Cape May Spring Festival and MEER Feathers Zentangle

Continuing the blog post series prompted by COVID-19….

A Zentangle Prompt

Let’s make some MEER feathers. Combine the central part of the MEER pattern and some clever strings to make a feather collage. Alternate drawing a ‘rib’ with a pen then a string around the rib with a pencil until you have something like my design (feel free to make more or less ‘feathers’)…then start filling in the spaces with MEER type V shapes. I started one of the ‘feathers’ to illustrate how to make the tip of the feather.

Here is a tile I made yesterday based on the prompt: *create your own pattern based on the picture of tiles.*

Cape May Spring Festival Day 1

From 7 AM to 4:45 PM my husband and I attended the first day of the Cape May Spring Festival which is virtual this year. We signed up because we enjoyed the festival in Cape May last spring (my blog posts about it here). Evidently there were 400 participants in the sessions today and there is a second day tomorrow.

Virtual sessions are different than being out in the field….but the speakers did a good job of organizing material for the screen. Many of the talks included recent videos of places that we saw last year; like natural places everywhere…they are constantly changing…worth seeing again and again. One difference this year: the colder weather (and cooler water temperatures) delayed the horseshoe crab egg laying so the birds that fatten themselves on the eggs are not as robust as last year…will have to continue to their arctic breeding areas with less reserves.

The sessions have taken advantage of the virtual format. There was an excellent one using sonograms (for bird songs…a good ‘birding by ear’ learning tool) and another tutorial on identifying shore birds using traits other than markings.

Overall – I prefer being outdoors and seeing/hearing birds in the wild, but this is an alternative I can enjoy this year; I appreciate the work the festival sponsors put into making it happen. I am looking forward to the second day.

(a few pictures from last year)

Links to my previous “filling a day of social distance” posts here.

The Zentangle® Method is an easy-to-learn, relaxing, and fun way to create beautiful images by drawing structured patterns. It was created by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas. "Zentangle" is a registered trademark of Zentangle, Inc. Learn more at zentangle.com.