Thawing

I was blessed to enjoy a beach walk yesterday that DIDN'T result in being frozen by the time I got home. The waves have been huge for the past few days, but yesterday the lake was still and I had the fun of lots and lots of flotsam to look through. Any one doing assemblage art would have been overjoyed by the fabulous assortment of driftwood and metal bits and pieces, and fossils and feathers and glass and wonderful stones of all kind. If I brought home every interesting thing on the beach we would be up to our eyebrows in bits and pieces so I have learned to be very selective and resist temptation.

Some nice glass bits and fossils and stones with holes.
I am in love with this marble, I felt like I had found a prize!

Vivid moss on a cedar rail:

Diane's miniature irises:

An exceedingly handsome fellow in the crabapple tree:

I'm also in love with the grackles, who are picking and tossing through the dead leaves like old ladies at a rummage sale!

I spent a long time trying to get a picture of a Little Downie woodpecker, but it was really bright out and I couldn't see it very well through the viewfinder. When I got home I found I had about 15 very nice pictures of tree branches and not a woodpecker to be found. Oh well!