Herons and Horses and other "H" Happenings

Welcome to my take on the letter "H" for ABC Wednesday.  My Heartfelt thanks to Mrs. Nesbitt, Roger, Reader Wil, Leslie and Trubes for the Huge gift of their time and talents to keep this amazing meme thriving.

I am also posting to Eileen's Saturday's Critters meme, as both Herons and Horses are featured today, along with a few of Black Jack and some other birds and animals met on our daily travels.  Thank you so much, Eileen!  I look forward to all of your posts, but Saturdays are special.

I think I posted a Hurdy Gurdy video once before for the letter "H" but this performance is a Hauntingly beautiful one, though I do warn you about a High-pitched whine in the background and would advise keeping the volume quite low.   

Unusual Words that Begin with H

It's always fun to find a few words that begin with the letter of the week.  All of the ones today were at the Phrontistery site:

1. hardihood - boldness, audacity

2. hapax - a word that only appears once in a work of or genus of literature or in a body of work by a particular author
3. heartsome - exhilarating, merry
4. hippophile - lover of horses
5. hubbish - clownish

Happy Outing

The magnolias and cherry blossoms were Heavenly as I rode my bike along York Street towards UBC for a piano lesson last Monday.  

A Heartsome sight for sure.

Before my lesson, I took a few minutes to look around the campus grounds by the music building.  A young Bald Eagle soared very High in the sky, 

and a couple of seagulls seemed to be warning each other to be heedful ..

that the eagle might be hungry.

The second seagull, perched on a nearby lamp standard, Heard the message and looked up too.  Or perhaps, the two were saying, "Let's Hook up!"  And, not "look up" at all :) 

There were chickadees nearby, and I wondered, as I looked at the photos later, whether pine cones provide much nutrition.  This site gave some answers.  Here's a quote: "Several kinds of birds have the ability to probe or break open pine cones to extract the nutrient-rich seeds. Pine cone seeds are an important food source for black-capped chickadees. They are friendly perching birds with long tails, small round bodies and stubby bills. Chickadees warn each other of predators with alarm calls, to which other birds traveling among them also respond. Black-capped chickadees have round Heads that are large for their bodies. 

They are curious birds interested in Humans, eventually responding to.. 

Hand-feeding. Eastern white pine cone seeds are favorites of black-capped chickadees."

Artist: Adaline Halvorson

Bill and I discovered artist, Adaline Halvorson, in an art magazine called Arabella.

I think the word "Hippophile" would apply to her, as it would to many of us :)Bill Held up the magazine (you can just see the tip of his finger) so that I could take photos.To be Honest, I am amazed that a camera can capture such detail from a book.

The nuanced details of shading and expression Hint at something more profound and powerful than any words could offer to describe the inner and outer beauty, not only of..Horses, but of the other critters that keep us returning to Eileen's meme week after week.

Halvorson's paintings go right to the Heart of the critter-Human bond.

As for my wonderful Helper, he brought smiles, as always, with his..

Hobbish sense of fun.  There was a bewitching sense of Hoodoo/Hocus-pocus as well, in the way the photo Happened to capture an alignment of the girl's profile with Bill's cheek :)

Herons

And finally, to the Herons.  They're back!  Not from far..  I'm fairly certain most of them Hang around in the area after leaving the nest in August.  They inspired my very first blog post.

Their Spring-season Habiliments,

nest-building Habits..

and Huge wing span.. 

give me the Heady feeling of being close to something preHistoric.

Selecting the perfect Home and best Husband or wife is a complicated process, 

but once everything is according to Hoyle,

the work of Handpicking (well, billpicking I guess) twigs begins..

in the job to weave a nest that will keep parents and young out of Harm's way.

This fellow chose a Humongous branch..

that created quite a Hassle for Him. 

He Heaved and Hoed and..

Hauled and manipulated..

with every bit of Hardihood he possessed, 

but when his stick finally took a Header and landed on the ground, 

he conceded that a smaller stick would put his lady in just as fine a Humour.

And so the selection Handiwork began all over again.

This heron had less High-flown ambitions from the beginning..

and settled for a Humbler offering for his lady-love, but..

her expression here seems to say, "What?!  You expect me to Hammer out a Home..

for all of us with that Hand-me-down?"  In the end, though, I think they kissed and made up.

Bill and Black Jack were close at hand as I watched the action, and their High jinks made me laugh more than once.  Perhaps, they will bring a little Hilarity to your day as well.  Many thanks for stopping by.  Have a Happy day Hopefully full of lots of  Humorous moments.