Crunchy ‘Nanas

I’m not big on sculpture inside museums. But, I am fascinated by sculpture integrated aesthetically outdoors. (I’m not into anything that looks too industrial.) We dropped by the Yorkshire Sculpture Park on the way to a christening up north last weekend and found some interesting new (to us) installations. I am not so sure how I feel about the random hare people, but the Deer Shelter? Pack me up a sleeping bag and camp stove because I could live there. As long as the sky is blue anyway… I didn’t read any signs, I just walked into the structure built into the hill, and the shock of light and sky blew me away.

John Turrell, Deer Shelter

John Turrell, Deer Shelter

Henry Moore

Henry Moore

Along the Access Sculpture Trail

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Now playing: Peter Gabriel - Sky Blue (Martyn Bennett Remix)
via FoxyTunes

Crocuses, Kew Gardens

Turnstones

Sunset over the harbor

I am in a haze. A self-induced haze of jet-lag. I have a million words in my head that want to be said, but well, if I try they come out like this:

jellyfish family blog baby swim run sleep love home hope turkey. NEMO!

Somehow, my stream of consciousness doesn’t quite rival Toni Morrison’s in depth, significance and hidden meaning. Darm. I left that typo in because it makes me laguh. And that one too. Wow, I’m so good at letting things go when I’m loopy.

Happy Thanksgiving. (I finally remembered it is Thanksgiving.) I’m thankful for every beautiful thing in that list and more. Except, I think some jellyfish totally messed up a salmon stock in Northern Ireland. It’d help if I bothered to read the article…Focus, focus.

Happy Thanksgiving. Here’s a pretty jellyfish. They are in a tank in Monterey, so I know they didn’t have anything to do with the salmon here.

Peace.

The spiders have got my attention. As I poured my cereal yesterday, I glanced sleepily through the kitchen window. The sunlight was dimmed by fog but still strong enough to illuminate the dew on the many spider webs that have recently decorated our deck and fence. I ran back upstairs to get the camera and spent the next few minutes (thank goodness I hadn’t poured my milk) walking around my garden in my jammies. (I’m fairly sure there’s nothing I could do that would surprise the neighbors!) I think the spiders have been working hard so that I don’t have to worry about decorating for Halloween. (Not that that’s been a pressing thought lately.)

Then, while having a fascinating discussion down at Pegwell Bay on under-recognized ostracods, I caught sight of more webs and spiders spinning busily along.

This shot of the busiest spider actually came out relatively in focus. [No pictures of ostracods. They’re too tiny for my lens. Much smaller than their relatives I played with earlier this year. (Even smaller than my tiny day-old niece. I’m such a proud aunt!)]

SeaART 2007, an art exhibition put on by the Thanet Coast Project to celebrate the nature of the local coastal area, opens tomorrow. We went down to Margate tonight for the private viewing. I’m really excited to say my eco-running piece (featuring Crunchy husband’s backside) is displayed in the Community Pharmacy Gallery. The rest of my submissions, I hear, are hanging in the Old Lifeboatman’s Look-Out in Broadstairs harbour. We’re going to check that venue out on Sunday.

If you happen to be in the Thanet area, please stop in. There’s some good stuff, and we only saw tonight what is in two of the four venues.

Saturday, since the weather was surprisingly civil, we combined three activities into one excursion. We took an eco-run along Sandwich Bay to do my coastal survey. Because I’m a coastal warden, yo! And I love efficiency.

Crunchy husband in balance

What a man!

My large trash bags hid themselves cleverly in the depths of the backpack, so we packed as much trash as we could into the small shopping bags I had. We had to leave much behind, including this here land rover. Pushing this sucker out– now that would be a workout.

What a shame!

It was low tide, and the water was WAY out there. (Don’t let the sunlight fool you. You can’t really see the Channel waters in any of the pictures, except maybe along the top horizon.) It’s amazing how far out the water breaks at low tide. I am fascinated by the patterns the receding water leaves in the wet sand.

I am also, as ever, fascinated with my own shadow and now, after the cull, I have 34 new pictures of my constant companion. Gotta love digital, baby!

There’s no telling when this will actually get posted. My server’s been down for 26+ hours so far, and there’s no hope for an end in sight, save a “wow, I’ve never seen it take this long” from the customer support agent online. My patience is nearly at its peak here. I wonder if I chose the wrong web host. Hmmm…

As an itv commentator aptly put it Friday night, “no bombs, no drugs, no rain.” Just 189 pairs of the fittest legs on the planet! (Yes, I’ve got pictures of more than just Americans coming off the ramp. But, the Americans are the only ones I know without matching up image time to the start order. And Hincapie came third in the Prologue!)

Now, I’ve got to eat my breakfast so we can get out to Canterbury for Stage 1 of le Tour de France en Angleterre.

David Zabriskie- US National Time Trial Champion

George Hincapie

Levi Leipheimer