A Few Fall Birds

Eastern Bluebird

An Eastern Bluebird perched on a barbed wire fence; pure emblematic countryside. When I stepped outside my apartment this morning, I was greeted with temperatures cold enough to make my breath visible. Given the dry spell and recent high winds, it seems we may be deprived a maximal display of foliage fireworks this fall.

Eastern Bluebird

With the close of September, thoughts of warblers, vireos, and flycatchers begin to wane. The influx of Palms and Yellow-rumps today were a sure sign I'm seeing my last warblers of the year. It won't be until April or May before they return to Wisconsin's woods and fields.

Palm Warbler

Lincoln's Sparrow

My thoughts will shift to places where I watch and photograph sparrows. Returning to the prairie for another October is like adding to a collection of memories of past fall migrations. I'll be looking for old friends. Sparrows like Lincoln's, White-throated, White-crowned, and maybe even a Harris's if I'm lucky. Sadly, my slowly moving silhouette against tall grass fails to offer any notion of my warm sentiment. What do they think of me? Perhaps the expression of this ground squirrel sums it up nicely: "You again!? Meh." Although my co-worker Tom said it's asking, "Did you bring me a peanut this time?"

Thirteen-lined Ground Squirrel

"Beware the barrenness of a busy life."

-- Socrates

All images © 2009 Mike McDowell

Human Tetris on Skateboards

This ad for Freebord skateboards has skateboarders flying down the streets of San Francisco in the dark to connect glowing Tetris shapes.

Videos Chistosos

Videos Chistosos

Videos Chistosos

Videos Chistosos

Invisible Dogs

On Sunday the Improv Everywhere gang took 2,000 invisible dogs for a walk in the Cobble Hill area of Brooklyn. If you were anywhere within a one mile radius of the Bergen St. stop in Cobble Hill on sunday, you would have seen all types of folks very seriously walking their very silly dogs.

A Brooklyn factory that actually manufactured the novelty gifts in the 1970s was the meeting point for the prank and leashes were provided to the people who were participating.

Something in the Water...

sweet angel slippers via oeuf

No I’m not pregnant (and for the record, I have no plans to be), but it seems like everyone I know is.

My sister Jennifer is pregnant, as is my friend Lucia + my best friend Achlee and my other best friend Stacy are both pregnant… And there are loads of blog friends are with child – there’s Jora, Jenn, Kristina, Gabby (who has asked some of her buddies to share their pregnancy memories this week over at Design Mom… you can peek at mine here.)

Despite two rather uncomfortable pregnancies, I loved the entire experience of being pregnant. It’s a pretty amazing, life changing, unbelievable thing…but that goes without saying I suppose.

So congrats to all my lovely friends! Can’t wait to help you love up on those new babies.

And just for fun, a few of my favorite baby things of late...

Baby bean bloomers and top via little bean

Gorgeous Bookhou mobile

Nina's lovely personalized plates... This to me is the ideal new baby gift -- artful and meaningful and unique.

Oeuf's hand crocheted butterflies

Dark Star - Alan Furst

Awhile back a friend of mine who used to work in the publishing industry recommended that I check out books by Alan Furst. He said Alan Furst is who I should turn to for good historical fiction/spy novels/war novels/etc.

So I borrowed his copy of Dark Star. It's a good spy novel but a bit overwhelming because it's so heavy on the history...and I was a history major in college!

The story takes place pre-World War II, in 1937. Andre Szara is a Polish-born journalist working for the Russian newspaper Pravda. While just doing his job, he gets coerced into working with the NKVD (Soviet secret intelligence). Setting up base in Paris, Szara becomes pretty much a spy for Russia. He travels across Europe as a spy and a journalist, enlisting the help of an agent in Berlin with whom he develops romantic connections.

Ok. So a spy novel. But Furst knows his history...sometimes a little too much. But I loved the cloak and dagger feel of the book and the time period was just crazy. I can't imagine traipsing around Europe right before WWII.

I'm going to definitely check out his other books. I recently won another one of Furst's books, The Spies of Warsaw, over at Medieval Bookworm so I'll let you know how that one goes.

You can preview Dark Star over at Google Books to see if it's something you might want to check out.

Have you read any Alan Furst novels or other good spy novels?

Ferrari F1 Car Made From Clothes

This cool life-size Ferrari Formula 1 car was build by PUMA retail team out of nothing more than Ferrari branded clothing, caps, shoes and bags.