THIRTY DAY CHALLENGE--Day Sixteen

A photo a day for thirty days.

New feet within my garden go,

New fingers stir the sod;

A troubadour upon the elm

Betrays the solitude. 

New children play upon the green,

New weary sleep below;

And still the pensive spring returns,

And still the punctual snow!

Emily Dickinson

THIRTY DAY CHALLENGE--Day Fifteen

A photo a day for thirty days.

The spring rain left a lot of nice puddles.  

This killdeer is fluffing up and preparing to take a bath.

More fluffing and flapping of feathers.  Nice fresh water, not much breeze.  

Why the procrastination?

"This is April.  That water's gonna be freekin' COLD!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mother, may I go and swim?

Yes, my darling daughter.

Hang your clothes on yonder limb,

But don't go near the water.

THIRTY DAY CHALLENGE--Day Fourteen

A photo a day for 30 days

April Rain Song

Langston Hughes

 Let the rain kiss you

Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops
Let the rain sing you a lullaby
The rain makes still pools on the sidewalk
The rain makes running pools in the gutter
The rain plays a little sleep song on our roof at night
And I love the rain.

Waiting At The Window

A. A. Milne

 These are my two drops of rain

Waiting on the window-pane.

I am waiting here to see
Which the winning one will be.

Both of them have different names.
One is John and one is James.

All the best and all the worst
Comes from which of them is first.

James has just begun to ooze.
He's the one I want to lose.

John is waiting to begin.
He's the one I want to win.

James is going slowly on.
Something sort of sticks to John.

John is moving off at last.
James is going pretty fast.

John is rushing down the pane.
James is going slow again.

James has met a sort of smear.
John is getting very near.

Is he going fast enough?
(James has found a piece of fluff.)

John has quickly hurried by.
(James was talking to a fly.)

John is there, and John has won!
Look! I told you! Here's the sun!

THIRTY DAY CHALLENGE--Day Thirteen

Out for my morning walk along the river…

 Hokey smoke! It’s Bullwinkle, standing right in the path toward home.

 Now, what?? He’s lying down in the path.  

I either have to walk by him or walk a mile back the other way.

 I approached carefully, ready to run. 

Bullwinkle got back up with a very grumpy frown on his face.

 The hair on his shoulder hump raised up and he glared at me.  Maybe that walk back the other way would be a good idea.  Maybe I should do that before I have to run.

 He folded back his ears and stomped off into the brush.

“Okay. Fine.  I’ll get out of your way.”

 “Thhhpppppt! To you.”

And now, here's something we hope you'll really like.

  

Mooses Come Walking
by Arlo Guthrie

Mooses come walking over the hill
Mooses come walking, they rarely stand still
When mooses come walking they go where they will
When mooses come walking over the hill

Mooses look into your window at night
They look to the left and they look to the right
The mooses are smiling, they think it's a zoo
And that's why the mooses like looking at you

So, if you see mooses while lying in bed
It's best to just stay there pretending you're dead
The mooses will leave and you'll get the thrill
Of seeing the mooses go over the hill

A Use For A Moose

By Shel Silverstein

The antlers of a standing moose,
As everybody knows,
Are just the perfect place to hang
Your wet and drippy clothes.
It’s quick and cheap, but I must say
I’ve lost a lot of clothes that way.

THIRTY DAY CHALLENGE--SURPRISE--Day Twelve

A big surprise made it worth looking for something to photograph this morning.

I put the star filter on my camera so I could catch rainbow flares off the rising sun.

When I got it back home I added some artsy Photoshop effects to this one for fun.

While I was still taking pictures of the sunrise I saw an osprey fly over the pond.

Almost before I could react it dove straight into the water.

There was a moment of struggle and then it rose with a fish in its claws.

It happened so fast that I didn’t have the sense to zoom in to catch a more focused picture.

The big bird circled around catching the sunlight as it adjusted its prey for a better angle for flight.

Before the poor fish could recover from the shock of being snatched from the water it was on its way to becoming breakfast.

THIRTY DAY CHALLENGE--Day Eleven

Be vewy, vewy quiet. I'm hunting wabbits.

And if you go chasing rabbits

And you know you're going to fall

Tell 'em a hookah-smoking caterpillar

Has given you the call

Call Alice

When she was just small

There was not a moment to be lost: away went Alice like the wind,

and was just in time to hear it say, as it turned a comer,

"Oh my ears and whiskers, how late it's getting!" She was close behind it when she turned the comer, but the Rabbit was no longer to be seen:

I had nuffin',

No, I hadn't got nuffin',

So I didn't go down

To the market square;

But I walked on the common,

The old-gold common...

And I saw little rabbits

'Most everywhere!

So I'm sorry for the people who sell fine saucepans,

I'm sorry for the people who sell fresh mackerel,

I'm sorry for the people who sell sweet lavender,

'Cos they haven't got a rabbit, not anywhere there!

THIRTY DAY CHALLENGE--Day Ten

A photo a day for thirty days

Tall Men Riding

Oh, the high hawk knows where the rabbit goes,

and the buzzard marks the kill

But few there be with eyes to see the tall men riding still

We hark in vain on the speeding train

for an echo of hoof beat thunder

And the yellow wheat is a winding sheet

for cattle trails plowed under.

Barry Taylor