Thursday, December 29, 2011

Yard Art...and Ultrarunning


[photo credit Gary]

The bride and I love to collect yard art, and like to think that we only have an eye for tasteful additions to the collection.

Fall is our acquisition time, as our favorite landscape supplier always knocks 30% off at the end of the season.  The owl is our latest addition. 

I want to call it whimsical but I've come to hate that suddenly-overused word.

Oh, and the link to Ultrarunning?  Down on the C&O Canal this summer I had one of my most interesting wildlife experiences.  I stopped to answer the call of nature one morning along the towpath, and just happened to look up.  There, on a branch directly above me, was not one, but a pair of barred owls, quietly observing me.



These guys can be large, as large as Great Horned Owls.  Had I not needed to pee, I would have run on by, totally oblivious, and missed that wonderful sight.  They watched me and I watched them until I quietly ran off, leaving them further undisturbed.

What were the changes of stopping under that tree at the right time?  The odds are vanishingly small, and I've never seen barred owls in the wild before or since. 

Every run delivers some prize, some gift, some memory, some knowledge.


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