manly mammals

in art...

*sigh*

I heart art.

And Washington DC.

What an embarrassment of riches that town has.

Jeepers!

xo

ps. this is the 2nd time I've been on the internet in a week; blogging will still be slow for a while. However, am using camera here and there, so there may be more goodies for you upon my return to situation normal. I've posted pics of this uh-mah-zing statue before, but it bears repeating, IMHO.

east coastin'

Cruising Plum Island National Wildlife Refuge, 

near Newburyport, MA.

 

Wicked cool place.

bb

photo quiz answer... and winners!

 

Olivia V. Ambrogio got it in 20 seconds,
then Jennifer Bowen Yoga figured it out.

Nice work, ladies!!! HONK! HONK! HONK!

And many thanks to all the commenters and guessers.
Y'all are fabulous. =)

Yup, they're all reflections.
So, I posted them upside down.
Here they are in their original orientation.

That was some crazy still water. NICE!!

It was near Mirror Lake, but we were on the
other side of the "lake" than most people visit.

So nice.

=) xo

Thursday photo quiz: what do these photos have in common?

 

Besides being shot in Yosemite,
including some of the same trees species, etc.

Something different.

Please submit guess via comments, below. =)

xobb

lunar eclipse, baby!

 

Such a cool thing to see.

annnnnd then it got dark, pink, and hidden behind the trees. =)

A very interesting morning, eh?!? =)

Sweet!

xobb

Yeah, yeah, it's all about you...

 

Trying to take a photograph of the section of granite wall
from which sprung the slide by Yosemite's Mirror Lake,
and who horns in?

Don't you think you get enough attention, Half Dome?

Jeepers.

Poor little slide....

=)

bb

again, an abandoned crop perseveres...

 

Varied hues are (if I remember correctly) due to a packet of mixed carrot types. Great for short-attention-span, color-greedy gardeners, in particular. =) Whomever that might include... these were tucked deep inside a corn forest.

Note how, despite the strong, clear lighting,
it takes a while to see the cat.

Genius cryptic design...

xobb

pre-Mono wind mums: pollinator, schmollinator...

 
Having read the forecast re: crazy winds, I went to the garden one late afternoon for a last chance photo session. I assumed the winds would strip our precious flowers of their dazzling petals.

Who knew chrysanthemums were so stunning in the fall when all else is drab, drab, drab? I, clearly, did not. Consider me re-educated.

By the way, I am (was??) not a big flower person.
I love them, but feel that growing food is a higher priority
and possibly a better bang for my carbon buck.

However, I am a color pig.

AND, the pollinators LOVE all these flowers,
whether it's spring, summer, or fall,
and that draws them to my garden,
wherein pollination of squash, etc., occurs.

So... I think I'm changing.

I believe in FLOWER POWER!

xobb

fungal fun with Photo Quiz Phriday: bb guesses species, too!

Quiz answer, Part 1

So, GREAT guesses, EVERYONE. Very creative. =)

Dan Maxwell was on the right track right away (fungal leanings).
Then Cindy NAILED it:
"a puffball with a particularly elegant color"

YUP! =) DING! DING! DING!

Yes, guessers, it was a fungal thang that I photographed
and fell in love with its textures; the humble puffball.

I've seen them around our property before, but never purple.
Typically they are brown in the inside, grey/white/tan on the outside.

Here's the 2 that Bear pointed out to me:

In the next shot, it's the same guy as the one above,
but it's SUPER purple. Muppet purple.

I'm thinking it's taken with a flash,
so that explains the apparent color change??
Thoughts?

So, what species is this, biobabbler?
Quiz answer Part 2

I start flipping through Mushrooms Demystified by David Arora
(expert and SO funny--the book is a delight).

Pawing through pages of puffballs, I spy a black & white photo...
"mature specimen in which the outer layer
of the peridium (spore case) is disintegrating." (p.687)
oooh, yes. Very promising.

Next sentence:
"The purplish color of the mature spores is the
most distinctive characteristic of this species."

Oh, yeah, baby!

So, I conclude that the beauty above is
Calvatia cyathiformis, purple-spored puffball.

Sweet.
Thanks for helping me learn, Noble Readers.

And thanks so much to
Mylee, Dan, Sean, Elephant's Eye, and Cindy,
for your participation. You bring me delight. =)
xobb