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It has been 7 days since I posted the photos of the baby robins, and now they’re ready to test their wings. I’ve noticed in the last days or so that they’re getting bigger and more active, and thought some of them might be ready to fly. I came home for lunch today, but instead of eating, I only had time to watch the mother and father robin feeding the baby robins, yes both were there feeding the babies and it startled me when both were there at the same time that I failed to capture the image. Needless to say, by the time I was ready to go back to work, those worms actually looked pretty good. The photos were taken from the inside of my house, if the mother and the father robin knew that I was watching, they would not come near the nest.
Updated 5/4/2008: I spotted the mother and one of the baby robins today in my backyard. It appears that the mother robin was trying to teach her baby how to find worms, and she was actually feeding the baby robin with the worms that she found. I’ve never seen anything like this before, I guess I never paid close attention to their behaviors, I thought after they leave their nest, that is the end of having to care for their youngins but it’s not like that at all. As I was watching, the baby robin walk off whilst the mother was busy digging for worms, when she looked up with worms in her mouth, the baby robin was gone, she was hopping around looking for her baby.
I’m glad that I decided to keep the robin’s nest, today I saw 3 baby robins sticking its heads out, mouths wide open waiting for food, the mother near by with worm in her mouth. The robin only nest twice a year, I would say this nest is safe from the crows because it’s facing my front window, and from the neighbor’s cat because it’s high enough.
[photos of baby robins one week later: Spreading Their Wings]
I could have climbed up and get a better shot of this but I didn’t want to scare the mother and the babies. As a matter of fact, these photos were taken from the inside of my house. Of course, this is a nice way of putting it, but I really have no way of getting up there, and climbing up the pillar is out of the question for me because I’m not such a good climber. At a time like this, I wish I have a zoom lens, since I don’t have one, there are many photos of baby robins at Flickr.
Above photo, Waiting for Number Three, photo by momofthreewi, these baby robins appeared to be snuggling with their third sibling while waiting for him to emerge from the egg.
The above and below photos are by S Pipczynski.
So robin nesting on a house can be a good thing, here I get to see the miracle of wild life. I think I might leave her nest there until the fall; she might use it again for her second nesting of this year.
Robin, photo by Shorter.chip
I think a zoo is a great place to spend your day, when I was little, my mom used to take us to Prospect Park Zoo in Brooklyn, NY, and of course a city zoo is very crowded, and there is not a lot of space for the animals to roam around. Often times it was a brief visit because the aroma is unbearable, but we always looking forward to our next stop, which was the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, it is within a walking distance from the zoo, and also within walking distance from our old apartment building.
The advantages of living in a country is the fresh air and open spaces that the city is lacking. I’m fortunate enough to have a nice zoo in my state, but unfortunate that it’s a bit far from my house, it takes me almost 2 hours but I think it’s worth it. My mom had visited this zoo twice, and she really liked it. My dad has never visited but decided to join us this time, partly because he has never seen it before, but I think mainly because it was a place that my mom had visited, and I believed that he must have missed her as much as we do.
One thing that I love about this zoo is the walking trail, there are 5 miles of paths and the views are breathtaking.
It was a nice day, so the animals are very lazy, talking about not having a lot to do. Whist I was walking around, I’m thinking about my oldest sister that has to work so hard on preparing tax returns for her clients, as today is April 15th, but by the time she has a chance to read this post, all the mad rush is over. This polar bear was taking a nap, nice pillow by the way.
Living by the lake has many advantages, for one thing, you have a million dollar Lake view from your window, and literally, that’s how much you have to pay to live in a lake access house depending on where you are, if not more. For most of us, it’s a luxury that we couldn’t afford, and it’s something that we can forgo, for some it’s a struggle striving to live a life of luxury, and for others, they simply belong there.
As for me, I was fortunate enough to set foot in one, and I do have to admit that it’s nice, but definitely not for me, it is a luxury that I can’t afford and can forgo. As I was driving around, I noticed that there are many houses in the area for sale, either by owner or by Realtor, made me think that many of these homeowners simply bought a house that they couldn’t afford, of course luxury does come with a higher price.
As for our area, we are still on water restrictions but the lakes are up to a normal level from what I can see, and as we travel further down south, as you can see from these photos of Lake Lanier that the water level is very low, you can see the packed red clay on the shore, obviously showing sign of a drought that is hitting hard in the Southeastern part of the United States. It was cloudy on Saturday morning, but the view is still beautiful and it rained later on that afternoon.
I think spring is here, as for me it’s obvious, a mother bird, a robin I think, built her nest on top of the pillar in my front porch. I’m not sure what to do at the moment, some people told me to leave it alone, and that it’s a Feng-shui house, which I’m not so sure about that, might be lots of bird poop in the near future. I guess if it’s a Red Cardinal, then it might be a different story because red is considered Feng-shui, as in red front door, which mine is black, but black front door is equally as good as a red front door, it has its place in Feng-shui. I’ll just have to wait and see the latest member(s) of my family.
Flower is another sign, I’m not sure what this one is called, but it’s a perennial flower that comes up every year around this time.
Below is a comment made by one of my readers, Bob on the post ‘Ideology of East Meets West’ that I think it would be great lost if only to be left in ‘comment box’ and I hope that you don’t mind me posting this (Bob) because I think it’s worth a post of its own. One of the greatest things about Blog is that we can share our experiences, ideas and sometimes reading what others have to say helps us to understand our situation a bit better. I think every comment is a contribution to a post because it takes the post to the next level, thank you all for commenting on this post, sometimes I feel like I’m just venting out my frustration…but don’t we all.
