What I saw while on a NE Portland Kerns Neighborhood Walk with Lamont, Sunday, January 5, 2014, No. 2

These three photos show a span about two feet wide along the top edge of this thick, moss-covered limb which is well over my head as I stand on the sidewalk, entranced by the sunshine lighting up first one cluster of ferns, then another.
 

The second part I wanted you to see, this other cluster of ferns with one curved up into nearly a silhouette against the streaky sky. When I checked it on the camera, I saw what I had to take the next photo of there on the left edge of the image.
 

You can see why I got excited when I realized that I could take a decent photo of this lone soldier, this fern all on its own, glowing in the sunshine. Thank goodness for my zoom lens.
 

Have you been wondering about the background above the limb in the first three photos? I certainly did as I checked out each photo on the camera's screen. Once I realized what caused it, I decided to take this photo of the sky and the myriad branches on the tree which splendidly blurred the background when I focused on the various ferns. You can see the ghostlike blur of green in two spots along the top edge of the limb--ferns as ghosts. I love it!

What I saw while on a NE Portland Kerns Neighborhood Walk with Lamont, Sunday, January 5, 2014, No. 1

The flick of a squirrel's tail caught my eye about two thirds of the way up a utility pole on the corner outside my apartment building--the two of us were headed inside to eat a bowl of homemade chili before Lamont walked back to his house in Southeast Portland. Quickly the squirrel stuck the landing after jumping onto the wire. I didn't get my camera up in time to catch that leap, but I did manage to capture most of its quick journey.

I wish that I had been able to get that photo. But even more, I would have loved to have photographed another squirrel that Lamont and I saw at the beginning of our walk. As we passed beside a slender, leafless tree, I heard a rustling sound to my right where Lamont walked. I asked him if he'd hit a low branch on the tree. He told me no, that he thought it was a squirrel. We both stopped, look back around at the tree, just in time to see the squirrel leap from that slender tree right across the entire sidewalk into the side of a thick hedge! Both of us laughed out loud it total surprise at what we'd seen.
 

The squirrel sort of leaped along the wire, heading west.
 

That bushy tail must help balance the little creature as it speeds along. It appears to be vibrating--look at that blur.
 

Easy to see how a squirrel can sort of disappear in the branches--coloring and speed play a part for sure. And no, the squirrel's legs haven't all of a sudden become longer. I quickly leaped from the wire onto that limb.



When it jumped back to the wire, it landed sort of out of balance for a split second before continuing on its way.



Little feet flying on that narrow wire high up in the air.
 

Quickly the squirrel scurried out of sight. Standing beside me on the sidewalk, Lamont asked if I got any photos of that quick trip and was tickled when I showed this last one to him. I told him that I thought I had enough to make a post called, "The Tale of the Tail." Pretty cool to get this series of photos in my neighborhood since I've seen few squirrels in the almost three years I lived here. And I wonder if it was the same squirrel who had vaulted overhead from three to hedge at the start of our walk?