More encounters with Nature

Today, just as I was arriving home from class, I found a finch rolling and flopping on the sidewalk. He seems to have a broken something, either wing or spine or perhaps even something neurological. I suppose he probably flew into a window.

I have always wanted to be like those girls from fairy tales to whom forest creatures flock* and, much to my delight, my moth adventure was somewhat in that vein. Unfortunately, though, the flopping finch was even more terrorized when I picked him up to move him under a bush. He quieted down somewhat after discovering that resistance was futile, and it was amazing to feel his heart beating under his soft feathers. His bones were so delicate, too. I wanted to help and looked on the internet for information about rolling/flopping finches but didn't find much, other than that bones must be set immediately and that I should call animal control. I figured that animal control probably doesn't care about a finch. I also figured that I'd give him a heart attack if I tried to mess with him too much.

I would keep him as a pet, except he's old enough that he'd probably hate me for the rest of his life. Oh, Nature...

Anyway, it is rather strange to have found two injured flying creatures in three days. Perhaps it is a sign?

*And I haven't quite given up on my plan to keep a carrier pigeon/owl in my attic this year...

And an update: I checked on him around 6:30 pm and he was nowhere to be found. I hope something hasn't eaten him and that he managed to fix whatever was amiss.

Eumorpha pandorus

I found a beautiful moth yesterday. It was green and cream, and very large--on the order of a several inch wingspan. I almost never see large bugs, though I know they're around, so it was pretty exciting.

This moth was fluttering about confusedly around 11:30 am, clearly not moth time. I followed him around for a while until he came to rest on the ground, and eventually picked him up to move him to another, less-trafficked, area. I then spent a long while looking at him (and expecting him to fly away) and talking to him. When I got up I realized that someone was sitting on the bench next to me and listening to me talk to said moth for several minutes. Oh well...

The moth was still there later in the afternoon when I came back, so I'm sure he wasn't well, though I never would have had the chance to see him if he were. (I am assuming this was a 'he,' though I know next to nothing about moths, and know even less about their possible sexual dimorphism. Somehow I think the females are differently colored. I am probably wrong.) He was soft, and wonderfully clingy in a way that small, live animals I try to pick up almost never are. They usually are squealing in paroxysms of fear, actually, and occasionally trying to bite me. But this moth didn't want to leave my hand, and though he was probably trying to avoid being eaten by some other creature it was so lovely to have an interaction with nature where nature wasn't trying to run away.

The moth made my day. It's always refreshing to see something existing so wholly outside of my world, with real concerns and not silly ones like organic chemistry. Which I will go study. Now. Well, maybe after I eat some cookies...



Sorry that the pictures aren't great, by the way. I took them with my phone's camera so the definition isn't superb.

Summer is a goin' out.

So. I have arrived at long last, and am ensconced in my attic sanctuary. I think it is about time for me to write a blog post, except now that I come to it I can't think of anything to say. I suppose, though, that having nothing to say forms the heart of many a blog, and perhaps I shall persevere in spite of it all. Besides, if I'm the only one to read this it shouldn't matter too much!

Yesterday I went down to school for my meeting with the director of the nondegree program. It was so strange to walk through campus and see so many people with so many unfamiliar faces, and to think about my own freshman year. Time has a strange way of telescoping, and yesterday began to run into many other yesterdays as I remembered meeting my suitemates, taking placement exams, and wandering around campus. How bizarre it is to grow up.

Tomorrow is the first day of school. And I don't even have a lunch box.

Endings, beginnings

Though this blog really shouldn't start until I start living there in September, Summer has begun and I haven't decided what to do with myself yet. Or--correction--I don't exactly feeling like doing what I know I should be. So, a preliminary post (with perhaps more to come) about a life that will soon be lived from the titular garret.

Today I'm at my grandparents' house in New York attempting to write an application essay (almost done?). Instead, I took a walk or two. It's probably the hottest day of the year thus far, with a high in the mid-90s. The light breeze made the slightly humid air feel like someone's breath on my skin. Not an entirely unpleasant feeling, but slightly strange--like an unsolicited intimacy. The chief objective of the walk was to find turtles, and perhaps a few frogs. I somehow latched onto the idea of a pet turtle, which is strange since I mostly like cats, and though I've resigned myself to the impracticality of such a venture I still wanted to see a turtle. I set off and managed to see practically every other common animal except the beast of choice: squirrels, cardinals, chipmunks, a rather large snake, untold numbers of immobile toads, fish, and golden-striped frogs. As I rounded the final bend I saw a few small ones sunning themselves on logs far out in the water, and far out of my reach. Objective somewhat attained I returned indoors. Later this afternoon I ventured out again in search of more turtles... and found this behemoth from the deep! Its shell must have been 1.5 feet long, with long tail and a neck which, extended, was at least twice as long as mine. It was in the shallow water by the shore so I watched it for a while, lying belly-down in the grass. When it came up to breathe I could hear the air rushing in and out of its nostrils. Strangely enough, its pace of breathing was similar to mine, though with longer exhalations. Its back was covered in a film of algae or some other fuzzy green material. It reminded me of the time my grandfather pretended to be a mythical turtle when I picked up the phone.

I didn't have my camera with me when I went out the second time, but I have a few pictures from my first walk.