Ark

Today I am grateful for the love of my pets.

Just Because It's Halloween....

...I thought I posted these photos.

They are about a large spider that built its home-web right outside my front door.

Near my front door there is also a wasp nest, so this spider probably guessed it would get lucky with capturing some "goodies".

Here is one wasp caught into the web. Spider approaches.

and begins its "spooling".

This is the underbelly: really spooky.

This photo even shows a ghost in the background.

Very Halloweeny, uh?






Today I am grateful for little creatures.

Brotherly Love

My brother came to town to visit me for few days.

It was nice spending time with him: we haven't seen each other for few years. Talked over the phone, yes, but seeing each other... it really has been a while.

One day we had lunch at the Ocean View Fishing Pier restaurant. I had never been there before. The food was good and I also enjoyed the view.

As you walk toward the pier you are first welcomed by one of the famous Norfolk Mermaids

You then have to walk on the pier to reach the restaurant.

Friendly creatures look out for you during your walk...

Here is Ms Pigeon,

and Mr. Crow.

The mermaid shown below is hanging from the restaurant ceiling.

Look at the service cart with a shark fin on top!

Giorgio and I had a nice time !

Today I am grateful for time spent with Giorgio.

Another Moleskine Celebration

["Just when I thought I was out... they pull me back in."

Michael Corleone]

Just when I thought I owned all types of Moleskine notebooks, here come more great editions!

And I cannot resist them!

This time they are the limited edition commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Woodstock Festival with never-done-before custom cover art. I want to put exclamation points at the end of each sentence describing these books.....

First of all, I could not choose only one, so I had to buy all 4. When the package arrived, I was basically drooling while opening the box.

Each notebook includes a groovy postcard and far-out stickers. The graphics remind me of the covers of notebooks I used in school many years ago back in Italy.... great memories.

The notebook with a black cover and red de-bossed art, is the sketchbook, my favorite type of Moleskine: great thick yellowish paper, and it smells so good! No, I'm not crazy, read here about sniffing paper. In fact the others do not smell as good.

The red book has plain pages [but not as thick as the sketchbook pages], and the other two notebooks have ruled pages.

Showing below is the new 2010 "Color A Month" Daily Planner - Volant Box Set.

12 volant books, one per month, one page per day. So way cool.... you only carry one and keep the others all together in a nifty cover.

Finally the project planner, consisting in one sheet of heavy-weight paper with all year planning, folded into 54 accordion pages; two layouts for planning and tracking long-term and short-term projects. Fa-bu-lou-so!!!!

These things make me so happy, and I will be drawing and writing in them all year long. Yay!!!

Today I am grateful for Moleskine notebooks, one more time.

Things That Feels Good?

Lounging around the house feels good....












Today I am grateful for lounging moments

Triplets

"Four On The Floor" is the name of my dog groomer shop. I take my Oreo there every two or three months.

I posted a few photos of some interesting items displayed on the shop wall, some posts ago.

I love that place: the owner loves animals [obviously], and I think people bring her rescued animals of all kinds. She already owns a couple of cats or three and they roam the store like they are in charge; they particularly love to lay on the counter, between customer and shop owner as they try to hold a conversation. There is also a large three legged dog, a parrot, a small barking dog...and I don't know who else. I have even seen a pigeon there one time and a seagull.

A couple of days ago, as I walked in, I immediately noticed a cage on the counter. But then my attention zoomed to a baby squirrel.... right there, on the counter.

That was the baby girl squirrel, the quiet one, they said; the terrible ones were the two boys. The way they described them, reminded me of the two opossums in the movie "Ice Age 2": very hyper and playful. One lady was feeding one of the boys with a tiny baby bottle. When he had enough, he ran up and down her arms as they were tree branches: too funny!

They loved to have their belly rubbed.....

Aren't they adorable?

The lady explained that as a tree was cut down nearby, a squirrel nest was found, with the three babies in it, with their eyes still shut. They were brought in the shop were they have been bottle fed since.

They have just began experiencing solid food, and they seemed very excited when I put my finger through the cage bars: the boy was hungry!!!!

Today I am grateful for having tickled a squirrel's belly!

Birds

Here are few little birds I have captured with my camera around my garden.

In this photos, taken at night, is pictured a little bird sleeping in the corner of the inside awning of my studio window. The screen makes it look fuzzy, sorry. I observed him there two nights in a row... I missed him the third night :-(

Here is another little bird under the same awning, but during the day: it may be the same bird, sleeping above, not sure.

Here is a cardinal eating English muffins I put in the bird feeder.

And here is his wife [I like to think it like that]

The End.

Today I am grateful for birds visiting my garden.