May 31, 2007 by OrientSee.

Rosa rugosa or beach rose. After all the flowering shrubs and weeds, I thought that the bloom season was over. How could I forget these? These are at Belle Isle park but over by the entrance to Deer Island is a large thicket which attracts most of the bees in Eastern Massachusetts. Besides this color, there is a scent which will overpower your nose and lead to thoughts of romance. The bird migrations are slowing down as they all settle in to nesting and raising the young. It’ll be busy for a while until the long stretch of August nears and the reverse migration begins. The cycle turns on.

Ciao!

-Jorge

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May 30, 2007 by OrientSee.

A butterfly’s wings beat in the Amazon and snow falls in Hartford. Everything is connected to everything else. This snowy egret is intent on his breakfast but the ripples reach out beyond this puddle. Now they’re on the web and next? It seems silly but why not. I’ve been touched by strangeness and wondered how that happened. Enjoying the moment and it’s unpredictable quality, that’s the ticket. Each day on my walk, there has always been something to catch my eye, bewilder my ears or tantalize my nose. I can’t look too hard because it is the surprise that is the delight.

Ciao!

-Jorge

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May 29, 2007 by OrientSee.

It is easy to blather on about slobs and ugly city life but then you’ll see a personal touch. Right on the edge of the marsh, some one planted these iris. The dried out weeds and the bold color of the iris suggest a sense of Ikebana, a formal arrangement of natural elements in a sort of physical haiku. Less done, more wonder. It’s tiresome to see the dumping and thoughtless trash. Some one planted these flowers to be seen and they have my thanks.

Ciao!

-Jorge

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May 28, 2007 by OrientSee.

Aishwarya Rai, Isabella Rossellini, Claudia Cardinale. They all mean nothing to me now that she has flown into my life. She is a female cardinal and my new heart’s delight. Not only is she beautiful but magically, I found her on the T. Outside Suffolk Downs T stop on the Blue Line, there is a planting of spruce trees and there she was. This was just a short while after I watched an angry Peregrine Falcon fight it out with a crow who wished he’d never flew over that part of the marsh. It’s all beginning to sound like a cheap boxing movie, beautiful woman and a scrappy contender and it all started with a walk in the marsh.

Ciao!

-Jorge

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May 27, 2007 by OrientSee.

In one of the many thickets in the marsh, there stands this impressive Celtic column. Eerily carved and standing nearly ten feet high, it is a sight. Of course, it’s a dead tree covered with fungus but it does look the result of an ancient druidic rite. Some trees in Belle Isle are actually not very strong and a storm driven wind will snap off the tree not at the bottom but half way up. There are plenty of these strewn through the thickets but few are so ornamented by fungus as this one is. It is a dark arresting vision. Another stranger face of nature.

Ciao!

-Jorge

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May 26, 2007 by OrientSee.

This very handsome dude is a Cedar Waxwing. It’s frugivorous. It eats only fruit which means that it can get drunk from eating fermented fruit. There really isn’t much in the way of berries and fruit around so I’m curious what it is eating. Today I got up and out early which meant that the birds were more active. I’ve a new personal definition of a good day. A good day is day in which you see a Baltimore Oriole (and a Cedar Waxwing). An even better day is to see a Tricolored Heron as well. That’s the kind of day I’ve already had. We’re off to a barbecue and all’s well for at least this day.

Ciao!

-Jorge

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May 25, 2007 by OrientSee.

Look at this handsome couple. They agreed to come to my studio and pose for a portrait. Mr. and Mrs. Anas Rubripes. They were a big surprise to me. I stumbled upon them and they looked me over and agreed to ignore the obnoxious biped. I pretended to not see them and kept on walking. I couldn’t believe that they were still there and whipped around to take a picture. They still ignored me even though I was within 20 feet of them. Mallards would have taken off at first glance and complained as they took off. These two just sat and sat. I should have stayed and chatted them up.

Ciao!

-Jorge

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May 24, 2007 by OrientSee.

A different sort of image. These bars are meant to keep people from climbing into the T station at Suffolk Downs. When nobody is looking, the kids go over the top very easily or better yet, they squeeze through the vertical bars beneath. These barriers are very effective in keeping us older types out but then we seldom climb over fences. On another note, on my walk today out through the thickets to the marsh, I thought that I had wandered out into the jungle. Every where the little yellow guys and the redwing blackbirds were carrying on. It was actually noisy out there. All it lacked were some monkeys swinging by on vines. The place was just jumping but I couldn’t see anything except for a microsecond or two. It was very frustrating.

Ciao!

-Jorge

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May 23, 2007 by OrientSee.

Someone has tried their hand at grafting and it looks successful. I’ve never actually seen this before. I know that most of our fruit, especially grapes, are grafted onto rootstock. This isn’t a backyard though. It’s right next to the edge of the marsh in a nice grassy stretch known as the Feeders (Easy guess why?). My guess is that it’s some sort of ornamental cherry. This is not far from the Osprey platform where there was some action today. A third osprey was driven off by the resident pair. One of them has been on the platform all the time lately which strengthens my hope that they are breeding. That would be so cool.

Ciao!

-Jorge

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May 22, 2007 by OrientSee.

Today the air was bright and full of scent. Part of that is because of these flowers. The bushes are scattered throughout the thicket out to MarshHenge. The small birds and the bees are bouncing off the leaves and there is movement everywhere. It is idyllic. I wish it were possible to have a porch out here. Not a house just a porch with a rocking chair. It might get boring to sit out on that porch but I suspect that would take a long time to happen.

Ciao!

-Jorge

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