So this morning started early with a chorus of caws coming from a storytelling of crows outside my bedroom window. Or should I saw a murder? Or perhaps a flight of birds? Or a dissimulation?
All good choices I suppose. Bottom line is it was very early and they were very loud. But as soon as I was truly conscious I was pleased that they were there. What a perfect way to wake up on a Halloween morning! With a show being put on by my flighted friends.
I have always felt this communion with crows. When I was a child for some reason I used to “talk to the crows” as I called it. I picked up their peculiar cawing call and would do it to attract them. Soon after I would start calling them they would show up and hang out on the telephone lines, listen, and join in. I sometimes wonder if I can still do it.
Well when my friends woke me up this morning I followed by waking my husband up by trying to snap pictures through the window. Once I realized how rude that was, and what poor pictures I was getting anyway, I slunk guiltily out of the bedroom and headed for the front porch. Unfortunately I didn’t manage any super shots. But I did get some interesting ones in the end that I thought I would share. Seems perfect for Halloween after all.
Behold the birds…
[Click to see larger images…but in this case might not help 🙂 ]
Nice pictures! I love how gray that is. That must have been very early?
I love collective nouns. I wish I could memorize them all.
The funny thing is, I let “dissimulation” breeze by in the text without taking full and conscious notice of it, as a collective noun. Then when I reached the end of the post I saw the labels. “Dissimulation”…is she dissimulating here? How so? Are there hidden motives and concealed truths being paraded about invisibly – this label TAUNTS me with the unknowable! If I click it, will the other similarly labeled ‘dissimulation’ posts provide a clue? No! There are none.
I love mysteries so much, it seems, that I invent my own. I was focusing my interpretative re-read on the communion with crows passages. Whereas all the dissimulation was right there in the first paragraph, buddy!
So anyway, Alice Wessendorf – please let me be the first to offer my congratulations on winning the Spooky Movie Contest! In the post announcing the winner, I credited you as Lunarchick since that’s how you appear over there. But I will be more than happy to change the attribution to Alice Wessendorf, or whatever you wish!
Thank you so much for Nectar Of The Creeps. I look forward with equal parts trepidation and eagerness, to whatever you’ve got cooking in the ol’ imagination cauldron, to top the rich stew of terror you’ve already served up!
Oh, WOW!! How random!
I posted the other day on my passion for collective nouns and here you are with a murder of crows and a storytelling of ravens. 🙂
I think an absolutely marvelous ABC book could be published using animal collective nouns with delightfully witty illustrations. Anyone for a rhumba of rattlesnakes? Or an implausibility of gnu? How about a dazzle of zebra?
Great pictures, Alice. Suitably atmospheric.
My niece moved to Baltimore this month for grad school. Small world.
Yep it was early dogimo. Way early considering it was rainy Saturday morning. I think it was around 6 AM. Silly crows.
Yup collective nouns are the best.To bad we don’t use them more often. I’d love it if they just dripped off my tongue at the appropriate times.
What?? WHAT? I WON!!! I can’t believe it. I don’t win things.It’s just not something I do.In fact I am not sure if I won ANYTHING before. I am stunned. Simply stunned. Thank you, thank you!
This is going on my resume! I am headed over to your blog to see if this is real or if you are toying wit my fragile emotions.
Ha ha Jamie…its all about the timing I guess.
I LOVE your ABC book idea.You should do that! I would buy a copy for my bookshelf and one for each of my nieces and nephews. It would be such a fun book!
Thanks for the pic compliment.I was taking them through a window, at an awkward angle,and going manual, and I was having a tough time getting what I wanted. But in the end I thought they were interesting to look at 🙂
Funny that your niece is here in town. The world truly is a small place and getting smaller by the day.
😀 Great speech!! And I would never toy with your emotions!
To be clear, you are the recipient of the Distinguished Palm of the Judge and Jury Selection Committee. No two ways about it. That’s automatic, as soon as the award is announced, you can tell any and all that you have received the Distinguished Palm. As was said, the presentation is merely a formality.
This is in stark contrast to (for example) the Distinguished Flying Right Cross for Inadvisable Bravery, where the presentation is rather more the point of the whole thing. Also, for that one, it usually takes a certain period of time in between receiving the award, and telling any and all.
Between you and me, while it seems more and more people are always vying for the Distinguished Flying Right Cross, the Distinguished Palm is really the award you want.
I’ll level with you, posting the contest on the 22nd, I didn’t really expect much. Thanks for the (nice) surprise!
