Friday Fotos started about 20 years ago, with an image attached to an email. Some simple shot of nature, close to your feet to add a bit of brightness to the end of the work week. The IT department eventually complained that the images were taking up too much server space since I worked with most of the folks who got the weekly image. That directive started a website. The images and stories grew.
Juvenile Bald Eagle
When we moved to our new home last year, we explored new places nearby for walks. What has become a favorite is a small forest preserve not a mile away tucked in off a side road. Few people visit, and we can usually let Chance off leash to run the trails. A couple weeks ago, a young bald eagle kept flying ahead of us from tree top to tree top along the river.
Last Friday, soon after posting my Sandhill Crane images, Chance and I got in the car to enjoy the first snow of the season. The long lens came along with hopes that the eagle would still be fishing the river.
No eagle was found. The woods were very quiet with not many birds at all. The snow and leafless trees presented a monochrome scene with some occasional gold from the prairie grasses. Peaceful and simple.
Then fluttering in the trees, and some songs, and color. A simple American Robin. And then some more.
Soon there were more robins than I’d ever seen in one place. Dozens flying through the trees and not one would pose for a picture. I walked down to the river where several gathered in a bit of open water that hadn’t frozen over yet.
They bathed, and drank, and played. It snowed. Chance played. I watched and heard robins all around. The only sound and color in the woods.
For most of us, there is only the unattended
Moment, the moment in and out of time,
The distraction fit, lost in a shaft of sunlight,
The wild thyme unseen, or the winter lightning
Or the waterfall, or music heard so deeply
That it is not heard at all, but you are the music
While the music lasts.
From The Dry Salvages, T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets
Time for Chance and I to go for a walk in the woods.