Photohunters: Birds oops I mean music

Well I jumped the gun. Next week is birds and this week is music. Thanks to Elaine for also being an early bird (I mean up to sing music), I found out my mistake. Since I have so many bird shots I've taken, I'll keep this post and add music at the top and show different birds next week. Below are my guitars.

I love birds and I love to photograph birds so this week's theme is hard for me (actually next week's theme). I have thousands of shots of birds. I thought I'd start with the tufted titmouse from late winter of 2009 which I photographed in my trees.
The bird shots can be clicked for enlargements. The one of the titmouse in the snow laden limbs below is hard to see without enlarging.
The next two shots are of the carolina chickadees in my garden, again in the winter of 2009.

I guess the one below is late winter/early spring although I'm never sure when one season ends and the next begins.

The male cardinal below cracked me up last spring because he's my state's (NC) bird and he was eating my state's flower (dogwood).

I can almost hear the brown thrasher below screaming because they have such an easily identifiable sound. That shot was early spring 2009.
I don't know what the mass of birds in the tree below are. The are fairly small and were up so high I wasn't sure which birds they were.
The mockingbird below is another type of bird which is abundant in my garden and which I enjoy.
I thought I should include a shot of birds flying around since that's what I envy the most in birds (their ability to fly).
I guess I'll end with robin redbreast although I've barely scratched the surface of the birds which make their home with me in my garden.
For more participants, please visit the home of the hunt where entries are posted beginning Saturday morning.

Nature Notes: No two days the same

Almost every day continues to be different from the last one.

Blue skies one day give way to gray the next. Rain gives way to dry. Temperatures are varying a lot too.

I continue to like the changes and it motivates me to walk on the clear days because I know the next day is as likely as not to be rainy.

I like the fluctuations in the temperatures too. Cool nights but some days have warmed up quite a bit.

I love the way the forsythia looks this time of year. I think of that bush primarily for its yellow spring flowers and forget how the leaves change from green to red and almost burgandy before dropping off.

I'm continuing to spot blue herons at the lake. This one was having some luck fishing but I didn't get the snap of a fish in its mouth.

On rainy days I've found myself photographing the view from my windows at home.

Even when the sky is gray and the rain falls, the colorful trees give a brightness to my window views.

It's nice though to have some bright blue skies too because the blue makes a nice backdrop for the colorful leaves.

Before too long all the trees that drop their leaves will be done and I'll be focusing on catching shots of colorful birds perched and easier to photograph without the cover of foliage.

For other participants of Nature Notes or Signs of the Season, please visit the host: Rambling Woods.

Today's Flowers: A mixed bag as November begins

In spite of much cooler weather, there are quite a few flowers still blooming. I decided to walk on the part of the Shelley Lake Trails on Saturday where there are a lot of wildflowers hoping that some would still be blooming. Alas, they have all gone to seed but I enjoy that sight too.

At my house the Sutters' Gold roses (thanks to a Arija for telling me their name when I posted some of the buds making a comeback) are blooming away. Some full, some nearly done for, and a few optimistic buds.

My favorite part of these roses are what a variety of blooms they have.

The buds I posted before don't look anything like the full blooms and spent blooms.

Another part of my garden has roses that are all done for the season except for the rose hips like the one below.

I've been following my last lavender bloom very closely. A week or so ago there was still a fairly full bloom.

As the days have passed it was still hanging in but becoming a little more bedraggled.

Yesterday the shot below shows how my lavender is done for the season, except that I can pick it for the dried fragrance.

My hydrangea has been past it's peak bloom for several months but a few of the blossom clusters still supply a bit of color. However, these were blue blooms at their peak and have now gone to a dull pink.

To view flowers from around the world, please go to the home of Today's Flowers.

Photohunters: Veterans/Military

The photohunters theme this week is Veterans/Military. At the NC State Capitol (Raleigh) on Union Square is a Vietnam Veterans' Memorial titled "After the Firefight" by Abbe Godwin. There was some kind of event taking place when I took the shot below, and there are people around it. You can click inside any of the following photographs for enlargements.
Another time I took a shot of the same memorial from the back which is pictured below. "The monument depicts two soldiers carrying a wounded comrade". Another memorial at the NC Capitol on Union Square is the North Carolina Veterans' Memorial which was designed by Richard Armlung. That monument honors NC Veterans who served in World War I, World War II, and the Korean War. The base features major battles from each of the wars and Lady Liberty is atop "holding a palm front to symbolize peace and victory".These photographs are all from my archives and taken at different times of the year which is why some have a lot of folliage and some bare trees. To find other photohunters, please visit the photohunt home where participants post starting on Saturday.

Dona Nobis Pacem - Blog Blast for Peace 2009

Dona Nobis Pacem! I was at a loss this year about what I wanted to do with my peace globe to personalize it and what I wanted to write about for Mimi's 2009 Blog Blast for Peace. Then it struck me that this would be a good time to highlight a foundation which brings me hope. There is so much to be depressed and discouraged about that sometimes I need to remind myself of the ways people around the world do connect for peaceful purposes. One such organization is Playing for Change - Peace through Music. From their site - "Playing for Change is a multimedia movement created to inspire, connect, and bring peace to the world through music. The idea for this project arose from a common belief that music has the power to break down boundaries and overcome distances between people. No matter whether people come from different geographic, political, economic, spiritual or ideological backgrounds, music has the universal power to transcend and unite us as one human race. And with this truth firmly fixed in our minds, we set out to share it with the world."I first found out about them from a wonderful video Stand By Me with musicians filmed singing and playing the song in different parts of the world. Since I've posted that video before and have seen it on other sites, I was going to embed a couple of other videos, although you can find them all at the playing for change site.

Unfortunately blogger isn't letting me embed the videos but I hope you will go to the links if you have time. They are both fairly short. First you can see a video about the music school the foundation built in South Africa for children. Next is a performance of Don't Worry Playing for Change . Also if you haven't seen the Stand by Me video before I strongly recommend it.

If anyone wonders about the photographs I scattered through this post, I had thought I'd be able to embed videos which would be my visuals. When that didn't work I just inserted some of my fairly recent photos. The one with mileage markers was taken at a park in Durham, NC, U.S. and it struck me how there were markers for places around the world.

Please visit Mimi Writes the home of Blog Blast for Peace on November 5. Dona nobis pacem.