As the sun sets and hills grow dark, as the birdsong ends and fields fall silent, as the people laugh and take their rest, I watch. My heart hurries to the twilit gardens of Ukraine. And I hurry. O, how I hurry with my thoughts, as my heart yearns for rest. As the fields grow dark, as the groves grow dark, as the hills grow dark, I see a star. And I weep. Hey, you star! Have you reached Ukraine? Do dark eyes scour the blue sky for you? Or don’t they care? May they sleep if they don’t. May they know nothing of my fate. ~ Taras Shevchenko (To N. N.)
10.6.26 ~ Sandy Creek Park (view from the bird blind)
The heat and humidity seem to have finally left us! For good, I hope. I put on my permethrin-treated anti-tick pants and socks and joined Sally for a good long walk at Sandy Creek Park in Durham. It felt so good to be outside at long last and to do some birdwatching. And I got to add another bird to my life bird list near the end of our saunter!
brown thrasher
Thought can keep the storylines alive, and the body reliably hums along with its somatic accompaniments that seem to confirm the storylines and then re-trigger them, but every re-telling is actually slightly different in content and always fresh in the act of remembering, and every somatic sensation, every breath, is fresh and new, however familiar it seems. ~ Joan Tollifson (Ungraspable Presence, October 7, 2026)
Joan Tollifson’s words spoke to me the other morning as my thoughts have been spinning, trying to come up with a story to explain a distressing somatic symptom. Is it psychosomatic, triggered by anxiety and/or grief? (plausible) Or maybe a side effect of a prescription drug? (equally plausible) Or both, or something else entirely? My doctor is investigating and running all kinds of tests. Hopefully we’ll figure it out soon.
red-capped brittlegill mushroom in a patch of partridge berry
eastern phoebe
Somatic worries aside, it felt amazingly good and healthy to be out in the fresh air with a wonderful companion, enjoying the perfect sunlight of this time of year.
nature trail through the dappled sunlit woods
focus on blue mistflower
focus on blue mistflower buds
Ever since I moved to North Carolina I have received repeated warnings and cautions about snakes. Well, after living here for three years I finally encountered one! A copperhead was lying very still across our path through a marshy area. We turned around and went back the way we came. (Yes, I used the zoom to get the pictures!)
eastern copperhead
And he who made kittens put snakes in the grass. ~ Ian Anderson ♫ (Bungle in the Jungle) ♫
a snake in the grass
broadleaf cattails
daisy fleabane
Eight months later, and the for the second time this year, Sally spotted another life bird for me with her binoculars. Even though it was at quite a distance, and moving around at a fast pace, she said it was one of the best looks at one she’s ever had. As with the yellow-bellied sapsucker we saw in February, my camera’s zoom lens struggled to get these shots, which are cropped.
Red-headed Woodpecker, #92
The gorgeous Red-headed Woodpecker is so boldly patterned it’s been called a “flying checkerboard,” with an entirely crimson head, a snow-white body, and half white, half inky black wings. These birds don’t act quite like most other woodpeckers: they’re adept at catching insects in the air, and they eat lots of acorns and beech nuts, often hiding away extra food in tree crevices for later. This magnificent species has declined severely in the past half-century because of habitat loss and changes to its food supply. ~ All About Birds website
Sandy Creek from the Kenneth R. Coulter Bridge
Sandy Creek was pretty low. In spite of the rain we’ve been getting sporadically we are still in a moderate drought. The pond and the creek look a lot different than they did back in January 2025, the last time I was here with Tim. It was interesting to see the difference in the pictures of the creek at the ends of that post and this post. The post from that walk was entitled three stents make a difference. Turns out that was wishful thinking. Tim kept getting worse as his lung disease was finally diagnosed later in the year.
9.12.26 ~ Eastern Point Beach ring-billed gull with schooner on the horizon
Continuing with my gull photographs, and a few other things seen that amazing evening…
herring gull having fresh crab for dinner
gulp!
one of the Cross Sound ferries
red buoy and schooner
ring-billed gull and another Cross Sound ferry
I didn’t want this day to end
the one with a broken wing returned and followed me around while I was taking pictures of other things
delighted to find the rabbit-foot clover I discovered back in 2020, during the pandemic, is still clinging to the rocks
still following me
New London Harbor Light, across the Thames
strictly enforced in the summer
mouth of the Thames River
caught the light flashing on New London Harbor Light time to say good night and goodbye
I have my doubts that I will ever make it to this beloved beach again, so leaving was very sad. I follow the Eastern Point Beach’s Facebook group and see pictures others have taken often, but I have to say, nobody takes pictures of the gulls the way I have! I miss them and their different personalities so much.
