The river menu today included a pair of wood ducks. As the temperature increases, so does the variety of birdlife on the water. Regrettably, the recent spate of warm weather will be short-lived as cold temperatures are expected to return next week. For the second week in a row, Jeanine and I joined the kids at Kyle’s apartment for brunch. Featured was a french toast casserole and Nicolai’s signature egg sandwiches. I suspect a picture of these delights would have been a nice break from all the recent wildlife images but I forgot to bring my camera with me.

Today’s visitors included a pair of beavers. They can be hard to distinguish from muskrats but the combination of some tail slapping on the water and a telltale photo of one sitting on the bank left no doubt. They appear to be building a lodge about 20 feet down the shore from our house. If that is the case, you can expect to see a lot more of this couple (they mate for life).

A female and male hooded merganser on the river today. The lighting was not good and once again I am shooting through a double-pane glass. In our new house design, I will strategically locate windows that open for taking better photos of this type.

Jeanine spotted this bird when it landed on a branch just outside our living room and immediately alerted me. We were not sure if it was a juvenile bald eagle or a red-tailed hawk. After posting the image to our neighborhood list server, several resident experts confirmed it was a red-tail hawk. I was between work meetings and had to shoot this quickly through a window which did not help with the quality. Still, I never imagined I would be photographing a scene like this from inside our house.

Pictured above is my Zoom meeting setup. I use my mirrorless camera positioned over my computer screen aimed down the Sudbury River. Strong lighting is needed to balance the exposure of the outside scene. This setup gives my audience a lovely background and allows me to look at an angle that simulates “eye contact”.

If Maya was an ancient dinosaur she would have been one of the nice ones. I am not sure why this image of her skeleton that she sent me made me think of that, but I did. Unfortunately, she is experiencing lingering back pain from an injury she sustained while moving a heavy Fuse printer at Formlabs when she was interning with them last year. We are hopeful that some good chiropractor work will address the situation.

Maya sent these pictures of a Rex Begonia that she is studying for an assignment in living organism observation. Clever girl that she is, she used a handheld magnifier held up to the lens of her iPhone camera for a macro close-up.

Kyle texted us this photo of his Sunday dinner. I thought we were living large when we joined him and the rest of the family for brunch earlier in the day. Then, we were treated to takeout from Tatte and various scrumptious pastries. Apparently, he had even grander plans for dinner with his girlfriend Sabriya. In offspring news, Nicolai starts a new teaching assignment at Lexington high school on Monday, Maya is in the thick of her studies at Olin, and Kyle has decided to pursue a master’s degree in computer science. He plans to apply to Georgia Institute of Technology’s on-line program which will allow him to continue working at TouchPlan while obtaining his degree.

For those who know me well, it will come as no surprise that I spent 20 hours today (5 AM until 1 AM) refining the floorplan for our new house project. I must have completed at least two dozen versions before settling on this one. The massive effort was triggered when Jeanine and I agreed that we would move our main bedroom from the first floor to the second. Since we are hoping to age in place here, we initially decided that a first-floor bedroom would be advantageous when eventual infirmity makes stair climbing less desirable. When that day comes, in our new concept, we will move from the upstairs main bedroom to the downstairs guest room which is being designed for wheelchair accessibility. Hopefully, that day is a long way off and in the meantime, we will enjoy what are arguably the best views of the river from the second floor.

I completed my third model of our new house this evening. Each one has been a refinement of the previous one both in terms of design and fidelity. At this point, the basic shape feels right (plus or minus some roof pitch adjustments) and the next phase will be tuning of window size and placement. Although it will probably be a year or more before our new home will be a reality, it must be said, that I really enjoy the design process and the phase we are in now.

After many days of sub-zero temperatures, we finally got a small break from the frigid cold. Our collection of icicles were in melting overdrive. I was lazy and shot this image from indoors through a window. A more determined photographer would have gone outside and set up an off-camera flash to really freeze the motion of these streaming droplets.

On a walk through our neighborhood, I encountered no less than three snow people. This one was my favorite. I am a fan of the carrot for nose school of design and also felt the hair treatment was upstanding (outstanding).

Kyle with his girlfriend, Sabriya, on the Cape visiting his buddy’s airplane hanger earlier in the week. Jeanine is attempting to lure the kids home for Valentine’s Day with the promise of homemade lasagna. I spent a few hours building a foam core model of the new house. Doing so led me to make a few dimensional adjustments to the roof heights and I will make one more model when all of the window elevations have been finalized.

Jeanine is taking advantage of our recent snowfall to get some outdoor exercise. This morning she set out on her snowshoes for an early hike around the neighborhood. This is what happy looks like.