On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
Good Morning All,
This weekday feature is for Juicers who are are on the road, traveling, or just want to share a little bit of their world via stories and pictures. So many of us rise each morning, eager for something beautiful, inspiring, amazing, subtle, of note, and our community delivers – a view into their world, whether they’re far away or close to home – pictures with a story, with context, with meaning, sometimes just beauty. By concentrating travel updates and tips here, it’s easier for all of us to keep up or find them later.
So please, speak up and share some of your adventures and travel news here, and submit your pictures using our speedy, secure form. You can submit up to 7 pictures at a time, with an overall description and one for each picture.
You can, of course, send an email with pictures if the form gives you trouble, or if you are trying to submit something special, like a zipped archive or a movie. If your pictures are already hosted online, then please email the links with your descriptions.
For each picture, it’s best to provide your commenter screenname, description, where it was taken, and date. It’s tough to keep everyone’s email address and screenname straight, so don’t assume that I remember it “from last time”. More and more, the first photo before the fold will be from a commenter, so making it easy to locate the screenname when I’ve found a compelling photo is crucial.
Wednesday was a hard day as I had to euthanize one of the two kitties I inherited from my mother. I know, should my mom have lasted until now, weak and battered, that dear Melisande’s death would have been a major blow, so I’m thankful she didn’t have to deal with this eventuality. Now Meli joins her dear brother Pelleas and my mother in The Great Opera. Have a great day, everyone, and love your pets extra, they’re gone ever-too-soon.
Today, pictures from valued commenter lee.
Where they were taken: Frisco Texas
When: April 26th 2018
I’m guessing these are cardinals. My wife calls them ‘those damn birds’ as they spend the late afternoon & early evenings chirping up a storm in our front yard (we have 3 massive Red Oaks). They have a short, sharp chirp which is not particularly pleasant to listen to for
an extended period of time.
Thank you so much lee, do send us more when you can.
Travel safely everybody, and do share some stories in the comments, even if you’re joining the conversation late. Many folks confide that they go back and read old threads, one reason these are available on the Quick Links menu.
One again, to submit pictures: Use the Form or Send an Email
JPL
Lovely pictures!
Baud
Sorry about your cat, Alain.
Alain the site fixer
@Baud: thanks. I’m glad to no longer be running a hospice. Meds 2-4x a day is exhausting
Mary G
@Alain the site fixer: You’re having a terribly hard year, but you honored your mother by taking good care of Melisande.
Lee, those are great pictures.
debbie
I love cardinals because they start their chirping when winter has started to wane. Their noise may not be melodic, but their message is always welcome on a cold, gray, snow-filled day.
Love that gif (I assume) up top. She seems pissed off.
Betty Cracker
Sorry about your mum’s kitty.
Lapassionara
Alain, thanks for making these lovely photos available for us to see. So sorry about your mom’s kitty.
Alain the site fixer
@Betty Cracker: thanks Betty, now go play with your adorable puppy. And yes, that’s an order!
sherparick
Alain, thank you for this daily posting, it always brighten my spirits. Sorry for the loss of Meli, which also reminds you of your enduring grief for your Mom. Keep up your spirits. They will always be with you in your heart.
The noisy Cardinals are having a little argument about food and territory (I believe they are all Republicans).
rikyrah
Beautiful pictures ?
I thought my eyes were playing a trick on me with the first one ?
MomSense
Sorry to hear about Meli.
Thank you for these beautiful photos of those damned birds.
WereBear
I am so sorry to hear about the lost of dear Meli.
I like to think that all rescues have a happy ending… even ones that end in sadness. At least they did not die alone and miserable.
At least they got to know that someone loved them.
Major Major Major Major
Thanks Alain, hang in there.
Elizabelle
RIP Melisande. And Pelleas previously. I knew that cat was going to be named after an opera (Debussy). First a play (Maeterlinck). Your kitteh got every bit of life you and your mom could provide.
Lee’s bird photos today are gorgeous. Never tire of birds, bird songs, spring. Lovely time of year.
Think bird pics are so uniquely soothing because they fly above us, are imaginatively plumed, and bring beauty and song into our lives. Curious little things; they have a life miles upon miles away from us for most of the year. They are a tonic for these times.
SWMBO
So sorry to hear about Melisande.
It has been the pet hell month here. My girl Pixie blew out her back April 16 and had emergency back surgery. They did a second back surgery on April 20 to fix her back again. They had missed some of the problem. After I went to check on her that night, I let the rest of the pack out and Pebbles was stolen out of our yard.
Pixie started getting sensation back in her right hind foot and it apparently wasn’t a pleasant one. She chewed off three toes and had to have them amputated on May 1. She never really recovered. She started refusing food and medication two days ago. I found her in her crate, already gone this morning.
She was the reason my mom was still alive. She got ehrlichia a few years ago and my mom had every symptom. If it hadn’t been for Pixie, mom would never have been diagnosed and treated.
I miss her terribly already. She was the sweetest dachshund and had the gentlest temperament. I hope I can stop crying long enough to take her in to the vet.
Elizabelle
Alain: such coincidence. Had never heard of Pelleas and Melisande before you mentioned your late, great cat. Had to look it up.
At this moment: listening to Gustave Faure’s suite for Pelleas and Melisande. On NPR’s Performance Today. Shivers when it was announced.
From wiki: a lot of composers wrote music based on Maeterlinck’s play.
Elizabelle
@SWMBO: My condolences. Horrible month for you. And I hope that Pebbles is returned to you.
I love dachshunds. They’re wonderful pups. Pixie had a good life with you. Sometimes pets just can’t recover, and that is so difficult.
Gin & Tonic
Another gorgeous day here in Sweden. Packed for cold and rain, it being spring, and have been rewarded with blue skies and temps in the mid 60’s. Did some touring by car, south and west to Göteborg and back, now enjoying the high speed rail on the way to Oslo. This socialism stuff is OK in my book.
Sis
I’m so sorry about Melisande. You’re right, whenever we lose a pet, it’s much too soon.
J R in WV
Lee,
Thanks for the great bird photos. We had for years a cardinal that would attack every window (in a house with over 40 of the damned things) one by one as he saw his own stupid reflection, whacking into the glass with his bill. You think their chirps are bad, Whack!! Whack !! Whackwhack!! For a couple of hours every morning for at least a month while the eggs are being tended.
Tiny stupid dinosaurs that fly! I love them all (except cowbirds) anyway, they are so diverse and beautiful. Especially the piliated woodpeckers! So like a dinosaur flying away should look!!
Alain, sorry to hear about your kitty. You did the right thing. As livestock people, with horses, etc, many cats and dogs, my biggest regret is always when I wait too long to take a beloved cat of dog into our vet clinic at their end of life. I have put some animals down myself, and I can see why some vets hate that part of their practice, but I never regret it afterwards myself, because they need it so badly.
Everyone, thanks for all your pictures and your stories. I love photography, it is important to me to be able to take my camera and make pictures, I wish I had the patience to make art other ways, but I just can’t make that happen.
J R in WV
@Gin & Tonic:
G&T, are you planning each day as it comes, or did you arrange a tour before you flew over? We’ve done it both ways, and I feel like the prearranged tour makes us get out and around more than just being there trying to figure out what to do tomorrow… maybe we’re just not creative travelers?
Gin & Tonic
@J R in WV: We have certain checkpoints, i.e. today’s trip from Stockholm to Oslo was fixed a while ago. But the last three days were kind of improvisational, and in the process we stumbled on several interesting yet unplanned things. Serendipity has worked pretty well most of the time. I know it’s not for everyone, though.