Asides

Stork sighting

storksWow! It’s been awhile since I’ve had a stork sighting and this week suddenly storks are everywhere! There’s a new animated movie called Storks and the ads are everywhere I look.  I’m in NYC this week and I even rode in a yellow cab with a big Storks movie banner on its roof. I’m taking this as a good sign…

California: The Land of Orange Popes

My friend Noelle just sent me a story that her daughter Keira (6) wrote after their family trip to visit me in April. My favorite part (which had me baffled for a bit) was the “I saw popes that were my favorite color Orange.” Hmmm. Berkeley and San Francisco have their share of eccentric sites but I didn’t remember any orange popes. But then I realized that we saw lots of the orange California poppies on one of our hikes!

Keira's California Story

Stork sightings

IMG_3992I’ve been traveling in Germany for the last three weeks for work—a combo trip including two conferences and some talks in Munich–and I’ve been radio-silent in terms of posting for the last few weeks as a result. It’s been a busy but great trip. In between work events, I’ve also had time to get out and about. I was actually born in Munich and the trip felt like a bit of a nostalgic homecoming in some respects. I’ll post more on that later. But, in the meantime wanted to get in a “stork sighting.” Lots of stork sighting on this trip which I’m taking as a good sign!  This little guy is now my official mascot and good luck charm. Here he is looking out my hotel window in Seeon where the conference was.

Stork Sighting!

stork on GilmanI haven’t posted a stork sighting in quite a while. Storks are few and far between here in the U.S. but I did see a mural with a bird (maybe a heron?) that looks suspiciously like a cousin of the European stork! I’ll take it as a stork sighting!