And the outside world parks and historic cemeteries opened up to me. Instead of driving by, with my mind on where I was going, I was walking, noticing changes in trees, flowers, landscapes. Although much of life was still locked down, lived with masks, the parks offered a gripping mini-series, my first fully experienced spring. I taught myself how to look and, with my camera, to see.

My inquisitive chipmunk outlook was perfectly matched to the Science Museum Camera Clubs scavenger hunt for its members, which began last month. Ready, set, go: We have six weeks to take photographs of 20 items/ideas. First, I accomplished the easy ones. Flower was no problem; the lily pond in the Reinstein Woods offered me astonishing choices. To find reflection, an early morning visit showed me a Reinstein tree becoming its own Narcissus: It looked into its reflections in the water, got lost in its own beauty. My visits to Forest Lawn cemetery gave me unique solutions for circle, water, a place to worship, and statue. All required repeat visits light wasnt right, sky was boring.

For tree, I chose the one planted in 1879 on the lawn of the Richardson Olmsted Campus. I had been looking at it for years. Now, I salute it as an ancient, living through its second pandemic. It was like having an amazing insight about a friend of decades.

The hunt included disappointment (allium, chosen for the color purple in the flower garden in downtown Corfu, was over the hill), discovery (on the drive home from Corfu, a barn with holes in its roof under amazing clouds gave me an image for abandoned) and excitement (twice, I dashed out of my house at night, because exceptional sunsets might illuminate railroad tracks or city hall). I had become a scavenger hunter on the prowl. Id extricated myself from my hamster monotony, substituting chipmunk curiosity, a way to live with Covid, even after the scavenger hunt.

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My View: From the hamster wheel to the chipmunk's freedom - Buffalo News