Sunday, February 15, 2009

Sunday Randomosity

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


Sleepy Storm:
Sleeping barn owl

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:
Storm in the sun

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:

Big Toe

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.
Queen and Big Toe
"Hmmm. Doesn't smell like a toe."

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

10 comments:

KGMom said...

Sol is randomosity your word? Or does it come from a dictionary.
I had to laugh when I read that!
Love love love the owl faces.

Anonymous said...

It is amazing how people overlook amazing things around them!

Kim said...

Love the hawk photo perched on the tree. I can't believe how it just stayed there while people were around the area.

Thanks for the lesson on Ugly Dolls, I had no idea they even existed! Great owl picture. I will see on myself some day!

Anonymous said...

I have to email this to my husband, who's from Ohio.

-- Written from Michigan :)

NatureWoman said...

Storm is such a cool owl!!!!!
And the oblivious chick is on the phone, right? The hawk should poop on them, they still probably wouldn't know it was there.
What a cool ugly doll!

Anonymous said...

Terrific post! I love that sleeping owl.

NCmountainwoman said...

Random is sometimes the best. Great post.

Cindie Ulreich said...

If you ever do a program near Oxford or Hamilton, please bring the barn owl. I've never seen one up close and I have two barns!

RuthieJ said...

I love that sleep Barn Owl face too.

I'm always amazed at how oblivious many people are to birds also. Just turn that cell phone off for a few hours people and enjoy being outside on a nice day!

Julie Zickefoose said...

Umm...how big was that puppy?
Because that redtail might have been 20 feet away and focused down for a reason...I'm just sayin...