Sunday Randomosity

No real cohesive story ...just random doings around here:


Sleepy Storm:


Sweet, to be sure. But what made my iron heart melt was the relaxed posture. One of those long, dangerous legs tucked up in warm belly feathers, and the "T" of gold on his face.
Owls can manipulate their facial feathers to direct sound waves while listening for those yummy rodents....and those same feathers, in sleep, can get droopy.

Compare the above photo with the one below, when he is W I D E awake:


See? No "T".
Owls are cool. The more I learn and observe about owls, the more respect and love I have for them.

My Valentine's gift from Geoff:



For you poor dopes who aren't in the know, this is an Ugly Doll.
I first came across Ugly Dolls in a local bookstore, and they had a whole table dedicated to these things. I fell in love immediately.
From their website:
From the creative minds of two love struck artists David Horvath and Sun-Min Kim emerge the Uglydoll family! What started as a drawing of a playful orange character known as Wage has turned into a whole new world of fun! In 2001, when David's soon to be wife and creative partner Sun-Min had to return to Korea, he sent her many "I miss you" letters with his little Wage character drawn at the bottom. Sun-Min sewed Wage into a plush doll and sent him to David as a surprise gift. David asked Sun-Min to sew a couple more for the Giant Robot store in Los Angeles and they sold out in one day! A very excited Sun-Min sewed many more and those sold just as fast! Sun-Min and David then began to pull more characters from the Uglyverse, a universe where UGLY meant unique and special, to translate into plush Uglydolls.


Why are they so popular? They defy cute and cuddly. They are unique. They are unconventional.
Our house is slowly filling with them. It started with Isabelle's Wage, then grew with her Target (complete with chest hair) and Lorelei's Peaco and Babo's Bird. Now we have Big Toe (mine).

The girls love them because I love them. Good thing I don't love heroin.

Queen investigates Big Toe.

"Hmmm. Doesn't smell like a toe."

From a walk at Symmes Township Park, looking for non-existent great horned owls:

What is left of a hornet nest... I've never seen one split open like that. With the ice and the wind storms, it's a wonder anything is in one piece anymore.

I've posted about this tiny gem of a park. I haven't been able to get down into it until all the stooopid ice and snow melted.
It's astounding now pristine this place is. Bordered by a neighborhood and a busy road, I always look for trash, knowing I won't find any. It's beautiful....though aside from the GHOW's, I have yet to see any cool birds there.

A perfectly clean, babbling brook. I even caught the sparkles.
Seeing this photo made me think about what I was going through this time last year. Anyone remember the "camera problems"?

Finally, in the spirit of I Can Has Cheezburger?, I give you the definition of "oblivious":


"Oblivious..... yur doin it rite."


This red-tailed hawk landed 20 feet from these people, and they were too into their puppy to even notice. Isn't it sad when people aren't in the loop about nature?

I'm so glad I'm a birder.