Day 4956: A Beautiful Family & Owlets sleep face down.

"Cautious": junk collage, ink, digital.

                                                                       

  

Want music?

    Click: Lauren Hill, Can't Take My Eyes Off of You.

2GN2S

One of the many benefits of being a teacher is the friendships and bonds made with students and even parents. Teaching Karate meant a longer time together than when I taught public school and college. Recently I got a text from Louis, a student from 2004 and another of my favorite people on this planet. It said ...

I replied ...

 

Louis, Lola Mae, Eloise Delmar, Emmy Louise, Katie.

Eloise Delmar, age 5.

I asked Eloise if she like dolls? She said she loved dolls. I said, Well, I have a doll that I made that I think might want to go home with you if you like her? She did. I always liked this doll and never thought of giving her away, until I met Eloise Delmar.

Eloise & Miss Fairy Poo

Louis, Lola Mae and Emma Louise, 6 months.

Lola Mae

  Emmy Louise

         

What a joy to spend time with this beautiful family. And, how kind and thoughtful of them to share some time with me. I smile every time I think of it. Thank you, Katie, Louis, Eloise Delmar, Emmy Louise and Lola Mae!

  

Baby owls do not sleep upright like the calm, watchful hunters they will become. They collapse face down across branches like tiny skydivers frozen mid-fall. But the reason behind that strange posture is surprisingly simple. An owlet’s head is enormous compared to the rest of its body. Inside that round fluff sits the equipment that will one day make it a silent predator: oversized eyes built for darkness and a brain tuned for precise hearing.

The problem is that early on, the neck cannot handle the weight.

Instead of perching like adults, young owls sprawl belly-down across the branch or nest. Their heads tilt sideways just enough to breathe while they sleep. Gravity holds the rest of them in place.

Their feet still grip the bark with curved talons, anchoring the sleepy body while muscles slowly grow strong enough to lift that heavy head.

From a distance the nest looks scattered with little feathery pancakes.

Weeks later the posture changes.The neck steadies, the body balances, and the same chick that once slept face first into a branch finally rises upright, blinking into the forest below. Even the most precise hunters begin life learning a slower lesson. First master gravity. Then learn the sky.

 

  

 

A 3 minute video,  Rose,  here.

 

 

Just because ...

Silver laced Polish Chicken

Friday's Smiles ... 

   

  

Hoping you feel all the good things in your day.