Notes:
- Photo: DK with Great Blue Heron @ Daybreak. 5:55 a.m. 70° F. Cove Island Park, Stamford, CT. Other photos from this morning’s walk here.
- Post Title from Siegfried Sassoon’s poem titled: Falling Asleep
TGIF: the herons…; and the world I’ve known; all fading past me into peace.
August 26, 2022 by 29 Comments
Walking. Day After Tomorrow.*
July 5, 2022 by 36 Comments
4:25 a.m. I’m off. 791 consecutive (almost) days (like in a row) — my daybreak walk at Cove Island Park.
Never could read a map, coupled with a lousy sense of direction. But, I could feel it. A gentle breeze from some direction at 5 mph. Just enough to keep the pesky gnats from feasting on me.
65° F. Breezy. No humans. Quiet. A perfect morning.
Yet, despite this magnificent start, I should have known. It was still dark out, but it got darker, fast.
I pull into the parking lot, turn off the ignition and sit and look around me.
Plastic forks and plates. Plastic Bags. Cans. Bottles. Disposable hibachi charcoal grills, empty charcoal bags. Face masks. Soiled diapers. Potato chip bags. Remains of potato salad. Toys (broken). Cans of empty pork and beans. Watermelon rinds. A total desecration of a place that should be sacred, hallowed ground.
I stare out of the windshield, pondering whether I should just fire up the car and head home. Sigh. This is all in full alignment with the documentary last night.
Eric tuned into a Disney documentary on a family of sperm whales in Dominica, with spectacular underwater shots of the gentle creatures, mothers’ nursing their babies, the click, click, click of whales communicating with each other. And all of this magnificence threatened by discarded gill nets, hits from boat propellers and swallowing toxic plastics thrown overboard.
So the nerve receptors were switched on high as I’m taking in the parking lot scene. Like Alice Walker in “Moody” in “Her Blue Body Everything We Know“:
I am a moody woman
my temper as black as my brows
as sharp as my nails
as impartial as a flood
that is seeking, seeking, seeking
always
somewhere to stop.
Enough DK. Let it go. I’m sure this mess is due to park overcrowding after 2 years of COVID quarantine and a shortage of garbage cans, or… raccoons tipping trash cans. Has to be. [Read more…]
Walking. In Pursuit of Stalker.
July 2, 2022 by 42 Comments
4:40 a.m. Daybreak walk at Cove Island Park. 788 consecutive (almost) days. Like in a row.
Yesterday, Eric (#1 Son; #1 on most days) and I were at the kitchen table having lunch. Popeyes Spicy Chicken Sandwiches (and Cajun Fries). If you haven’t tried it, it is absolutely the best. (And yes, it easily tops Chick-fil-A, Shake Shack, McDonald’s and Wendy’s. I know.)
Now, what isn’t as easily digested, are the calorie counts. Chick-fil-A @ ~ 500 calories. Popeyes sandwich tops 1200 calories. Add 800 calories for the fries, and what you have here is FDAs maximum calorie intake for an entire day, in a matter of < 10 minutes.
So, I step on the digital scale this morning…flashing, flashing, flashing, measuring, measuring, measuring, weighing, weighing, weighing…an interminable wait, that couldn’t have been more than 2 secs,….Then boom it locks in: + 2 lbs, day over day. WTH!
Mind races through yesterday’s meals. Ah yes, Popeyes. Plus, 1760 mg of Sodium in the fries. Another 1460 mg of sodium in the Chicken Sandwich = 3220 mg in < 10 minutes, a whopping 1000 mg over what FDA recommends daily.
That’s what we have here. An, old, fat, nearly retired, giant Salt Lick. Disgusting. Disgusted. So, was it worth it? You work so hard to cut weight and then blow it all up in < 10 minutes of food porn lust.
I think about this while I’m standing on one leg, balancing, wondering if I have another 5 years to live. Yep, I’d have Popeyes again today for lunch, identical order. Saliva builds.