Those of you who have been reading this blog for longer than three or four years know well my penchant for photographing gulls. I could never get enough of them, so when I got a chance on the quick trip to Connecticut I spent an evening with Beverly & John on Eastern Point Beach and took pictures to my heart’s content. This is where Tim & I used to spend our summer evenings, watching the sea birds and the boat traffic.
herring gull
an interesting pose
immature herring gull
schooner
this ring-billed had a broken wing
he must have flown off with the broken wing when we weren’t looking
They were all very cooperative about posing for me, even for close-ups. Another gallery to follow…
Here are the pictures from my delightful afternoon in Connecticut by the sea. Beverly, John and I took a long walk through the marsh and onto the beach, wandering along a side path first. Sadly, invasive phragmites have taken over and spoiled much of the view Tim & I enjoyed when we came here five years ago. See that post here: sunlight by the sea. And it wasn’t long before we found another invasive species landing on our clothing, the newly arrived spotted lanternfly. Sigh.
lichen covered glacial erratic
I have not included pictures of either of them, and have no pictures of the beach itself because it was covered with people! But we made the best of it and found many little treasures to appreciate.
on the John A. Scillieri, Jr. Overlook Wetlands path
On the trip up to Connecticut we came the “inland” route to avoid the city traffic, through the Blue Ridge and Poconos mountains. Lovely goldenrod was blooming in abundance along the highway.
goldenrod
John is a botanist so we learned a bit about the different kinds of marsh and dune grasses and how they occupy different zones, depending on if the marsh is receding away from the sea or staying in place for a while. It will be interesting to see how this marsh deals with climate change.
my first glimpse of a beach rose
beach rose
rose hips
I miss my beach roses and was so grateful to see a few on this walk. Lots of berries for migrating birds.
bittersweet
bayberry
rose hips
To avoid staring at people we walked the wrack line and found a few interesting items.
beads from a strand of seaweed
AI thinks this might be a cluster of translucent squid eggs attached to bits of seaweed
And of course, Beverly is a geologist so we found ourselves spending a lot of time at the glacial moraine at the end of the beach. In our younger years we might have been found climbing all over these boulders but decided to play it safe and not risk slipping and breaking any bones.
glacial moraine
Listening to the waves was soothing, and the more we looked around the more there was to observe.
algae on rock
algae on rock
beach pebbles and stones
On the way back we found more beach roses and a cute laughing gull standing on the sand far enough away from any person, making possible my only gull picture of the afternoon. There were some gulls flying overhead, but too fast for me to capture.
laughing gull
woodland sunflower
white wood aster
But, not to worry, we were headed for another beach after a couple of errands and refreshments. There were more than enough gulls there, with no people around, to keep me happy for a couple of hours.
As well, you saw this morning on the hill Her horse is in the stable now, the men are at the mill She thanks you for the apples by her gate And hopes that when the moon is full you’ll join her once again to celebrate For she knows that the harvest has begun The autumn feast rewards our time when All is well and done With the blessing of the sun ~ Dar Williams ♫ (All is Come Undone) ♫
Here’s the puzzle I started on the Autumn Equinox and finished this morning. This is the second stop on my journey around the Wheel of the Year by myself. And a little trip down memory lane with some photos from past celebrations. Enjoy!
2021 ~ Old Mystic, Connecticut
Clyde’s Cider Mill
The two main things we used to do to celebrate the equinox were apple picking at Holmberg’s Orchard and picking up freshly pressed apple cider and pumpkin bread at Clyde’s Cider Mill. At home Tim used to make me a great cup of hot cider with cinnamon sugar on the rim of the cup. And although I don’t have too many pictures of leaf beds, an autumn day wouldn’t be complete without a walk through the ‘fresh, crisp, and rustling leaves‘ in the woods. 🍂
2020 ~ Holmberg Orchards, Ledyard, Connecticut
2020 ~ Holmberg Orchards
2016 ~ Holmberg Orchards ~ hanging gourds
2016 ~ Holmberg Orchards
It is pleasant to walk over the beds of these fresh, crisp, and rustling leaves. How beautifully they go to their graves! How gently lay themselves down and turn to mould! Painted of a thousand hues, and fit to make the beds of us living. So they troop to their last resting place, light and frisky. They put on no weeds, but merrily they go scampering over the earth, selecting the spot, choosing a lot, ordering no iron fence… How many flutterings before they rest quietly in their graves! They that soared so loftily, how contentedly they return to dust again, and are laid low, resigned to lie and decay at the foot of the tree, and afford nourishment to new generations of their kind, as well as to flutter on high! They teach us how to die. ~ Henry David Thoreau (Autumnal Tints)
9.29.12 ~ monarch in a garden on Block Island New Shoreham, Rhode Island photo by Tim
bright wings of autumn flutter, lighting on the last sweet sips of summer ~ Barbara Rodgers (By the Sea)
Fourteen years ago Tim & I took a high-speed ferry from New London, Connecticut, to Block Island, which is 13 miles off the coast of Rhode Island. The ferry only runs from New London from May to September, and we caught it on the last Saturday in September. (There is year-round ferry service from Point Judith and Newport, Rhode Island.)
We had a wonderful time exploring the island for a day. I wrote this post about our adventure: high-speed ferry ride
Before we left the island, Tim spotted a monarch butterfly in someone’s garden and took this amazing picture. It inspired me to write the haiku. I posted the picture/word combo a few days later and it proved to be one of my most viewed posts ever, with lots of comments. The memory is bittersweet, though, as most of the blogging friends I enjoyed back then are no longer blogging and I miss them.
I’m beginning to have more appreciation for how indulging in feelings of nostalgia becomes such a prominent feature of aging!
Fall, leaves, fall; die, flowers, away; Lengthen night and shorten day; Every leaf speaks bliss to me Fluttering from the autumn tree. I shall smile when wreaths of snow Blossom where the rose should grow; I shall sing when night’s decay Ushers in a drearier day. ~ Emily Brontë (The Complete Poems of Emily Jane Brontë)
