MFA Party at Marty's House

It wasn't the real end of our time in the MFA program; we still had (at least some of us) classes to teach the following Monday, papers to write, papers to grade, portfolios to turn in. And some of the people there were First Years, the lucky people who still have another year at GC&SU.

But it still kind of felt like something was coming to an end.

I'm glad I was there to take lots of pictures. You can see thirty of them below.

10 of 12 graduates

Leah

Chris

Ashlee

Scott

Torg

Laura

Allen

Shannon

Raven

Steve

Michael

Marty

Marty and Nick

Elizabeth and Renee

Scott and Derick

Bruce, Marty, and Alice

Scott, Bill, and David

Derick, Elizabeth, Marty, Lauren, and Susan

Cookies!

Allen mugs for the camera

Scott runs the gauntlet

Nick going headfirst down the slide

Cheese!

Baby Lundy

Baby Torg

Mother and Child I

Mother and Child II

Renee and Baby Torg

Babies Everywhere!

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I created this post on the old version of the Planet Burdett Web site back on the date shown above and added it to the family blog version on November 16, 2017, eleven and a half years later. Since the original post, several of the people shown above have completed Ph.D.s,, and most of them (or us, I should say) are still working in academia in one capacity or other. All but one of the GCSU professors above are still teaching (at least I believe that's true; I know for sure that David has retired). There have also been several more babies born to this group (two of them to Anna and me, of course).

The First Rose of 2005

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I posted these pictures on the old Planet Burdett Web site back in 2005 to show to Anna, and added this post to the family blog version of Planet Burdett on November 17, 2017.

The New Burdett Bedroom Wall Mural

(painted by Anna on April 23 and 24, 2005)

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This was our Madison house. Added to the new Planet Burdett on November 14, 2017.

A Day in the Hammock

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I posted these pictures on the old Planet Burdett Web site as a way to show Annie what an action-packed day I was having. I was in graduate school then, and the book I'm busy not reading is the textbook I was going to be using in an upcoming section of English 1101 (at least that's what I think it was). I added these pictures to the current Planet Burdett on November 17, 2017.

The Planet Burdett Backyard: Birds and Squirrels Aplenty

Our Friends in the Backyard

There are twenty species of birds that visit our backyard, most of which I see regularly -- pretty much every day, in fact. The Eastern Gray Squirrel is the only species of squirrel I've actually seen, but there are probably Southern Flying Squirrels nearby, too; they just happen to be nocturnal, while I am diurnal.

Here are a few pictures of the Planet Burdett backyard wildlife:

Red-bellied Woodpecker

Tufted Titmouse

Sparrow

Blue Jay

Northern Cardinal (female)

Northern Cardinal (male)

Dark-Eyed Junco

Red-wing Blackbird

(juvenile male, I think—he doesn't yet have his red bars)

Mourning Dove

Eastern Gray Squirrel

(lounging on one of our peanut feeders)

Technical Details:

I took all of these pictures with an Olympus Camedia E-10 digital camera with a 200mm lens (in 35mm-equivalent focal length, that is), when possible (that is, when I set up in advance) mounted on a tripod. Shutter speeds and aperture settings vary by situation. In many cases, I use PhotoShop Element's "fill-flash" enhancement to bring out some of the details, but I've done no other digital manipulation. Each of these pictures has been cropped to focus on the subject; in other words, I wasn't really that close to the titmouse when I took her picture.

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I created this post back in 2003 for the old Planet Burdett Web site, and imported into this version on November 13, 2017.