February flash, flung 1 day late =D

 He is glorious; she has the munchies.

It's that time of year, turkeys parading all over.

I LOVE the percussion males provide to accompany their dance. SO COOL!

Squirrel-y cunning leads to tasty breakfast.

Extremely impressive core strength in this creature.

BIG THING FOR FEBRUARY:

new-to-me species!

Common sharp-tailed snake (Contia tenuis) I found while raking around the grape arbor.

 Pretty gorgeous tummy, eh?

Those are pine needles, so you can see this is a SMALL snake.

It was kinda cold, so I righted the snake for a photo,

then returned it to its home under a bunch of leaf litter.

Such an exciting discovery, and I'm glad it was unharmed (far as I could tell).

For more info on this species, I highly recommend its page at Calherps.

Now that gardening activity is on the upswing (here in the northern hemisphere),

a friendly reminder to CHECK under your row covers

EACH a.m. & release anything trapped w/in. =)

Beautiful male wasp (ichneumon, I believe)

I found under my row cover and released. 

It was 0% aggressive and, btw, males don't have the

equipment to sting. Note LACK of pointy barb @ end. =)

From February 1st--note the snow on the ground.

Seems like FOREVER ago. =)

Super cool stuff soil does when the cold freezes the water out.

I didn't grow up in really cold places, so this is fascinating to me. 

One of the first macro photos I ever took was

of this non-native early bloomer, red-stemmed filaree.

Changed my view of the world.

I'm a sucker for visible pollen grains, especially on purple anthers! =)


A lovely little flower...

Gorgeous small beetle I saw clambering across the greenery as I photographed the above flower.

So glad I got to see it.

Wildlife prints I found at the work site:

best part is the gray fox (Urocyon cinereoargenteus) print...

you can SEE the fur on the underside of the fox feet. SO cool!

K. That's some of the myriad delights that transpired in spring.

March onward!!! =)

xoxooxbb

Interpreting "dance"

So, watching flames dance on a pre-dawn, 14F morning,

I realized I had my photo(s) of the day (yesterday).

While not technically lovely, you get the idea.

And as an alternate, after the sun rose,

I saw the sunlight refracting in the grass ice.

So, that's Day 8 of the 30 Day Photo Challenge (fm @just_go_do_it).

Today's theme, day 9, is Shadows.

xoxobb

Day 4: Natural Light

Variegated lighting on my variegated sage = happiness.

Then, one that didn't work as well, but in person is WAY amazing:

rainbows on frozen grasses (24 F) this a.m.

Ya really need to zoom in on it, but wow.

It's really one of those things where if you DON'T go out when it's FRICKIN' FREEZING,

you'll miss it entirely.

And THAT is some natural light that totally rocks my (wool) socks.

Day 4 of 30 Day Challenge = DONE.

Tomorrow's assignment = Friend

xoxoxobb

Thurthday thnow thparkles--tho pretty!

imperfect re: focus, dark, spots, etc. 

but it's all about the PRETTY, SPARKLY SNOW COLORS!!

Love it.

D'you have any colorful snow/ice sparkly shots?

If so, feel free to put a link to them in the comments.

xobb

Feeling sore? Yosemite-ice it. You'll feel better.

Teetered carefully around Yosemite Valley, today.

Cold & icy, but lovely, of course.

more icy miracles

 

pardon.

STILL working on project deadline.

Intend to be less dull anon.

=) Meanwhile, more magic from Tenaya Lake

before we (hooorayyyy!) finally got precipitation.

So, so beautiful.

Nature is such a stunner.

xobb

a frozen lake is magic

 Went here today...

 

 Tenaya Lake, Yosemite NP

 Traversed this...

And despite the terrifying CRACK! (echo echo echo) and POP! (echo echo echo)

that I felt sure meant my imminent descent to FREEZING black watery death,

I made it to the far end of the lake where Bear said the ice was see-through.

That's where I saw this.

pretty sure that's magic.

xobb

Meadow Mumday meanderings explained plus bonus pics

 

 You really need to click on this one and the next to appreciate them.

 I'm not sure I knew snow made these beautiful, shimmery patterns.

This one has great color (when big).

These were growing in the wettest areas in the meadow.

Anyone know what this amazing rainbow-y plant is??

Our elevation was probably around 4500 feet and it was last weekend.

 Loving the shadows in this meadow, 

AND the way the grass has been matted down like wet hair.

 Saw some really cool instances of plant parts (needles, leaves) that had fallen onto ice, melting their shapes into the ice.

Here's 2 more:

I like this because this beautiful, rainbow-colored plant, looking very excited about the sunshine, is growing out of a giant pile of cow poop. =)

I like the optimism inherent in this. Making the best of one's situation. It's like a raised bed: higher than the rest of the ground, so it warms up faster, and heaven knows there's plenty of nutrients.

And here's to our public lands! Honk honk! Offering us opportunities for such adventures, without having to a) be able to buy big tracts of land or b) dodge land owner's bullets as we trespass, desperate to explore and commune with nature.

I seriously heart public lands.

Happy Wednesday!

biobabbler

tiny frosted mushroom sprouts feathers...

 

 

Nature is so amazing.

bb