The season is changing now quickly from he vibrant colors that was autumn in ti's glory to the dreary damp that is winter creeping upon the earth. The calendar year is now fast sliding to the end and all are made keenly aware of the how fast time flies.I am lead to think of flying them and of all the wonders  we know as birds.There is no music I prefer than to hear birds singing and calling in the wild. Season after season there are birds in trees, along the water, in the woodlands, in our gardens and upon the utility wires of our cities and towns to brighten our days should we chose to look and listen

 ''Be as a bird perched on a frail branch that she feels bending beneath her, still she sings away all the same, knowing she  has wings.'' Victor Hugo

When nature made the blue-bird she wished to propitiate both the sky and the earth, so she gave him the color of the one on his back and the hue of the other on his breast.  ~John Burroughs
 

 Happier of happy though I be, like them I cannot take possession of the sky, mount with a thoughtless impulse, and wheel there, one of a mighty multitude whose way and motion is a harmony and dance magnificent.  ~William Wordsworth

Birds sing after a storm; why shouldn't people feel as free to delight in whatever remains to them?  ~Rose F. Kennedy

 ''A leaf fluttered in through the window this morning, as if supported by the rays of the sun, a bird settled on the fire escape, joy in the task of coffee, joy accompanied me as i walked..'' Anai Nin

''A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.''Maya Angelou

 ''Use those talents you have. You will make it. You will give joy to the world. Take this tip from nature: the woods would be a very silent place if no birds sang except those who sang the best.'' Bernard Meltzer

  ''Birds are a miracle because they prove to us there is a finer, simpler state of being which we may strive to attain.'' Doug Coupland

 ''Birds are the most popular group in the animal kingdom.We feed them and tame them and think we know them.And yet they inhabit a world which is really rather mysterious'' David Attenborough

 Seagulls... slim yachts of the element.  ~Robinson Jeffers

''The desire to fly is an idea handed down to us by our ancestors who...looked enviously at the birds soaring freely through space on the infinite highway of air'' Wilbur Wright


 

Birds are a miracle because they prove to us there is a finer, simpler state of being which we may strive to attain.
Doug Coupland
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/birds.html#WHovzVwVBVFubV1q.99

 The majority of my photography is done out in nature. Reality is that I live in a city. I was born and raised here, went away for a education and returned to raise my family.

Cedar Rapids

City in Iowa

Cedar Rapids is the second largest city in Iowa and is the county seat of Linn County. The city lies on both banks of the Cedar River, 20 miles north of Iowa City and 100 miles east of Des Moines, the state's capital and largest city. Wikipedia

Area: 72.07 sq miles (186.7 km²)

Population: 128,119 (2012)

 “To hear never-heard sounds,
To see never-seen colors and shapes,
To try to understand the imperceptible
Power pervading the world;
To fly and find pure ethereal substances
That are not of matter
But of that invisible soul pervading reality.
To hear another soul and to whisper to another soul;
To be a lantern in the darkness
Or an umbrella in a stormy day;
To feel much more than know.
To be the eyes of an eagle, slope of a mountain;
To be a wave understanding the influence of the moon;
To be a tree and read the memory of the leaves;
To be an insignificant pedestrian on the streets
Of crazy cities watching, watching, and watching.
To be a smile on the face of a woman
And shine in her memory
As a moment saved without planning.” Dejan Stanjanovic

 “A city isn’t so unlike a person. They both have the marks to show they have many stories to tell. They see many faces. They tear things down and make new again.” Rasmenia Massoud

 “Cities are never random.
No matter how chaotic they might seem, everything about them grows out of a need to solve a problem. In fact, a city is nothing more than a solution to a problem, that in turn creates more problems that need more solutions, until towers rise, roads widen, bridges are built, and millions of people are caught up in a mad race to feed the problem-solving, problem-creating frenzy.” Neal Shusterman

“You can't love a city if you have no memories burried there.”  Marina Tavares dias