Journal of a Sabbatical

June 20, 1999

outside

June 20, 1999
Blithewold
double-crested cormorants
great egret
goldfinch
great blue heron
northern mockingbird
common crow
American robin

Today's Starting Pitcher: Pedro Martinez

Pedro's Strikeouts: 10

Reading: none

Slater Falls

We had high expectations for the modern dance performance at Slater Mill, but after about 20 minutes of watching the performance I couldn't get over the idea that I was watching an aerobics class. Boring. Boring. Boring. We walked around taking pictures of Slater Falls and discussing what to do instead. Nancy finally suggested driving to Blithewold. I love Blithewold with all its different gardens, its ruined stone boat house, the arboretum of exotic trees...

Egret and Cormorant on Piling at Blithewold

We walked down the path directly to the ruined stone boathouse, where we sat on the steps and watched the bay lap against the shore. Sailboats glided by. People swam. Cormorants cruised by at low altitudes looking for fish.

It was hot and I started to want to go swimming, but of course I didn't happen to have a bathing suit with me.

We walked along the bay from the boathouse to the place where we always see a zillion cormorants and one great egret sitting on pilings from an old dock. Sure enough, there were zillions of cormorants and one great egret. The scene looks like a Japanese woodblock print. Every time I see it, I tell Nancy I wish I could learn to paint just so I could paint that scene.

In the Water Garden

We turned onto the path to the Japanese water garden, hoping to encounter the frogs we found last time. As we got close to the pond a great blue heron took flight right in front of us. He obviously had thought he was going to have the pond all to himself. No wonder the frogs had gone silent. They didn't want to be heron food.

The water lilies were in full bloom, as were irises, and several different pink flowers I don't know the names of. We sat on the bench and took in the colors and scents of the flowers and the songs of mockingbirds and robins and one goldfinch. The frogs never did start singing again. They must have been on heron alert.

A gang of mockingbirds was mobbing a crow on the main lawn making quite a ruckus. Everybody who came down the path turned toward the lawn to see what was going on. Eventually the crow escaped with only one mockingbird in pursuit, whom he then lost in evasive action.

The Blithewold grounds close at 5:00 PM and even though the ticket lady said we could stay 'til dark, we walked back to the car through the rose garden and drove back to Providence. I dropped Nancy off at home after our dinner at Taste of India and very reluctantly drove north to my house.