Spiral Grid
St. Petersburg, Florida
2019
By the time this is posted, we will be spending some time in warm, sunny Arizona. But before I start posting some photos from there, I’m going to post a few images from a previous winter getaway to Florida. This image is of the central atrium at the Dali Museum. I don’t believe there is any museum quite of it’s stature in Arizona, but I know we will somehow manage to enjoy ourselves anyway.
Sedges Have Edges
Bozeman, Montana
2022
At one point a few years ago I took it on myself to try and learn the names and distinguishing characteristics of all the grass and grass-like plants that grow around our cabin. I soon discovered that identifying specific species can be very, very hard and I mostly have given up. I did learn a useful mnemonic though:
Sedges have edges,
Rushes are round,
Grasses have nodes from the top to the ground
An easy way to identify a sedge is to roll the plant stem between the fingers. If it has obvious edges to it, it is a sedge. Based on this information, I’m confident in declaring that this photo is of some sedges growing around the edge of our pond a few months ago. Beyond that I’d be mostly guessing if I claimed to know the specific type of sedge. But at this point in winter when we’ve already been inundated with snow, it’s just fine to appreciate this image without getting all scientific about it.
POTD: Sedges Have Edges Read More »
Rookie Mistake
Bozeman, Montana
2022
Most of the food the magpies pick up from our feeder does not get eaten right away. Instead they fly around and bury it somewhere, hoping they will be able to remember where they put it and come back to it before some other bird finds it. This young magpie tried to stuff it’s treasure down into the snow on this fir tree branch. It kept pushing it down and the snow kept falling off of it to reveal it again. Finally it pushed it so far it fell through the branch and landed down below somewhere. The magpie flew down to try and recover it. I don’t know if it was a successful recovery or not.
POTD: Rookie Mistake Read More »
Spread ’em
Bozeman, Montana
2022
The back lighting on this magpie makes its wings translucent. (Note the shadow of the chain on the white parts of the bird’s left wing.
Fly-By
Bozeman, Montana
2022
Usually the crows and magpies spar over the food that we put out for them, with the crows tending to dominate. For some reason the crows have not even showed up recently. They’re around though–I caught these three flying by in a snowstorm. Maybe they don’t like the menu choices.
Happy Holidays
Bozeman, Montana
2009
This image is from quite some time ago. We don’t have much opportunity to see this kind of scene at our mountain house these days as we’ve been spending winters in town. I am sad to not see such lovely winter scenes as this anymore but at the same time very happy I don’t have to clear snow on a half mile of road all winter. Life, as we all know, is full of trade-offs.
We’re fortunate again this year to be able to spend some of the wintertime in Arizona, and are headed that way now. We’re camping in the Mojave Desert right now. No snow or cold here. It doesn’t look like Christmas out here but the weather is great.
POTD: Happy Holidays! Read More »
