plants – widening rings…

The Dry Beauty of Summer

From top to bottom:

sun burning away the morning marine layer
eucalyptus leaves & grass
Black Sage (Salvia mellifera)
thistle (Silybum marianum, I think…)

(OK, so it’s not quite as brown out there as these photos imply! Ha! I’ve added a sepia cast to all the images to heighten the effect, but it is looking pretty arid and brittle out there in places. Nevertheless, the cooler morning temps we’ve been having did allow for a nice, long walk yesterday up the fire road to the water tanks and then down to the creek for a little exploring. More photos to come…)

Harsi / August 11, 2011 / flowers, plants, weather / 2 Comments

Geranium Grouper?

It might just be that I didn’t sleep enough last night, but does anyone else see a hungry fish coming right for you?

Lovely plant: courtesy of my mother-in-law’s garden

Interesting patterned leaves: courtesy of hungry insects or snails

Fanciful underwater interpretation: courtesy of yours truly

*grin*

I hope no one is sick of the whole (mir)ror im(age) thing yet… I have really been having lots of fun with this!! And since laughing, smiling and generally having more fun are all items on my “How To Improve My Life” list, you can expect to be seeing more in the future.

Harsi / August 9, 2011 / fun stuff, plants / 8 Comments

Doubling My Fun

This past week, I took a few more shots of trees with the express intention of playing around with flipping the photos. I had such a good time with the last few (mir)ror im(age) posts — here and here — but I wondered how I could step it up a notch for this round.

Well, if two images mirroring each other created something fantastical… What would FOUR look like?

Just in case anyone was curious, these are the original images:

trees, pre-flipped

Harsi / August 5, 2011 / fun stuff, plants / 0 Comments

Trials & Toyon-ations

I had planned to write something today about my recent wildlife sightings around here. I had several other small projects and “to do” items lined up for myself as well. And, I definitely — definitely! — had earmarked a chunk of the day for a walk outside. But, as John Lennon sang, “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.”

In my case, “life” included: an impressive number of big ants invading the bed + me asleep + a very unseemly hour of the morning.

I’ll spare you the somewhat traumatizing details and just tell you that I didn’t get any sleep after that and spent much of the day trying to ensure that it doesn’t happen again tonight. I think I’ve done as much as I can and I’m already finding ways to laugh at my early morning ordeal. (What else are you gonna’ do?!) But, as I never did get around to writing the post I had in mind, I hope no one minds seeing another one of the (mir)ror im(ages) I created yesterday… *exhausted grin*

“Toyon Bird”

Harsi / July 30, 2011 / fun stuff, lyrics, plants / 0 Comments

Saying Goodbye to Some Friends

I took a walk down to the creek this afternoon. At a certain point, I realized there was a lot more sunlight getting through the canopy than normal. I looked down and saw the newly cut stump of a tree. I continued walking and found at least two more stumps a little further on. I’m not even certain what kind of trees they were… I think they might have been Incense Cedar (Calocedrus sp.). You see, they had all been heavily burned in the major fire that ripped through the canyon in 2003. I do not believe that any of them had had any growing foliage and perhaps they were not long for this world. I honestly do not know the fine points of when and how to responsibly care for burned or damaged trees. I do know (from experience) that those trees that occur along the road are also a possible hazard in potentially falling on power lines or across the road itself. We do not own this property and I try not to presume the motivations and necessities of such actions.

All that being said… I was quite sad.

These trees were blackened and stunted, but they still held so much life as far as I am concerned. How many Gray Squirrels had I watched scamper up that one? When was it that I had photographed that interesting fungus growing at this one’s base? Remember the striking contrast of the red Poison Oak against the charcoal bark?

And just recently… Just recently, I photographed several of these trees in order to document the many bear claw marks I found. (This is the same stretch of creek as I wrote about in my recent bear post.)

This is my small homage to these once great fixtures along my regular walking path. I will miss you.

