Great Blue Herons at Patrick Marsh

 

Today there were donuts after Mass, and I did indulge in one with orange, white, and green sprinkles and also green shamrock sprinkles, clearly for the recent feast day of St. Patrick, and also fulfilling two of my colors per Rich's system. One of the regulars was not there at brunch, but Jilly Moose and the woman who plays Baroque flute were there. Things ran much later than usual, and then I had to pick up a bouquet of flowers at Trader Joe's to put on Mr. Why's grave (yes, we were late again this year), and they don't have an express line so I was stuck behind a bunch of people who were seemingly doing their shopping for the month. Finally Travalon and I joined Rich, Kathbert, and Pete the Sailor Man at Mr. Why's grave for our annual ritual of placing flowers on it, taking a picture, and sending it to his mother in Singapore. Then Jilly Moose, Travalon, and I went to Patrick Marsh. It was still mostly frozen over, and there weren't any ducks there (last year there were all sorts of species of ducks around this time), but we did see several great blue herons, so that was exciting.

The weather was gorgeous today, so I was a bit resentful about having to sit inside for Irish class. I did sit out on our porch. In the class we talked about signs of the zodiac, and to my surprise, a classmate has a husband who is an Aquarius and also right in the middle in all four categories on the Myers-Briggs test, just like Rich. There are TWO of them?? Then I had to rush to band practice while Travalon watched the Badgers lose, so that's the end of the tournament for them. At practice I was thinking that I enjoy playing mandolin because nobody ever taught me how, so I can do whatever I want. The down side: I have no idea how to make an E-major chord that isn't totally awkward. This might have been addressed in mandolin lessons? I'm sure my technique is horrible, but I have no idea, not like when I play the violin and know exactly how horrible my technique is.

Here are some recent photos. First is another selfie I took for St. Patrick's Day. Tiffy says you should never take a selfie from below, but that was the only way to get my medal in the photo.

Friday Travalon brought a buddy home.

This is Mr. Fat, the teddy bear named by the kids he works with. They love Mr. Fat, but for some reason the powers that be don't, so they stuffed him in a storage room. Travalon said if they were going to throw him away, he would take him, so they said, "Take him home tonight!"

Here are some photos from our pilgrimage yesterday. This is the chapel at Sinsinawa Mound.

Here are some examples of artwork at Sinsinawa.

Of course I forgot to take a photo of the beautiful tabernacle that looks like a small Greek temple made by Father Mazzuchelli himself. Here is the view from the top of the mound:

And this is New Melleray Abbey.

Here is the chapel, as taken by my phone.

And here it is as taken by Rich's phone. You can see me (on the left) and Jilly Moose (on the right) praying our new rosaries. I believe she was praying a Seven Sorrows of Mary chaplet.

And this is the view from the top of the steep hill we hiked up.

Here are some photos Travalon took of ducks off our dock a few mornings ago. These are scaups.

Here Mr. and Mrs. Scaup seem to be greeting Mr. and Mrs. Bufflehead.

I believe this is a ring-necked duck. The ring is actually around their bills, not their necks. Who comes up with these duck names, anyway?

Here are the female and male ring-necked ducks.

Here one of the sandhill cranes is wandering over the mud flats left by the low level of the river.

This photo makes me laugh. If you look at the ring-necked duck on the far left, just to the right of him is the head of a scaup sticking up above the water. 

These are some photos of the great blue herons we saw today at Patrick Marsh.

This male mallard seems to have a purple head. They usually have green heads. Travalon saw him off our dock today while I was in Irish class.

Here he is dabbling with his mate.

Male mallards have iridescent heads, so they can appear bluer or greener in different light, but this one has a really purple head. I guess it's just a color variation.

Famous Hat