Aspen buds hold tight for spring...

Magic happens... I was so intently focused on getting the buds in focus I didn't see what was going on with these magnificent icicles... Perhaps I couldn't have seen it until the shutter was actually clicked. Regardless, my lovely and talented painter neighbor saw the photo and wondered how I got those colors. But I didn't, I said. They were just there!

Recently I came across this quote from the late photographer Minor White. It is timeless, and I feel describes beautifully the moment above (at 1/500th of a second), and indeed encapsulates so many of my photographic experiences.

No matter how slow the film,

Spirit always stands still long enough for the photographer It has chosen.

—Minor White

Blue Skies

Walk the middle road and you will see

there will always be blue sky behind the clouds

A walk today after a big wet snow.

Listening to Mozart's Clarinet concerto I looked up and saw

a young Red Tailed hawk looking for lunch.

He moved perfectly to the music, slowing above me, hovering on a note;

as if the Adagio was made just for him.

Such majesty.

Happy New Year, New Moment, Blue Moon

If you will stay close to nature, to its simplicity, to the small things hardly

noticeable, these things can unexpectedly become great and immeasurable.

If you will love what seems to be insignificant and will in an unassuming manner,

as a servant, seek to win the confidence of what seems poor, then everything

will become easier, more harmonious, and somehow more conciliatory,

not for your intellect—that will most likely remain behind, astonished—

but for your innermost consciousness, your awakeness,

and your inner knowing." —Rainer Maria Rilke

Full Moon in Blue, Santa Fe, New Mexico. ©Elsa Kendall

Once in a blue moon is here, December 31st 2009. What makes it so special is that it comes not only on New Year's Eve, but is ushering in a brand new decade. To learn more about this phenomenon you can check this link.

Inspired by a meeting I recently had, I've been revisiting a book I've not looked at in a while, the poet Rilke's "Letters to a Young Poet". It is a treasure indeed. There are so many parts worth quoting, but this seems appropriate for now.

How could we be capable of forgetting the old myths

that stand at the threshold of all mankind,

myths of dragons transforming themselves at the last moment into princesses?

Perhaps all dragons in our lives are really princesses just waiting

to see us just once being beautiful and courageous.

Happy New Decade

New Year

New Moment

A limited edition of this print is now available. For information please click here.

Happy Winter Solstice

Look closely to see Parlez's special greeting.

Click here to go to the treasure.

Wishing you all a Blessed Winter Solstice and nature's beginning of a brand New Year!

The Winter Solstice: Astronomically marks the beginning of shortening nights and lengthening days.

Interpretation varies from culture to culture, but most hold a recognition of rebirth.

“True strength is delicate”

“True strength is delicate”

so said Louise Nevelson, a Russian-born American abstract sculptor.

She had 88 years to experience and share this lovely thought as well

“I never feel age. . .

If you have creative work, you don't have age or time.”

~We are each of us the divine painter of our own Master piece~

The painting above is by one of my favorite artists who happens to live here in Santa Fe, Carol Anthony.

The egg altar is in the home of my dear neighbors, Lola's parents.

And the robin's eggs are the creation of one of the many wondrous birds who live(d) here in our neck of the woods.

America's Best Idea

"I only went out for a walk, and finally concluded to stay out till sundown,

for going out I found, was really going in" —John Muir

A new film by Ken Burns premiers this Sunday on PBS. It's called "The National Parks: America's Best Idea", and is an epic, six-part feature that took five years to film. Excerpts have been shown on PBS and the cinematography looks outstanding. For a look behind the scenes click here. It is so beautifully done, as usual with his work. He just keeps getting better and better. It runs in two hour segments, Sunday through Friday. Enjoy~

A Quiet Corner in My Neighbors' Garden

I think this qualifies as a shhhhh, Secret Garden...

Where do you go when it's 90º in the shade?

To the shade... next to your favorite cat mint bush... and wait for a bit.

Maybe do a little day dreaming... maybe wait for someone to come by and give you some rubs.

Hunting the Hidden Dimension

I was looking through ASMP's website and found this photographer's work. And then this amazing image. I shamelessly copied it to my desktop to look at again and again. And then I decided to share it with you, giving him full credit.

You can view it larger here by clicking on it. If you would like to see more of his work, please click here.

This image seemed to illustrate to me the kind of brink on which we all currently stand; in the midst of a vast unknown, full of peril, full of possibility. It looks like White Sands, NM, a bizarre configuration of gypsum sand in the middle of a desert basin. I was there in December once and remember the distinct feeling of strange as I took off my shoes and wiggled my toes in cool, white sand without the sound of ocean waves.

Things are not always as they seem, and that is a blessing to understand. Our minds are so limited, and such tricksters! Speaking of which, I was enthralled to watch Nova on PBS this last week, from which the title of this post comes. It was on fractal geometry and you can watch the whole thing here. I loved seeing how many dried and true mathematicians poo pooed the work of Benoit Mandlebrot several years ago, and literally told him he was nuts. Einstein was right, "Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds". Mandlebrot wrote The Fractal Geometry of Nature, and I look forward to checking that out. Here's an image from it from Wikipedia (where else?)

