Ever since i was a child,i was fascinated by birds,one time we even stuck feather on a friend and had him jump a few meter high wall,just to see if he can fly!



I turn to the bush and wild life when i need a break for the the shoe shop and bird watching i like, so last week i came cross this huge juvenile red tail hawk,the closest i ever seen one, of course i freeze and pretend that we didn't see each other, i reach for my point ant shoot quietly,i take a picture and the hawk flies not too far and sits on the sign, i follow through the marshy/muddy field to get closer,but the hawk hearing is very sharp,finally i had to leave him/her alone to let hunt some lunch.

Nasser

That is some red tail! Good shot.

Thanks for sharing,
Paul

Paul,

This is an exiting time for bird watchers, the skies are busy with some birds going south and some coming from the south to the north,The red tail above is all year resident in Toronto's Dan river valley which is an old marsh land and birds come to it,there was sighting of a juvenile bald eagle in my area, i heard they are nesting in north Ontario,so i guess he/she was heading south flying over lake Ontario.We get all sort of tiny colorful birds this time, finches and so forth and my binocular broke recently (stopped at one zoom)and no clue how to fix it.

Nasser

Nasser, all,

I am going to change the name of this sub-topic to include a wider range of "subjects." It will be called "the Shoemaker as Natural Philosopher."

Emmett

Nasser,

Your interest in wildlife around where you live is evident. Your photo of the redtail is very nice.

I thought I would post a few of my own photos although they tend in a little different direction...







I have many many more as this has been kind of an ongoing fascination with me. But this will do for now.

Tight Stitches
DWFII--HCC Member

DW,

Very nice pictures, artistic, the color on the blue flower looks unreal!

BTW, I like the new name better, it is more inclusive when it comes to things we find in nature.

Nasser

Nasser,

The Morning Glory was just as blue as you see it in the photo. Of course the light might have had something to do with its intensity...at some times during the day it would be more transparent.

Did you see the little orb weaver? I've shown that photo to several folks and they never noticed it until I pointed it out.

Here's a couple of more just for kicks...

We ran across this little fellow in Curacao. He come right up to my feet to steal some yogurt...yogurt!! What evolutionary pressures would cause a lizard to love yogurt?!




This next one is called an epiphillum (sp?). It is a big plant and the flowers are glorious. But after it has bloomed for a while a clear, thick, sticky sap drips down off the flowers.



Finally, I have this one photo of a sucre diefer...Dutch/Papiamento for "sugar thief."I tried and tried to get a photo of these but just couldn't get one to hold still long enough. all my attempts were blurry. They were all over Curacao but I didn't see any in the Yucatan.

These little guys would fly into the open air restaurants and land on the sugar bowl where sugar was kept in small paper packets (You've seen them, you know what I mean) to keep it dry in the humid climate. The birds would peck or tear open the packets and eat the sugar. usually not two or three feet from you. Maybe even at your own table. Birds know when you are looking at them, though and it makes them uncomfortable so even if you held real still they wouldn't stay long.

At Jaanchies (a famous restaurant) in Curacao, they solved their "thief" problem by putting out pans of sugar.



Tight Stitches
DWFII--HCC Member

DW,

I did noticed the orb on the flower,i spent some time watching this tiny artists at work weaving, it is a marvel to watch, i thought i could learn a thing or two from them, these weaves are only visible to the human eyes under a certain early morning light and different orbs (we also call them spiders)weave different designs, i have not figured out whether each orb can make different designs or have their own specialty.


Nasser Vies
HCC-Member

What about the shoemaker in literature? I was reading a book recently By Greg Iles called something like Black Cross. Grim concentration camp thriller, well writen. There is a pivotal shoemaker in that. Not sure this book is good for the mileage on your soul.

So the next book I read is quite by accident A Town Like Alice, by Nevil Shute. Someone gave me this collection of his stories and Alice is the only one I hadn't read so I needed to tidy that up so I can toss it. I am partial to his book No Highway, which concerns a doomed airframe; Trustee from the Toolroom, for it's metalworking content. Who knew there would be prisoner of war, and shoemaking content in Alice. Shute is mostly to clean and optimistic for modern readers.

I am stuck in some kind of rut here. Any more WWII books with prisoners and shoemaking I need to read?

After having been away for the last few months I thought I add these "before" shots. Many wonderful examples of the "after" may be viewed in the gallery.



Rob

Rob,

Welcome back,sorry to say this,but the dude in the bottom picture will make few good pairs of shoes.

Nasser

Rob,

You were more gone that I feel I've been. I know I'm not the only one to miss you. Glad you're back!

Are these pictures you took?

Paul

Nasser and Paul,

Thank you for welcoming me back, I still have a lot of catching up to do and don't have reliable Internet access right now. Don't be fooled by the photography, this little dude is barely 2 to 3 feet long. He needs to come across many more careless tourists before he will be usable for a good pair of shoes.
I did come across these life size specimens but don't know that their skins have been used for shoes.



