Friday Favorites

Here are a few of my favorite plant photos.

Cow Parsnip.  North Cascades.

Ice-encrusted rose bush. My house.

Lily. Mima Mounds Preserve.

Grasses growing at Slate Peak.

Water lily. Cambodia.

Two images today, both from the Pacific Science Center.  We went in part to view the Harry Potter travelling exhibit, and  in part because it is (and always has been) one of my favorite places to visit and learn.
In the image above, note the striking wing colours and its amazing little eye.  You'll also notice that only four of its six legs is visible.  This is true, too, of the other butterfly.  I'm not sure why this is. In the image below, note the pattern in its eye, and the tightly curled up mouth part.

Wishing you a happy, happy holiday season.  And for tomorrow, Happy New Year!
A poinsettia, holding a bubble of water in its cupped bract; Wright Park Conservatory, Tacoma

Frozen Leaves

I'm sure you've seen those leaf skeletons, coated in shimmery metals.  We have several that we hang on our Christmas tree each year.  These oak leaves, frozen versions of the enegry-collecting green leaves of summer hung stiff and unnaturally still on their branches, just like those pretty little metallic leaf skeletons.

Well, hello there!

This curious little fellow was found in our yard, and seemed just as curious about its human observers as we were of it.

Monkeying Around

Part of the benefit of this blog is to be more discerning and critical of my own photography and representation of it.  Another value of the exercise is to reflect on connections between photos i've taken (recently or not) and my life.  I don't presently see any notable connection between these guys and my life today.  Despite that, today i will be sharing altogether too many monkey photos.  Why?  Because i love them.  All but the first were taken in Angkor Wat, outside Siem Reap, Camboidia.  The one above is actually an Siamang, and is captive (you can see part of a second one in the picture). 

A late summer evening in Pt. Defiance park brought this chubby bumble bee to a perfectly shaped pink dahlia.
As i took this photo another parkgoer asked derek for permission to shoot a couple images of Kaya... i'd like to see those photos, too : )

Seashore

The grey and white pattern is the remnants of former barnicle residents, current inhabitants continue to reside along the edges.
Deception Pass on Whidbey Island, Washington, July 2008.

Also, i'm switching to weekly photos. I'm hoping to take a new photo each week.

Since we were camping along the ocean, we spent a bit of time at the beach. I made a rock circle, with a white stripe connecting the stones comprising the circle. It seemed incomplete, though... too empty in the center and hence it became a peace symbol. The image felt complete with the ocean and islands in the background.

Fourth o' July

I chose this photo for today's image because i think it captures what the a little bit of what one might call the "American spirit"...
Beautiful geography and seemingly boundless nature, including Mt. Baker in the background and the wetlands and woods in midground... An appreciation of nature and independence (and humankind's best friend!), inferred from the trail marker... and the American Dream: a sturdy homestead, built over a century ago by a family starting with nearly nothing, with the work of their hands and mastery of the land (use of native materials, cultivation of untouched land into agriculture/horticulture). And one can't miss the colours featured: good ol' red, white and blue!
Hovander Homestead on Tennant Lake, WA, June 2006

"It's Electric!"

Like my first photo of electricity? I do : )

I witnessed my first emergency weather announcement today, after coming inside from an hour of standing in awe (and with finger poised on the shutter release) at the second amazing lightening storm this week.

Little did i know that meanwhile the national weather service recommended that residents of my and several surrounding counties "move inside immediately." I hear there's nickel-sized hail in areas of the county. Yeesh -- at least i got some satisfying photos out of it!

I'd Rather Be...

... hiking.

But i've hurt my ankle and i'm stuck hobbling around instead of wandering along a trail. Alas.

So instead, i'm daydreaming about hiking, and the tiny bit of time we spent in Yellowstone in 2005 came to mind, with miles and miles of land and all that flora and fauna to explore.

The intense colour and clarity of the water deep into the (53' deep) hotspring is what attracted me to this image of the Abyss Pool.

...And thus i return to my dusty footpath reverie...

Lily Love

This gorgeous little lily resided along a trail on Orcas Island, in the San Juan island cluster in Washington, 2007. I couldn't choose just one angle on the little petals, so here are two : ). It's a tiny little flower on a short stem (maybe 13 cm?), so i got a bit muddy in the process.

(Possibly a white fawn lily, Erythronium oregonium.)

A brief visit from Jack Frost

In honor of the 90*+ temperatures forecasted today, here is an icy scene.

The first big frost of Fall 2007 was Thanksgiving morning. I took a walk to enjoy the chilly sunshine and found this: an alley mud puddle that had frozen over, with swirls of ice and mud and bubble and pockets of air. It is so serene to me, especially for its muddy, mundane subject.

“'Keep your temper,' said the Caterpillar”

{Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland}

This hornet and its caterpillar meal comprise one of my favorite photos. It was taken in Cambodia, in the Angkor Wat complex on my August 2007 visit.

That nearly all things there were unfamiliar, combined with the super cool bugs made me feel like a real adventurer, of the National Geographic sort : ) Ok, not really. But watching the hornet manuever the sizable caterpillar into its lair was quite the sight.

Perhaps future photos will have somehow relate to my day. This first one, though, is just one i like.