Pagode Player Yet

 

Check it out - Niko can wear the backpack he fits into! So he can carry his shelter around with him!

Also, I swear neither of us set her up like this, but this morning Valerie the Vulture was gazing longingly out the window, like she'd rather be soaring high above our roof.

This morning after Mass there was a Care for Creation meeting, and three of us were from Moldy Jam. Then Travalon and I took a walk in the woods, and I saw lots of lovely woodland flowers, like very light violets.

And very dark violets, as well as yellow violets.

And my favorite woodland flower, the Jack in the Pulpit.

Before my drum class, only two people were playing pagode samba, including the one woman in the group. She asked if I liked pagode and I said yes, and she said she is trying to form an all-woman pagode group. Wow!! The whole reason I joined the drumming collective was because I actually wanted to play pagode, so it looks like my dream may come true! Of course, with what time? I'm already doing a lot of Irish fiddling and old time fiddling and two other kinds of Brazilian music, the choro and the drumming. But I will make it work somehow! If you are wondering how to pronounce "pagode," it's Pah-GOH-jee. Also, one of the guys in the current pagode band has a catamaran, so it's not entirely impossible that I might someday get a ride on it, if I keep hanging around.

After my very hard drum lesson, my one buddy asked me where I was going next with the fiddle, so I told her about the Slow Irish Session, and she wanted to check it out. Then Travalon and I went on a walk and found a beautiful lakeside park.

We saw some beautiful flowers and trees on this walk, like these purple and white violets.

And a couple of Japanese red maples, so beautiful with the late afternoon light shining through their leaves.

Some very red tulips.

And some very fragrant lilacs.

There were a lot of people at the Slow Irish session today, including Famie (but not the red-headed flute player), my ex-bandmate who always comes, a couple of current bandmates, and my drumming buddy just listened but said she might come back with her guitar. We played some tunes nobody knew, so I had to look at the music, since I can't learn by ear if nobody knows the tune. We also played some we know well. One guy who came for the first time said he would just listen, but they have all sorts of instruments at the music club, so he ended up borrowing a mandolin. Apparently people donate instruments to the club, so I may unload some of my many instruments. Not my violin or mandolin, of course - they're family heirlooms, and I use them constantly - but maybe the mountain dulcimer a coworker made me buy from her decades ago, or the woodrow that the Former Professor Formerly Known as Lute Player gave me recently that I haven't had time to learn to play, or the bowed psaltry my former neighbor gave me. And definitely the "garbage" violin, if they would even take it. I would keep the tamburitza, the balalaika, and the sitar because they were all gifts from Travalon, and I do plan to learn to play them. And of course I'd keep the ukulele, which I play monthly, plus it's a souvenir of Hawaii. I'm not sure the music club would even want my rebec, and maybe someday I'll get to play early music again. Then there's the odd guitar-like instrument I bought at a silent auction - should I keep that or give it to the club? Oh, and my electric mandolin isn't going anywhere either, because it's come in handy at the most random times. As you can see, I have a lot of thinking to do.

Keep Pa Hat in your prayers. He may die tonight. He was going to have his big 80th birthday later this month, but it looks like that won't happen.

Famous Hat

Horicon Marsh, Wheeler Road, and Irish Fiddling

 

This morning Travalon and I got going relatively early (for us, on a Saturday) and headed to Horicon Marsh. I really wanted to see a gallinule and a yellow-headed blackbird, but we almost always see those on Old Marsh Road, which isn't open until June. (Though we found out it was open for a few days around Earth Day.) In the first pond on the auto tour, where we often see egrets, we saw a pair of swans.

From the boardwalk, we saw lots of nesting Canada geese, often on top of muskrat lodges.

We even saw a nesting pelican! Why is it ignoring that egg in front of it?

We also saw turtles.

And blue-winged teals.

We saw barn swallows and tree swallows, but Travalon only got photos of barn swallows. He has taken photos of tree swallows in the past. They're more of a greenish-blue up top and white below.

Lots of trilliums were blooming.

I did see something sad - one may apple had both of its leaves missing! The bud was still there. How will it survive? None of them are in bloom yet.

We saw the nesting pelican from another angle.

As we drove along the auto tour, we saw a cute little gallinule.

And a pair of blue-winged teals.

I wanted to drive along Highway 49 because we often see coots there, and decades ago when I was in college, a roommate told me her class had gone to Horicon Marsh and seen baby coots, and that they are bright red and fluffy. I have seen photos online, and the fluffy redness is only around their heads - the rest of them is black. Still, I'd love to see one, but they hide in the reeds. We were, however, pleasantly surprised to see (and hear!) several yellow-headed blackbirds.

 

And on a tree on an island, we could see a cormorant rookery!

And we also saw baby Canada geese.

And a pair of red-headed ducks.

We saw plenty of adult coots, but no babies, alas.

And we saw a pied-billed grebe.

And three northern shovelers just chillaxin.'

More shots of the yellow-headed blackbirds.

Here he is "singing" - it sounds like he's being strangled.

We had a quick lunch at Taco Bell in Waupun and drove home so I could go to the red-headed flute player's house to play Irish tunes with her and Famie. My brain wasn't running on all cylinders today, but we did know a lot of the same tunes, so it was easy to play together. The flute player has a beautiful white German shepherd, and she was also watching her sister's whippet, so we had an audience. Were they appreciative? Hard to say.

Since we had already missed the Union picnic and the Kentucky Derby parties happening around town, Travalon and I went to the ponds on Wheeler Road and saw more wood ducks.

There was also a pair of blue-winged teals. I don't know why the female has her head at such an odd angle. At first I thought she didn't have a head!

Wood ducks and teals peaceably sharing a branch.

Two pairs together!

And a female hooded merganser was hanging around them. She was hard to photograph because she kept diving - this was the best of the three photos Travalon took of her.

A guy saw us looking at the pond, and he asked if we were looking at the beavers, but we saw no beavers, nor even signs of beaver occupation. Then we checked out the place I believe they are moving my park and ride to, which is not nearly so convenient because I have to go south to leave - you can't make a lefthand turn from there - and there isn't a bus stop right there like there is at our current parking lot. After that we checked out the rail yard, and that was pretty cool. There was an engine that was running its motor, but it wasn't moving. Then we came home, and I did DuoLingo for an hour. I actually got this little movie yesterday morning but forgot to post it.

Even though we had an early evening, I am still blogging late at night. Nobody is better at wasting time in the evenings than I am.

Famous Hat