Took camera in hand this weekend after far too long away from it. I like its weight. I like the narrow focus I’m forced to take when peering into the viewfinder. I like the expansiveness and freedom of wandering in the woods looking and listening for just anything, or nothing. I like that my neighbors don’t call the police when I am traipsing through the fields and woods at 8:15 am, almost certainly talking to myself, peering at frost-covered weeds and squinting into the sun, then circling a small tree like it might contain the answer to an important question.
I like wondering which birds are living in certain tree cavities, and waiting with cold cheeks (you pick which) for the resident to sneak a peak at me. I like that nobody tooted at me while I sat on the guardrail on Route 202 and snapped shots of geese picking their way across sheets of ice at the end of the lake. Have you ever watched a goose walk on ice? They seem to value careful foot placement as much as we do.
Sassy, seed hogging blue jays are back. I have made my peace with it. They are hungry too. If they don’t mind at least basic manners I will yell at them.
Hear the owls occasionally. Don’t see them. Somebody bought the abutting parcel – the spot I first found them this summer. The new owner is busy piling brush into burn piles. Sigh.
Was grateful that two immense deer were only on the edge of somebody’s lawn late one work night this week – not in front of my fender. Scary that my tired brain first processed their image as wolves – as in, “Why is there a very large wolf in the road right now?”
Our kitchen sink looks onto the back lawn, which turns into tree lines, which slopes down to lake. So when my hands are in the sink I watch the woods and the sky. That is why Saturday morning at least one neighbor might have seen me standing in my backyard in a tank top and yoga pants trying to capture the eagle soaring overhead. Eagles don’t wait for you to put on a jacket. And the sun moves so fast at this time of year that when you decide the frost covered field looks amazing you jump out of bed and suit up – fast! Next on my agenda is to learn to shoot into the sun.
The Nature of Maine 