Random addition to this discussion.
Last week I saw a gang of about eight squirrels wandering about in a small park across from the Y where I go to swim. I wondered out loud what a group of squirrels is properly called. I have looked it up and apparently it is most-appropriately known as a scurry. Or more obtusely known as a dray, which I can’t quite figure out.
So there you have it.
Actually, the more I look at these the more I like them. With the obvious exception of #3, they would look great matted in a nice russet brown and framed in black…and a grouping of five is perfect. Now, I’m jealous of your fall prints!! I really like the sense of vertigo I get from #2. It’s a good perspective. ACK! Can you tell I sat through too many print judgings as a kid??? You really do have a good eye, Alice. What a lovely gift to “see” art.
As to my book aspirations…I’m waiting for my daughter, the artist, to get a little more experience. She is only 14 but hopes to go to the NC School of the Arts. Either way, she will create. Artists are born, I think.
I, unfortunately, have caught a mischief of mice in my office over the past week. The words sound so much better than the reality. YUCK.
And…finally, Whit is in the Mount Vernon?? area. Please God, let it be safe. Don’t tell me if it’s NOT. 🙂 We hope to get up there soon to visit. Baltimore…Chesapeake Bay cuisine, yummy.
Thanks Jamie! 🙂
A book collaboration with your daughter…what a wonderfully awesome idea. That’s going to be so much fun. I hope you do it some day.
Yes, I agree artists are born. I have had that discussion with my husband before. I think you can train and perfect but the actual talent, the thing that IS the artist, is simply there at the start. I am in awe of artists.
Mt Vernon is a beautiful part of the city! She is a lucky girl. Gorgeous buildings and lots of places to eat and hang out. With Peabody/Hopkins right there and University of Baltimore and MICA right on the top edge of the neighborhood there are lots of young people and lots of creative energy. Up until last year (laid off) I worked right in the heart of Mt Vernon at a publishing company that overlooks the Mt. Vernon Square with the monument. Beautiful view out the window. I miss seeing it.
Check out this Flickr set for some nice Mt. Vernon photos:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/759122@N22/
And the first 9 or so photos in this set of mine are Mt. Vernon also:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/awessendorf/sets/72157613041768273/
Alice, you are THE BEST! I, sneakily, of course, so hoped you would divulge all your insider info. THANK YOU. Seriously. You set my “aunty” sensibilities at ease.
Restaurant recommendations are also accepted. Me? Pushy? 🙂
Per our collective noun thread: Would a gathering of imps be a perverse, do you think? That makes me giggle.
If it isn’t a perverse it ought to be and totally is one now in my world! ha 🙂
Great Indian food at Akbar on Charles. Small place down a short flight or stairs, but top notch food http://www.akbar-restaurant.com/
For sushi my favorite, bar none forever-and-always, is Minato also on Charles http://www.minatosushibar.com/ (great Japanese in general and the most wonderful welcoming staff)
For huge slices of delicious pizza, mondo servings of fries, buckets of soda, and sandwiches at ungodly hours of the morning Never on Sunday on Charles and Read.
For brewed right there beer and good food Brewer’s Art also, yes, on Charles http://www.belgianbeer.com/
For yummy tapas and delicious homemade sangria Tapas Teatro further up Charles (and attached to the best movie theater in town) http://www.tapasteatro.com/
For Irish pub food and atmosphere there is Mick O’Shea’s http://www.mickosheas.com/index2.html
For seafood if you want to stick in the Mt Vernon/Midtwon area I have heard some good rumblings (have not been yet myself so can’t swear) that Robert Oliver Seafood on Cathedral is good. Their website is not up so I can’t even swear they are still there.
I’d recommend venturing outside of Mt. Vernon for Seafood. If you head over to the Fells Point / Canton area you have a number of places to choose from including Bo Brooks http://www.bobrooks.com/ and Obrycki’s http://www.obryckis.com/ can’t go wrong with either.
And I of course could go on forever…but I will stop for now 🙂
Awww, MAN! Tapas & Sangria? Sushi? Indian? Not only do you have a good eye, you, my dear Alice, have FANTASTIC TASTE! YEOW! I am overwhelmed by your kindness; what a culinary extravaganza! If you find yourself headed to the Raleigh/Chapel Hill area, I’ll return the favor. 🙂
OK, it’s late and I’m getting goofy but…here is my new favorite collective noun: a gathering of male hares…
A toupee!!!!!! Dang, I crack myself up. 🙂
I figured I owed you a smile at the least.