JeanR - chiggers and bald eagles

I appreciated the enclosed note from JeanR telling me about her inspiration and materials. She has been doing gel (or gelli?) plate mono printing, collage, and silhouettes. She put those together with three silhouettes of faces to represent the  multiple faces we put forward. She wrote: Perhaps we are stern for our business dealings; we are soft for approaching a child; we are wary in unfamiliar places, and so on. The partial quote is the end of an untitled poem by Bloemen. 

I like the part where we *fall back on the grass and be.* But, only in the metaphorical sense. In real life, in grass, in Iowa - there are chiggers living in the grass and WARNING: Do not read further if you are squeamish. Oh, dear. I just Googled to confirm what I think I recall about chiggers - and chiggers live in lots of places - not just Iowa. So this is a public service announcement:

Contrary to common belief, chiggers do not burrow into a host’s skin or suck blood. They pierce the skin with their sharp mouthparts and inject a digestive enzyme, disintegrating skin cells for food. Itching usually begins within 3 to 6 hours after an initial bite.

Full story here:

https://agrilifeextension.tamu.edu/library/landscaping/chiggers/

***

Dang - the coffee was strong when I wrote that first part. Here's a little tidbit to take the edge off.

This will be old news by the time this pops up, but in January there were a ton of bald eagles hanging out in downtown DSM by the river. It seems the weather in MN, WI, and MI has been too cold and they needed to find some open water. By mid Feb they will head off to build nests. Maybe I can find that website where you can choose from all kinds of video cameras that are set up to watch creatures who are minding their own business - but we get to watch.