Nose to the grindstone (tomorrow....)

Lately, frequent shifts from Grandma mode to scholar mode to walking-around-wetlands mode have been making my head spin. The other night I was telling my grandson a story about a wonky sock from Hackensack playing hackeysack on a donkey's back while listening to honky-tonk (because that's the way we roll) while an e-mail message came zinging through the airways to inform me that an article I've been fiddling with for three or four years has finally--finally!--been accepted for publication but could I please make just a few adjustments before resubmitting? If I'm not careful, wonky socks from Hackensack will be playing hackeysack in my scholarly journal article, which would not be the textbook way to impress editors.

And now I'm looking at the calendar and I see that in a few days June will be half over and so will my summer. Where has the time gone? To the birds, to judge from my photo files. I finally replaced my damaged zoom lens with a shiny new one and now all I want to do is go out looking for pretty things to photograph, but ack--deadlines! Mowing! Syllabi! And more deadlines!

What I need to do is stop gallivanting around and get to work. It's time to hide the camera, mute the wonky socks, and put in some serious hours with my nose to the grindstone and fingers to the keyboard. Right after I take a few more photos....

A very expressive field sparrow.

Fresh serviceberries? Yes, please!

The feeder is supposed to be squirrel-proof, but they didn't say anything about raccoons.

Enjoying homemade cotton candy at the three-year-old's birthday party.

Who could be blue with so much deliciousness around?

I heard this tiny grasshopper sparrow singing its heart out this morning.

These were taken with the new lens. I guess it works.