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| A Family of Canada Geese |
I was looking through a collection of the year's photos in the paper the other day and I was shocked at the number of major, traumatic events that I had completely forgotten. They seemed years ago, and yet they happened sometime within the last 12 months. To say that this has been a tough year is an understatement. All of us feel dazed and tired, and no wonder. Our world has changed completely, and even if you're not struggling merely to survive or keep a roof over your head or feed your family, you also have had to develop coping mechanisms to deal with the stress of this constant state of emergency. We can't be with our family and friends. We can't do the things we're used to doing, like going to school and work. Our government is in turmoil. Nothing is normal. So people meditate or go running, or read lots of books, or watch everything on Netflix, or play music, or write, or knit or sew or cook. Whatever it takes to get through this. It's all better than "doom scrolling", which I have been guilty of quite a bit during this "Dumpster Fire" of a year. My personal plan has included lots of baking (I've definitely put on the Covid Extra 19), sewing face masks, and trying to stay connected to my family and friends online. But the most therapeutic practice for me has been to take photos in the woods and in my yard. This is an assortment of images from nature that have brought me peace this year. I hope they do the same for you. Let's hope for a better, safer, kinder new year.
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| Baby Phoebes on a Branch |
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| A Barred Owl Watches me from High |
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| A Turtle Basks on a Log |
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| Flowers on a Beautyberry Bush (Calicarpa americana) |
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| A Great Big (Blue) Fishing Spider in a Hollow Tree |
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| Black Rat Snake |
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| Bloodroot Bloom (Sanguinaria canadensis) |
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| A Brown Creeper |
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| Brown Thrasher Adult feeding its Young |
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| Butterfly Milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa) and a Milkweed Bug |
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| A Very Cold Cardinal |
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| A Gray Catbird Chatters from the Bushes |
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| A Flock of Cedar Waxwings Sunning in a Treetop |
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| A Chipmunk Scurries up a Tree |
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| A Monarch Butterfly Chrysalis With Shiny Gold |
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| A Column Stink Horn Fungus in the Leaves Looks like an Alien Being |
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| Cottontail Rabbit |
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| Vivid Blue Eastern Bluebird |
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| Eastern Meadowlark Stretches to Look Over the Tops of the Grass |
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| Eastern Phoebe with a Katydid |
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| Towhee Gives me the Stinkeye |
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| A Pair of Feathers from a Northern Flicker |
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| Fox in the Woods |
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| Tell me these Oak Leaves Don't Look Like Frog Feet! |
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| Frost Rimmed Leaf |
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| Full Moon |
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| Stunning Yellow Goldfinch |
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| A Great Blue Heron on a Frigid Morning |
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| Great Purple Hairstreak in our Butterfly Garden |
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| Green Anole with Blue Eyeshadow |
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| Green Treefrogs |
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| Hermit Thrush has Caught a Hornet for Lunch |
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| Horned Grebe with Fiery Red Eyes |
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| Carolina Jessamine After the Rain |
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| Jōrō Spider, Black Morph (solid black legs) |
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| Kingfisher |
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| Lacy Leaf |
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| Late Season Monarch Feeds on Salvia |
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| Least Skipper Feeding on Wingstem (Verbesina alternifolia) |
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| Frilly and Hairy Textures of Lichen |
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| Mantis Waits |
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| This is Not an Alligator (Made You Look!) |
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| Orchard Oriole Sings |
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| Pollen Rings on the Lake |
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| Raccoon Stares at me Through the Poison Ivy |
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| Red-headed Woodpecker |
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| Red-spotted Purple Butterfly Sucking Minerals from the Wet Sand |
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| An Early Winter Robin |
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| Fancy Rose-breasted Grosbeak Male Visited our Yard |
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| Ruby-throated Hummingbird Rests |
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| Scarlet Tanager, Bright Red Against Green Leaves |
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| Great Big Skink (Its front leg is just underneath) |
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| Snapping Turtles Have Interesting Eyes |
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| The Orioles That Visit Our Yard Didn't Care When it Snowed in February |
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| Pretty Little Song Sparrow |
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| Blue Spots and Yellow Strips on a Sulphur Butterfly Caterpillar |
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| Dozens of Swallowtail Kites Showed up Put on a Show at a Local Farm, Feeding on Insects |
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| Tiger Swallowtail and a Bumblebee Share a Thistle |
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| A Tufted Titmouse Has Found a Spider's Eggsac |
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| Metallic Woodboring Beetle |
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| Wood Thrush Sings and Sings |
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| Giant Leopard Moth Caterpillar Shows Red Stripes When Curled |