From Bob: I just wanted to share this song from one of my favorite artist with y’all. I heard it this morning on my way to school. I know I had taken the article of ‘Ideology of East meets West’ beyond what it meant & broadened it to a general view of things. (Hope I am forgiven by it). I like looking at the ‘big picture.’ Hopefully this song will reinforce what I had commented on this great discussion presented here (so far) by Nye.
Natalie writes the majority of her songs. That’s what I like about her. She was formally with ’10,000 Maniacs’ as their singer then went off to solo career. 10,000 Maniacs has not been the same since she left them. Why I like her music? All aspects of her music simply come together for me, as music should as I come to understand IMO. I love her lyrics most of all, and her voice simply gets the meaning across.
To put it short, this song’s main idea concerns with what we are doing to the environment…a comment brought in by Seiji as the consequence of our greed & continuous yearning for material things. The lyric, blend in with what we see in reality, bring a very haunting image to the mind of what will happen, or is happening. The second part where she speaks about the “five & dime queen” bring to mind Wal-Mart of all things. I think you know what I mean here.
This is Natalie’s take on the song:
“…the song is a desperate plea for innocence, to be ‘faceless, nameless, innocent, blameless and free,’ expresses a craving we all share now for the world we took for granted and lost. Suddenly there seems to be no hiding from our past as a nation or our present, or our future. For me it’s the death of nostalgia and dreams.”
Enjoy.
Bob:)))
“Motherland” by Natalie Merchant
My GI Joe sister was telling me about a plant that the flower only blooms once a year, she said that a Lao lady, her Laotian neighbor called her over when it started to bloom in September of last year, it started at 9 p.m, and was fully bloomed by midnight, the flower then died by morning, and the exotic blooms would be soup for the Chinese. The Laotians believe that it only blooms on ‘wan sin, 15 com’, which I don’t know how true this is.
It’s called Broad-leafed Epiphyllum Emiphyllum, also known as Queen of the Night, or Tab Hua kai Lei in Chinese. If I remembered correctly, I thought Salat wrote about this flower at LP forum that her mom has one, I’m not sure what it’s called in Lao, but I will find out. My GI Joe sister said that Lao people called it Dork Phoy Sien, and watching from the video is not the same as being there in person because of the aroma of the flower, when it opens, the flower sways back and forth as if it was breathing, I’m not sure if the one that she saw was so huge and it was heavy, she was there for 3 hours and feels as if it was alive, moving, and breathing flower. I think for plant lovers, this might be exciting to watch it blooms, but for some might not be, so don’t expect a rush of adrenaline when watching the Youtube video (time: 6.28 mins)
As I watch the Queen of the Night Flower blooms, a Cinderella Story comes to mind where the fairy godmother transformed her into a beautiful princess ‘with a wave of her wand, she turned Cinderella’s rags into an exquisite gown. On Cinderella’s feet were tiny glass slippers. “Remember,” the fairy godmother said, “you must leave the ball at midnight. That’s when the spell will be broken and all will be as it was before.”’ And sure enough, the flower starts to close its petals after midnight.
Most of us probably do not think much about death or funeral service, mainly because we do not want to…the fact is we have to face it one day, making that decision for ourselves while we are still living, or having someone else to make that decision for us.
When my American co-workers came to my mom’s funeral, it was rather strange for them to witness, mainly because it was a Buddhist funeral service and the monks performed the funeral service. My mom was cremated, so her ash was put in an urn and placed in Tadt (monument) at the Buddhist temple, this, some of my co-workers thought it was rather strange.
What I find fascinating and strange is the memorial reefs, it is a designed reef made of environmentally safe cast concrete that is used to create new marine habitats for fish and other forms of sea life. The memorial reefs is created by taking the cremated remains or “cremains” of an individual and incorporates them into an environmentally safe cement mixture designed to create artificial reef formations. The memorial reefs is taken to a curing area and then placed in the permitted ocean location selected by the individual, friend, or family member.
I learned about Blog Action Day through A Dialogue With K, on October 15th, bloggers around the web would unite to put a single important issue on everyone’s mind - the environment. My contribution to this day, a poem by Robson Grant called Door To Decision.
Photo by Underwater-girl, called River Crossing (Mekong River, Laos)
We come from a turbulent past
To an info-age moving way to fast
The fate of these lands
Is now placed in our hands
Will we bring destruction to an end
Will we have the power to mend
Save this fragile dreamland
Wash away our footprints in the sand
Global warming is causing weather changes right before our eyes
But we still blacken our skies
Sunrays take less time to burn our faces
But we still destroy our rain forests and just leave empty spaces
The men spill out of the factories everywhere
Punching their time clocks basically unaware
Don’t realize what’s happening to the big picture
The massive devastation of the atmospheric mixture
Every day go through their daily motions
Waiting it out for measly promotions
Distant stares and silent prayers
Monday to Friday . . . say goodbye
Our oceans are slicked with oil spills
Our waterways full of toxic waste that kills
We build our cities on mountains of pollution
Without an environmental solution
We live our lives in search of wealth
In the process damage our good health
Crime stories are found on every newspaper page
People loosing control in an uncertain age
The victims of greed are getting younger
In a world that still allows their hunger
Our petty problems make us hang down our heads
While million’s go unfed
Desire unfolds the light of our day
But we cannot give in to the subtle decay
We must rise above the haze descending
Toward mass action mending
We must take control of our actions today
or the children of tomorrow will be the one’s to pay
The new innkeepers shall soon take charge
of the next generation’s voyage at large
Trends are patterned and patterns trended
But man’s damage must be ended!
This post is for Darly, my GI Joe sister picked these Water Lilys for you. 
Water Lily Pond at Wat Lao Buddhavong of Washington DC July 2007
Related Posts:
Wat Lao Buddhavong of Washington D.C.
Art Works At Wat Lao Buddhavong
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