Hello Cleveland!

Tomorrow (Saturday Nov. 11) I'll drive northward up I-77 to exit 81, where I'll get on SR 250 to Wooster (again), thence north and west to the western 'burbs of Cleveland to give a talk to the Lorain County Metro Parks and Black River Audubon Society. It's been awhile since I've been to the Ohio north country and it'll be nice to be back up along Lake Erie. Hope to see some birds, especially waterfowl, on Ohio's only Great Lake. I'm counting on my buddy Gary Gerrone to show me a few sweet birding spots.

The actual talk is being held at the Carlisle Reservation in LaGrange, Ohio at 7 pm. My topic is "The Perils and Pitfalls of Birding," but I plan to start and end the show with a bit of music. Songs penciled in on the set list: "Far, Far Away," "These Days," "Tall Buildings," and "Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowbirds."

So if you're free tomorrow night and find yourself in north-central Ohio, stop on by. It's better than staying at home eating Funyuns and watching "Columbo" re-runs.

OK it's almost better than that.

Good For What Ails You

There are days when, try as I might, I cannot make words come out of my brain or fingers. Today I HAVE to get a bunch of writing done, but it's like pulling teeth. Grrrr.

Then I remembered an old medicine bottle I found and photographed in the basement of Aunt Toot's house (yes Julie has an Aunt Toot--I am not making this up) in Iowa this August and--you know what?--the stuff works! Just looking at the picture of the happy, clearly unconstipated family on the bottle helped unblock my brain. I've written three whole words in the past hour!

Better living through modern medicine.

Suet in the Morning

Female downy winks
white tail feathers notched with black
fat fueling her fire