January 31 through March 15, 2020

I'm working from home today and decided to take a break and write a post. First thanks again to Lissa Writes for the badges, I'm using another as my header. 



I put off working from home because I've gotten used to commuting and have a new car I enjoy driving.



I also tend to work much longer hours from home and like leaving work at the office and home for home.



As more cases of coronavirus have cropped up in my area I decided the thing to do is work from home and not work too long hours.



Since I started work even earlier than I usually get to the office and I know if something comes up this afternoon after I usually leave, I'll take care of it; I decided the thing to do is take a break in the middle of the day.



Since I started working in my P. J.'s at 6:30, this is actually later than mid day.



I'm not overly worried about getting coronavirus but since the majority of NC cases are in Raleigh where I live, there's the added reason of not wanted to take it to the office in Durham where I work.



It does help that from what I heard, people are generally symptomatic before they're contagious.



I'll probably go to the office at least once this week but will be careful.



We've had continual weird weather. In early February it was warm and early flowers jumped the gun.



Then we had snow followed by low temperatures and many trees with spring flowers dropped their blooms.



It was a pretty sugar frosting snow but due to drop in temperatures we ended up with a fair amount of ice.



The daffodils were hit hard and a lot didn't recover.



Even so the yellow was pretty through the snow.



Nice to see wildflowers cropping up.



Male cardinals are very striking in the grass.



The great blue heron move to protected areas during breeding season.



It's been nice to see the trees that didn't jump the spring gun begin to flower.



Below is a narcissus stand that fared well although close-ups show them bowed down.



The shots in this post are sequential beginning with oldest and ending with newer ones.



American Robins crack me up.



Buttercups take me back to my childhood and making jewelry with them.



The mallard pair blend into the reflection.



I'll stop with the Canada geese. 

December 8, 2019 through January 30, 2020

The shots are going backwards within the time period of the last month of 2019 and the first month of 2020. 



We had a string of warm, spring days and some of the trees flowered and so far haven't lost them in spite of some cold nights with temperatures 10-15 below freezing.



The owl above was in my pecan tree and was the first owl I've spotted anywhere. 



I wish the limb hadn't been across the owl but for documentary purposes I was happy to get the shot.



I like the way the people provided color to the Shelly Lake shot above.



I know I've said this many times but this has been the weirdest weather that I can recall.



The temperature in my office has added to the weirdness. It's been boiling hot on my floor at work.



I think the juxtaposition of the heron, cormorants and gulls ends up looking like a teacher with small children.

 

The weird thing at work is most of the floors have been cold but my floor has stayed very hot.



I have to peel down to short sleeves and sandals and then put a sweater on for the elevator and other floors. 



The only thing that helps is running fans constantly and opening windows.



The waste of open windows in the winter so you don't burn up inside is nuts.



There are a lot of theories about what the problem is but no solutions so far.



I guess I'll stop here. 

October 12 through December 7, 2019

I have been uploading photos to flickr over the past two months and had intended to write a post before now.



Since I put the flickr address into my blog post to avoid running out of storage space, I usually write a post as soon as I have the photos ready to embed.



The problem with doing it this way is I have so many shots ready to embed it will probably be an insanely long post.



One way I know I've been blogging a long time is I started with picsa as a place to host embedded photos and then used photobucket and finally landed on flickr. Dogwoods are usually the first trees that go to full color in my neck of the woods.



This was an odd fall in that trees that change colors later, were not only later than usual they reached full color very fast after the change started and then dropped fast.



I'm still in the October shots but that was very noticeable with the oaks which will be towards the end of this post.



This buck was in a neighbor's yard and I thought he was a statue at first. Definitely wasn't scared of me.



Weather was all over the place this fall. That's not unusual but to have lows in the 20s (Fahrenheit) one night and within about 3 days to have a high close to 90 (Fahrenheit) was bizarre.



The maples were gorgeous as usual this year but short lived color.



Below the oak tree was beginning to change colors and I loved how it bled into the maples.



The down sided with so many shots since my last post is it's difficult to choose.



I was happy when the water birds showed up at Shelly Lake. The commentary doesn't fit the shots because I'm waiting until later in the post to use shots from the lake.



I liked the way the jeep and mailbox matched the fall colors below.



The hawk below chose the most precarious limb for a perch which reminded me of how the largest people sometimes land on the most fragile chairs. I'm quite large at this point in my life but I'm leery of delicate chairs.



I can always tell when the hawk is in my trees because the other birds don't use the birdbath until her or she is gone.



At this point I'm skipping more shots that I uploaded than I'm using.



I only went on one walk at Shelly lake when I didn't see any water birds but it was a first for me so I was relieved when they showed up again by the next walk.



The cormorants always leave in the spring and return in the fall as do the gulls.



There are other water birds at the lake year round (ducks, geese, heron and egrets).



They shift to different parts of the lake depending on the time of the year.



In the early spring I don't see as many water birds but I hear them warning me away from their nesting area.



I haven't seen the bald eagles since early summer so glad to spot this one on a recent walk.



I love reflections and particularly when there are clouds along with a blue sky.



Hard to pick which reflections to use.



At this point I'm running out of words so I'm looking for a logical place to stop.



Nice having beautiful walking days during my Thanksgiving holiday.



The last two shots aren't particularly good but I took them today and was pleased that the birds seemed happy I raked the leaves on the deck as well as removed them from the bird baths.



The American Robin was as happy about the berries I uncovered as well as having a clean bath waiting.