Spring has sprung (despite the temps in the 30s yesterday morning), as evidenced by the return of hummingbirds and barn swallows. The latter will apparently try to take up residence in the same nest they built on our front porch last year, provided they can run off the wren squatters – which, up until the… Continue reading Rites (and blights) of spring
Category: Nature
Cold Snap
What we thought was an ice storm was just a mild precursor to what happened overnight, as we awakened to a quarter-inch coating on, well, everything. There’s a certain amount of beauty in such events – not enough to make us wish for more of them, of course – as ordinary things are transformed into… Continue reading Cold Snap
Cool Photos…Ice Cold, in fact
We had our first ice storm of the season last night. Or today. I’m not sure; we were out of town, but returned this afternoon to find a thin layer of ice over all the vegetation. (Fortunately, there was none on the roadways between Midland and the Hill Country, although it appeared to be moving… Continue reading Cool Photos…Ice Cold, in fact
Fall Blooms
We haven’t yet had a freeze this fall, and the really hot temperatures of summer are finally behind us. The recent rainfall coupled with the mild conditions means that the flowering plants are putting on some wonderful performances. Last Saturday I strapped on a macro lens and walked around the yard, snooping on our blooming… Continue reading Fall Blooms
Stalking the wily Punica granatum
We’re a little late for Rosh Hashanah, but we harvested the first pomegranate this morning. We may still be a bit early for optimum ripeness; we never know for sure until we break one apart and try it out, but most conventional wisdom says to wait until October to harvest them. The seed pulp on… Continue reading Stalking the wily Punica granatum
Fall Fredericksburg Fandango
We’ve just returned from a long weekend in Fredericksburg, where we were able to do many of the things we like to do best, including bicycling, dancing, and eating. We stayed at a bed and breakfast on North Cherry Street, in a quiet neighborhood close to the western edge of town. It’s one of the… Continue reading Fall Fredericksburg Fandango
Fort Stockton Photos
We were in Fort Stockton over the weekend and I carved out some time to wander through a pasture to take some photos, and then snapped a few at the nursery owned by my brother and his wife. Since the pasture was once part of the Permian Sea, can we call this mesquite stump “driftwood”?… Continue reading Fort Stockton Photos
Garden Shots
I strapped on the trusty macro lens yesterday afternoon and spent a very hot half hour shooting some of the plants my wife has done such an excellent job of nurturing through our continuing drought. Below are images of hibiscus, bougainvillea, and lantana. I’ll leave it to you to figure out which is which.
Little Porch of Horrors: Return of the Bling
Experimentation with animated GIFs continues, this time with some selective desaturation* and background blurring. *Desaturation is just a fancy way of saying removal of color. But you knew that.
Little Porch of Horrors: The Sequel
I’m not going to quit until I get this right. Or something. I tried my hand at a timelapse sequence of a blooming hibiscus about a week ago. The sequence was OK, but my camera’s battery pooped out before the bloom opened completely. Yesterday, a new camera housing arrived, one that will allow me to… Continue reading Little Porch of Horrors: The Sequel