AstroGypsies

…and the living is easy…easier? Are we getting used to Covid isolation, or are many losing their minds? I’m not sure. Things in Perth are moving slowly, stores are still limiting the number of people allowed in, restaurants have tables set up outside, the grocery store is full of food, maybe not everything one was used to pre-pandemic but there is food. How lucky are we? We need to ponder that much more. The anti-maskers continue to astound me, wow, such an easy thing to do to protect others, and yourself, yet so much backlash. Makes me wonder how humanity really expects to survive, not just this pandemic, but for generations to come. There is good, so much good, but the press is so full of the sad, bad and downright evil. The Karens (no offense to the lovely Karens we know!), the Qanon, the rude, self entitled asshat presidents worldwide and their proclaimed followers, wow…I have to say the whole social distancing isn’t an issue, being a bit of a misanthrope, I like some people, just not all people, well, maybe not that many actually..ha! I would have made a good astronomer maybe…ha! Lot’s of time outside, no lights, few people, staring at the sky:)

Well, I’ll have to settle for getting up at midnight on a flat calm evening, walking down to the lake and staring at the wonders of nature and our universe…wow…bedazzling what Mother Nature produces. Now, carrying the camera and tripod down the steps with the red headlight and vertigo is a bit challenging, just go slow:) Once set up, wow…a firefly flew past my lens, I always say “Hi Beezil, nice to see you” when I see one…:)

The Milky Way filled the entire sky. It took 6 shots to capture what I could from top to bottom, think it is time I invest in a wide angle lens! I waited for the Comet Neowise to rise but clouds moved in, and so passed the time, two hours under the stars felt like 20 minutes…never ceases to take my breath away…Now to work on that obnoxious green light;) ha!

The Monarchs are fluttering about as well as an evasive Eastern Swallowtail! I’ll get him/her one day! The dragonflies are welcome to eat all the other biting bugs that descend upon you as you approach the woods. Our hummingbird baby has fledged and flown the coop-I saw a youngster poking at the unripe blackberries, must be her/him:) They have to learn what they can, and can’t eat. The Bald Eagle has kept vigil all week distressing the Loon pair, with their one remaining chick…quite the alarm every time the eagle flies in, I know when to go get the camera by the screams. There the eagle sits in the tall white pine…

I check every morning for the baby…still there today:) for now….New babies emerged from the forest a few nights ago…my bird feeder culprit. A mother Raccoon and her two small ones. Oh my they are cute. I explained my bird feeder was not on the menu but she could help herself to the compost any evening:)

The heat wave came, then went, and now it’s back again….Summertime…we need to cherish theses warm nights, softly fading clouds at sunset and calls of the whippoorwills from the forest nearby…no need to be socially distant from these things…no masks required….saludos amigos…stay safe…find your peace in this world in the little things that surround us, astonish us, they are everywhere if we just look a little:)