So, back to yesterday’s lunch. Eric tells me that his Buddy was chatting with a friend of his who happened to mention that she walks at Cove Island Park each morning to catch the sunrise. Buddy proceeds to tell her about his best friend’s Dad and his daybreak walks at Cove Island Park. Eric, continues, “I think she said something like: ‘You know, I see this older guy at the park every morning. Backpack. Camera gear. Doesn’t ever say anything. Really keeps to himself. Strange guy.'”
“She said that? Exactly that?” [Read more…]
Sunday Morning (Images that stick)
June 26, 2022 by 17 Comments
Notes:
- Backstory on Human Sleeping on Bench: “Walking. With Moment that Sticks“.
- Geese swimming in a row. (“Ducks in a Row“)
- Last Photo Inspiration: “I want to believe that if humans really leaned into this impulse to mother one another, it would be stronger than the impulse to tear one another apart.” — Mary Laura Philpott, Bomb Shelter: Love, Time, and Other Explosives (Atria Books, April 12, 2022)
- Photos: DK @ Daybreak. 4:40 to 5:07 am, June 26, 2022. 67° F. Cove Island Park, Stamford, CT.
Walking. In Strawberries.
June 16, 2022 by 31 Comments
4:23 a.m., or so. Yesterday morning.
It’s been 772 consecutive (almost) days on my daybreak walk at Cove Island Park. Like in a row.
And, I’m walking.
This is after moon shots at 1:43 am, 3:35 am, and now – – all posted yesterday in Let us taste the Strawberry Moon. Why, am I still up? Because Christie told me about the Strawberry Moon. And when my WordPress friends tell me to do something, I do it. So I chased her.
Who’s Christie? Mimi from her post last night: “There are people who I have followed (or who have followed me) on WordPress for years. Never met them, never spoke to them, and would likely not recognize them if we passed on the street. And yet, they are my friends…We commiserate in comment sections, check in with each other on email, rail at times, commiserate other times and occasionally marvel at our common ground. Ground that we walk in figurative step, covering invisible miles through the ether, yet as firm under my feet as the street. There is wonder in this.”
There is wonder in this. I’m nodding my head in agreement. Yet another awesome Human who can put into words, what I can’t, and so beautifully.
I walk. Bleary-eyed. Bone tired. Exhaustion fully set in.
I can see her out of the corner of my eye. She’s Giant, my Strawberry Moon, hovering, and whisper quiet as she hangs overhead, illuminating the earth in her warm glow. All, I’m sure, to protect me from taking a header as I make my way to the North point of the park.
I walk.
I twist my Air Pod snugly into my right ear, and then my left. I cue up a Chill playlist, randomly selected by another giant fruit, Apple.
I walk. My feet are moving under their own propulsion, on the same track that I have now passed hundreds of times. “Siri, turn up the volume.” Henry Green in “Shift” …I feel movements under my skin…” [Read more…]
Walking. With Moment that Sticks.
June 14, 2022 by 28 Comments
4:33 a.m., or so. You are so damn precise with your clock.
I pulled into the Cove Island Park parking lot, my headlights illuminated her…sleeping. Hold that thought.
It’s been 770 consecutive (almost) days on my daybreak walk. Like in a row.
I was going to share a different story. A running story. I page through the dates of my prior posts to find my last running post: June 6, 2020! MY GOD. It’s been 2 years! And, this back and these legs carrying 12 lbs more. Yep, I decided to lace up the shoes and run. 2 days in a row. My body is so tired, that it couldn’t lift my fingers to the keyboard to tap the words out. So, we’re going to hold this thought for another day.
Back to this morning’s walk. A spectacular morning. 60° F. 5 mph breeze. And it had the three elements of a perfect morning. 1) Low tide. 2) 30-60% cloud cover. 3) No Humans. So we have ALL of this going for us.
And I spotted my Swans, George and Grace, feeding.
And I spotted a black-crowned night heron, a mime, frozen in place; this morning’s twilight, the finest, lightest bulb, illuminating its thin, light white plume. “Weave, weave the sunlight in your hair.” — T.S. Eliot, from La Figlia Che Piange.
