Chic Chick . . .

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The Italian politician Berlusconi has been in the press a lot lately because it is alleged that various people provided young women to serve the role of escorts for him at his lavish parties. They chased up chicks for him, apparently. I hope I won't be accused of anything similar for having offered up this sexy and fashionable most chic chick for the rightly revered Mr Springman's perusal at his World Bird Wednesday party, going on right now. May have to get myself a red leather jacket and some big necklace type jewelry. As for this chick, I had to go all the way to the south of France to find her. And though she may not be a spring chicken, she could now be considered a Springman chicken. Enjoy ! Just imagine how good she'd taste after a spell in your oven and laid out all saucy like on your lap ? Errrr, on your plate, I meant. (sorry, guess I'll just pluck off now...)(please don't henpeck me too much for this momentary lapse of reason)(and don't call me a turkey either !)
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The Moon that Wasn't . . .

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Let me start by saying that for whatever these may be worth, this is my submission over at James' Weekend Reflections, which if you haven't been there lately, is a happening place. There are usually well over one hundred entries each weekend, reflections from all over the wide world to peruse.
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Having said that, sometimes you set out to hunt a wild and mythical bird of epic proportions, and all you come home with is a duck. The Grenouille and I went out this evening to find a good vantage point to observe, and hopefully photograph, the full moon rising, which if you've been keeping up with your current events, was to be a full moon of grand proportions tonight, if it could be seen close to the horizon. There is an excellent explanation of the intricacies of the moon's exceptional state this weekend over at Travels with Persephone, which is worth a visit more than once in a blue moon.
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We were out in time to see the sun setting over one of the stretches of water near the Chateau de Chantilly, but the entire eastern horizon was obscured by a bank of clouds and haze rising up so high that there was no way we were going to get a glimpse of the full moon at perigee close to the horizon where it would appear at its largest. Oh well, we came home with a sunset to treasure, a duck, and a duck reflection. So it wasn't entirely a wild goose chase.
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The Birds . . .

Photo taken in 1987 near the Susquehanna River as a massive flock of gulls took off from a field. I guess I liked the way against the ground backdrop they show up white, against the sky the silhouettes are black. In any case, I got my umbrella out as they flew over, and was hoping they had not heard about Alfred Hitchcock's movie. . . as there were a heck of alot of them, and only one of me. . .
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Now entered in The Pine River Review's wonderful World Bird Wednesday... December 2010... a time warp may have occurred with all these gulls flapping up a storm...
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