I found the paws of this baby lion very interesting. They seem to be out of proportion to the rest of her body. Not that they need shoes but to see them up close and feel the padding was nice.


Rob

Rob,

You're keeping us in suspense.

And that lion cub looks like she's pinned down with that shaft of light.

Paul

Here are some pictures i took of this Great blue heron,most of you in states should be familiar with it and probably seen it,but this fellow comes to the Don river, the dirtiest river in Canada,close to where i live and work and bird watch,i felt bad about intruding on this heron,i usually see them feeding on the river shore early in the morning, too dark to take pictures,but this time, the great blue heron was resting in the sun and as i move closer the bird flew from land to branch and to where i could not see, but i managed to take some shots with my point and shoot, and sorry the heron for invasion of privacy.

I will try again.

Rob, Nasser,

I am really thrilled to see these photos you fellers have posted. It confirms my suspicion (and the writings of several other folks) that shoemakers just naturally have a deep and contemplative side.

Thank you for sharing with us.

I really like blue herons...I used to pick up feathers off the river banks and tie what is known as a "spey" fly for salmon and steelhead from them.

Good on ya...


Tight Stitches
DWFII--HCC Member

DW,

I thought you have a soft spot for nature and wild life,to be honest with you, ever since i started to look beyond humans and into nature/earth,i became a servant and a keeper to it,although i don't own an inch of it,i feel i earned my stay on it wherever i might be,the wild beasts in it,i try to befriend and surprisingly they all respond,but their fear of humans is so strong and justifiable,in short we inherited a perfect paradise that has everything we need in it,and every once in while,we forget that it is a trust in our hands and must be passed down to others hopefully in better shape than when we received it.
Within my short life,i have seen mighty kings become slaves over night and slaves become kings over night and villages erased and another built right on them.
There are more nature pictures where those came from, i have a good collection of the monarch butterfly, i thought it might be useful to study their color and the beautiful patterns for the western boot makers.

Regards
Nasser

Nasser,
Give me a couple more weeks but, I'll have a pair of boots you'll like.
Great photos by the way. I grew up a couple blocks from the Willamette river and herons were a familiar sight.
J.

Mr J Johansen,

Now i can hardly wait for those boots you mentioned, BTW, i am an admirer of your boot styles,if my memory is correct, you made some boots with birds on them, and i think you were taught by a good master,i will look up where in Oregon Willamette river is,i am a lover of rivers,born and lived near them all my life,i hope you still go back to rivers and thanks for posting a profile picture and hope to meet you in person one of these years.

Nasser

Nasser,
I still live a couple blocks from the river, now it's the Deschutes. Even though I'm only 15 blocks from downtown, ( Bend, Pop. 80,000) I have seen on quiet mornings, beavers, river otters, and one morning I even saw a pine martin take a drake duck right on the edge of the river.
In the middle of winter there is a pair of bald eagles down from Canada or points north and I always know it's really spring when the ospreys return and I hear the calls from the nesting pair that takes up residence a quarter mile from my house.
I look forward to meeting you some day also, and you are correct, I learned from DW.

To All,
I'm not sure if you all have ever heard this Albert Einstien quote before, but aparently he was quite the philosopher also;

" If I had known it would turn out like this, I would have been a shoemaker."
Cheers, J.

J Johansen,

I looked up in the map where you are and it seems like a magical place,i have not seen the west coast yet,i have many friends in BC, Bald eagle capital,This is indeed "the king of birds"i watched bald eagles raising their young's on live stream cam out of BC for few summers,An electronic co was putting them on as promotions, their food source is dwindling, but i heard some are seen in north Ontario, lake superior is good spot,they might have to switch from salmon to trout and i hope they come here and succeed,rumour has it,The fate of the nation(s) is the fate of this bird,the canary in the mine shaft,if you like.

Nasser

I thought I'd pick a couple of photos I shot at one of the local conservatory's last summer. It took a few tries to get them both sitting still, but these were the best:





Sorry about the image size- I liked to get up close.

(Message edited by erickgeer on March 26, 2009)

Wow Erick! That's close enough to give somebody the 'jeebees!

Great shots!

Paul

Erick, thanks for sharing those photos with us,i know how hard it is to shot a moving object, i had a similar experience trying to photograph butterflies,probably a little easier than the dragonfly.
Here are some pictures of the Cooper's Hawk,known as the blue tarter or chicken hawk,but this dude takes a lot more,it even takes fish,this is young one should be in middle US or further south in winter and they only summer in Canada,so here is hawk in January and still in Canada and taking one of my pigeons in front of my shop in an early morning,notice how it is looking at me on the second picture and the 3rd and me trying to get closer,but not to frighten the hawk,the pigeon still moving,but done with,there was blood on the pigeon neck,than the hawk flow with the pigeon in it's talons half way of the little residential street and me frozen with my mouth open and in awe.




(Message edited by dearbone on March 27, 2009)