I am vastly under-qualified to explain it so best to check it out for yourself but essentially "A fractal is generally "a rough or fragmented geometric shape that can be split into parts, each of which is (at least approximately) a reduced-size copy of the whole." Suffice to say: it is cool!

In the program a physicist by the name of Nathan Cohen was interviewed. He was a Hammer (a Ham radio enthusiast) and a professor at Boston University in 1988. His landlord forbid him to put up an antennae on the outside of the building. By chance, Cohen went to a lecture by Mandlebrot and became intrigued by this work. Long story shorter, he went home and pondered the problem of the forbidden antennae and decided to try something out on his own. Instead of taking a line of wire, he took that same line and bent it to look something like this:

It worked. It worked better than a traditional antennae. It worked so well he continued to explore it, and in the mid 1990s obtained a patent. His work has contributed to the evolution of cell phones. You can read more here.

What has an image of a person doing the yoga tree pose in the middle of a 'beach' in the middle of a desert, have to do with fractal geometry and a man who was told no, and took the no and moulded it into something exceptional? I cannot explain why to you in words, I just know it does. I also know that when we are confronted with no's and cannot do's, with apparent limitations in our perceived physical realities, that inherent in this is a great, big, fat uncollected blessing. It is unknown, and it may seem perilous. But it is full of possibility.

They Fledged On the Full Moon

This was taken a few days before, with mama delivering a nice bug

to one of her three chicks.The full story coming soon!

Independence Day

On July 4th Parlez and I went exploring in the trees. It been a while since I'd played with him and my camera. We had a lot of fun.

Here he is doing his Cheshire Cat impression.

As I craned my neck upward he said to me

"Mama, guess what?"

What, Parlez?

"I can see Russia from here."

Really?

"Nah, not really. That's one of the dumbest things I've ever heard."

Wonder and One Blue Eye...

Seahorse in the desert. ©2008, Elsa Kendall.

A little point and shoot close to the glass and this guy and I had a very nice interaction.

His eye is about the size of a pin head.

I love these marvelous creatures and feel blessed to have spent some time with this one

and his tank mates. Click on him and you'll see more eye to eye. Magic... Whimsey...

Julia in the Raw

Photo from National Geographic's website. Click here to go see, and listen.

I just found this blog through a google group for the pure and wondrous doTerra essential oils. Julia has some amazing recipes for green smoothies (blech, you might say, but they look surprisingly good ;), and various other inspirations.

Her latest post shows a prairie dog praying/contemplating, with a quote from Terry Tempest Williams' latest book, Finding Beauty In a Broken World. I'm currently reading and loving this: I've spoken about Terry's work before on Bird's Eye View. Click here to see this dear photo of the prairie dog, and read a brief excerpt from her book.

Seeing Into the Life of Things

"With an eye made quiet by the power of harmony, and the deep power of joy,

we see into the life of things." –William Wordsworth

Photographed at the Birch Aquarium, Scripps Institute of Oceanography,

San Diego, California. ©Elsa Kendall, all rights reserved.

Going For It

The roof. Would you jump onto this? I would not. But from what I've heard a rather large bobcat did. 

It must have been a good 60 lbs., mousing around the other night. 

Parlez and I shared a few raised eyebrows as it creaked about above us :)

What the hec... Should I jump?  I think I should just go for it. Snowy, icy roof here I come.

Yikes! Getting there was no problem. Getting back, however, is a wee bit more slippery.

Back down on terra snowa. Safe and sound.

Christmas in Yellowstone

I saw this on PBS and wanted to share it with you. It's beautifully photographed and written. Linda Hunt narrates it. The hibernating mama grizzly bear, the hunting red fox (below), all just incredible.

You can find it at this link, and perhaps still see it this week.  As I write this our own snow leopard (photos coming) climbs onto my lap.  

Merry Christmas. Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow. 

Morning Glory Looking Out At The Snow

A while back this morning glory seed made headlines when it sprouted and began climbing up the avocado plant (here). It kept going, and going, and going, and recently started blooming. Here you can see one of the blooms sitting snug inside on the table, wide eyed, looking out at the falling snow.

Male Northern Flicker Stays Toasty

Male (with red "moustache") Great Northern Red Flicker

I was passing by the north side of the house and caught sight of this little guy through the screened window. It is so rare for me to see them "sitting", but this young male (it seems to me he is) Red Flicker was just hanging out endeavoring to stay warm. He was all puffed up and stopping for a bit before he began to tip some snow flakes into his beak for a drink. 

Earlier in the day I was watching the snow in the little woods behind the house and saw several Flickers flying from pinon to pinon. Such majesty. I just love these birds. As you can see from the video here...

I can see why wildlife photographers love those 300 mm lenses (I was at 200 mm shooting at 800 ISO). And not shooting through dirty windows with screens :-) But I just loved that I got to watch him for so long. More shots of him digging in the snow soon.

Gift from the Flowers

What you are seeing here is nectar from thousands and thousands of flowers, collected from hundreds of bees then miraculously turned into honey and stored in perfect wax canisters called honeycomb. Amazing. 

From my friend Tom's hive during a honey harvest in August.

Lesser Goldfinches Hold Their Own with the Siskins