And then there’s my spirit bird. Plural, Birds. A flock of cormorants. Must mean that I’m going to have a great day.
And on the back side of my walk, I stalk a white-tailed deer, and snap a few shots of her. It’s a her I think. In this world of pronouns, I’m sure I stepped into it again.
So, you can pick any number of these moments, and hold them, for a moment, the day, into next week. Yet…one moment stands alone, higher above the rest.
It was 1 hour after I had first spotted her, and she was still sleeping, in the same exact position, undisturbed.
I’m going to remember this. [Read more…]
Lightly Child, Lightly
May 26, 2022 by 20 Comments
Notes:
- Video: DK, Cove Island Park, May 25, 2022 @ Twilight. 5:03 am. More photos from yesterday morning here.
- Post Title & Inspiration: Aldous Huxley: “It’s dark because you are trying too hard. Lightly child, lightly. Learn to do everything lightly. Yes, feel lightly even though you’re feeling deeply. Just lightly let things happen and lightly cope with them.”
Like the moon in the morning — all firmament, beautiful, about to vanish.
May 20, 2022 by 29 Comments
Notes:
- Post Title: “The way a deer emerges from a thicket is the opposite of a wound. Like the moon in the morning — all firmament, beautiful, about to vanish. Each morning I walk out my apartment & wonder what is going to become of me.” — Devin Kelly, “Deer on the Side of an American Highway,” published in drDOCTOR
- DK @ Daybreak. 4:58 am, May 20, 2022. 52° F. Cove Island Park, Stamford, CT. More photos from this mornings walk here.
Tuesday Morning Meditation
May 17, 2022 by 32 Comments
My first attempt @ video. Far from awesome, but that won’t distract from the beauty of these Atlantic Brants. I’m smitten. Cove Island Park @ Daybreak on Sunday.
723 consecutive (almost) days. Like in a row. And the Eagle has landed.
April 28, 2022 by 30 Comments
Daybreak walk at Cove Island Park. 723 consecutive (almost) days. Like in a row. And the Bald Eagle has landed. Picture quality: Blah. No zoom lens. But we’ll take it!
First live spotting in my lifetime. 6:16 am. 40° F, feels like 31° F. Cove Island Park, Stamford, CT. April 28, 2022. (Backstory: Walking. When the eagles are silent, the parrots begin to jabber.)
Sunday Morning
April 3, 2022 by 21 Comments
DK @ Daybreak. 6:44 am, April 3, 2022. 38° F. Cove Island Park, Stamford, CT. More photos from this morning here.
Without spring who knows what would happen. A lot of nothing, I suppose.
March 22, 2022 by 17 Comments
Notes:
- Grace (and George) building their nest. (Grace being named by my good friend LouAnn.)
- My Swan(s) @ Cove Island Park, Stamford, CT. 6:57 a.m. yesterday morning. 42° F. Other photos from yesterday morning here. Backstories on swans here.
- Post Title: Mary Oliver, from “Late Spring,” Felicity: Poems (via Alive on All Channels)
Saturday Morning
March 19, 2022 by 10 Comments
Symmetry (2)
March 11, 2022 by 31 Comments
Symmetry
March 10, 2022 by 20 Comments
Saturday Morning
March 5, 2022 by 23 Comments
Photos: DK @ Daybreak. 5:55 to 6:27 am, March 5, 2022. 25° F. Cove Island Park, Stamford, CT. More photos from this morning here.
T.G.I.F.
March 4, 2022 by 23 Comments
Sunday Morning
February 27, 2022 by 20 Comments
Tuesday Morning Big Stretch!
February 22, 2022 by 17 Comments
Just She, and then there were …
February 20, 2022 by 13 Comments
Went out yesterday afternoon in a flash winter weather advisory (a 20 minute snow squall / white-out) to be welcomed by another most pleasant surprise. Backstories on my Swan here.
Live & Learn 