a birdbath Heater

 

Brings in patrons who are not interested in sunflower seeds, but a drink of water and a bath. Provided, of course, the air temperature is above 32 degrees.

the wooly Woolies

Gone are the sleek spotted fawns of June, these twins look more like Teddy Bears at the moment!

you are a long way from Brazil!

Returning from Thanksgiving in Minnesota, found the first of the new Christmas cactus flowers had opened.

Zygocactus are actually epiphytes, not terrestrial cactus like prickly pears, but with a growing habit more like some of the orchids. These have been hybridized for the houseplant trade, originally growing in the rainforests of southeastern Brazil. Happily for us way up North, they are glad to oblige and give us some color in the cold and gray of November and December days.

what is That?

If this is the Niger River delta from a NASA camera?

it is only....

 

 5 degrees, we got 5" of the fluffy white stuff...I hope these babies are sleeping warmly, for the next 5 months.

Winter has arrived.

um. I don't think you'll Fit

Yesterday when I installed the heater in the birdbath, the turkeys paid no attention. This morning, however, a drink was in order. I am used to seeing chickadees and robins perched on the edge, they fit a little more in scale.

I think if this lady hopped in we would see Archimedes' Principle at work!

My apologies for any who were offended by the anonymous comment on yesterday's post. I have removed whole post and modified the comments section so that crap doesn't appear again.

 

 Sunset like Agate

 11/18/10

44N  103W

 

(Brazilian agate from www.greatslabs.com)

she and He

Both mule deer and white-tailed deer wander through our yard, munch flowers and shrubs, and fertilize the grass. Normally they stay within species specific family groups, not mingling. 

However, this time of year the teen-aged bucks are either confused, blind or plain don't care. This little spike buck, of the mule deer persuasion, was squiring around a group of four white-tail does and fawns. Not only in spring does a young man's fancy turn to love.

where's Waldo

My nice new Sigma lens takes a look at a piece of Chazy limestone with its Ordovician fossils.

These critters lived their lives in warm ocean waters near southern Africa. Thanks to plate tectonics and continental drift, they came to rest in northern New York and Vermont on Lake Champlain. I picked this piece of ancient ocean bottom on our beach at camp when I was searching for beach glass and other flotsam and jetsam.

steppin' Out

  

Cornell University's Project Feederwatch 2010-2011 season started this week. I've been part of this citizen science project for several years, it is always fun to see trends and changes over time. 

The local wild turkey flock is a reliable crowd, showing up daily. Sometimes they are polite and well behaved, other times they act like a rugby scrum or peek in the window from the deck railing. They always have a great deal to talk about among themselves.

www.birds.cornell.edu/pfw/

the red Wheelbarrow

The Red Wheelbarrow

William Carlos Williams

so much depends upon

a red wheel barrow

glazed with rain water

beside the white

chickens.

There is no earthly reason why the red thumbtack in the telephone pole made me think of one of my favorite word pictures, but it did.

crayon colors on the Corner

4th and Kansas City Street, Rapid City, SD, USA

standing on the Corner

 

It is rather remarkable what you can find just standing on a street corner waiting for your kid, especially if you have a viewfinder to look through. Storm sewer art.

the Parade

This little kidlet had to be the happiest parade goer ever. I'd guess it was her first one. I was shooting the National Guard soldiers and she turned around at the moment I took the picture, the autofocus found her cute little face and that was that.

Veterans' Day 2010

Ft. Ticonderoga

 Robert C. Booth   WW I

Robert T. Booth   WW II

Christopher H. Booth   Korean Conflict

William H. Saxe   US Army

and veterans of all conflicts and branches.

Thank you for your service to our country.

what is It?

 

Challenge: before Photoshop tricks, what was this?

a new Address

There has been a birdhouse on the south lawn for 30 years, used by chickadees, house wrens, bluebirds or violet-green swallows each summer. This fall it fell victim to a rowdy buck deer who decided to get into a fight with the pole it was mounted on. The poor old pine board house broke into pieces when it hit the ground.

This is the replacement, now inside the woven wire fence that surrounds a crabapple tree protecting it from servine vandalism.

We shall see who finds it a homey place in May.

who is watching Who?

Her big "mule ears" gave her away. I would never have noticed her in the thicket, if she had not been "radar-ing" those namesake ears. She was curious about what I was doing with the laundry on the clothesline. The winter coat camo that the muleys and the white-tails wear is remarkably effective even at close range.

some Folks....

are having a harder time adjusting to the time change than others.

This seems to be a paired up couple, they were with a whole bunch of other mallard/mallard pairs in a small backwater area off Rapid Creek this morning.

switch from MDT to MST

Friendly furball waits for the end of Mountain Daylight Time, it is time to "fall back" tonight!

hardy Soul

Usually you think of a fresh daisy for a June bride's bouquet, but this intrepid survivor seems to think that early November is the perfect time to face the sun and bloom. I like its Attitude.

perpendicular

On Apple Tree Lane

bubblegum Pink

Not your typical fall color, but my Uncle Kit's hydrangea was still blooming in mid-October. A nice punctuation mark among the russets, reds, oranges and browns, don't you think?

November 2, 2010

Sunrise 

Election Day 2010

What changes will we see by sunset?

my left Leg

 

When you lay down in the dry grass of the October prairie to take pictures of forest fires and such, things arrange themselves artfully on your pant legs. I have a brand new lens for the camera, which

allows you to "shoot yourself in the leg" and remain unscathed. 

:o)

under Control

Usually when we see a plume of smoke on the Black Hills horizon, we get a little concerned. It often means a wildfire has started. This one is a controlled burn in the National Forest, getting rid of downed timber and other fuels. These burns will hopefully keep things from getting serious next summer. From this distance of several miles, it has a strange resemblance to Mt. Vesuvius.