Harsi / July 25, 2011 / plants / 1 Comment

A Most Welcome Visitor

When I put together my post, “Common Ground”, I was hoping that I’d get a little positive feedback or perhaps some discussion surrounding the concept. I honestly was not expecting to inspire anyone else creatively. So, you can imagine how pleased I was when my friend Ruth e-mailed me several of her own paired photos! Viewing her unique and wonderful interpretation of the overlapping themes in natural vs. man-made structures and scenes was a real joy for me. I loved the thought of this idea evolving into a community art project of sorts. I promptly asked Ruth if she would mind my sharing some of her images on my blog. She was gracious enough to agree and I am thrilled to present them here…

[NOTE: *Click on any of the photos below to see a larger version.* Quoted captions are excerpts from Ruth’s e-mails. All of the photos in this post (except for the ant) are the property of Ruth Gravanis. If you are interested in re-posting them or using them for any other purpose, you must ask her permission first. You may contact me via this blog if you wish to get in touch with her.]

(top) “while waiting for the bus on a rainy morning on a street near my house”
(bottom) “looking across the Golden Gate, from the Presidio of SF to Marin County”

(top) “partially de-constructed aerial bus ramp in downtown SF”
(bottom) “polypody ferns on YBI [Yerba Buena Island]”

And last, but certainly not least, she sent me an image of hers to pair with one of mine from a previous blog post:

(top) “Transbay Terminal demolition, 10/25/10”
(bottom) big unidentified ant, foraging 5/27/10

I hope that Ruth will continue to send me her photo pairings as I truly do enjoy seeing them! All of her images were taken in the City and County of San Francisco. The added dimension of “place” — photos taken in geographic proximity to where one lives — makes these all the more special I think.

Of the small (but very loyal) band of friends that read my blog, many of you are also naturalists and photographers. It would be great fun if anyone else feels like joining in and trying their hand at pairing some photos of their own!

Harsi / July 23, 2011 / arthropods, not nature, photography, plants, water / 5 Comments

Some Like It (a little less) Hot

Much of the country experienced record high temperatures today. While we’ve been fluctuating between low- to mid-90s, I know it has been much hotter than that for some of you.

I found myself thinking about the temperate island we visited off the coast of Seattle at the beginning of March. Vashon’s high for today was 72 degrees. The average temperature there for this time of year is listed as 78 degrees.

I tried to imagine myself in the midst of all that cool, green loveliness. It was hard… Fortunately, I have a bevy of photos from our trip to assist me in my fantasizing. You’re welcome to join me!

Moist, overgrown and incredible! From our walk around Christensen Pond…

Christensen Pond, Vashon, Washington

Intoxicating blue and a breeze along the water’s edge at Fisher Pond…

Fisher Pond, Vashon, Washington

Is it working? Do you feel any cooler? Maybe a degree or two?

Well… I tried! *GRIN*

Harsi / July 22, 2011 / plants, travel, water, weather / 4 Comments

Selective Color

One of the Photoshop techniques that I enjoy applying to some of my photos involves desaturating the image to remove all of the color and then selectively painting portions where I want to bring it back. It can make an artistic statement, draw the eye to a particularly lovely element, or help to make the primary subject matter stand out from a similarly-colored background. Here are a few that I’ve been playing with over the last several months…

California Black Bear (Ursus americanus californiensis) footprint with fallen California Sycamore (Platanus racemosa) leaf in mud.

American Bullfrog (Lithobates catesbeianus) hiding among aquatic plants in pHake Lake at the Robert J. Bernard Biological Field Station.

Aphid on young Laurel Sumac (Malosma laurina) leaf.

Harsi / July 20, 2011 / amphibians, arthropods, mammals, photography, plants, tracks / 2 Comments

As Good As July Gets!

After hyping my fantastic walk on Wednesday, I promised I’d share it with you all today (Thursday), but as I’m not getting to posting this until midnight, no one will even read this until Friday! *sigh*

Sorry, everybody. It was cloudy and cool again today and (apparently) I have no will power when it comes to such matters. Now I’m about two days behind on other stuff that needed my attention. But, thinking over my memories of the past two days’ walks, I can honestly say I have no regrets! *GRIN*

And now, on to the good stuff…

In the summer months, I keep a few containers filled with water outside our cabin. There are increasingly few water sources for birds and mammals as the seasonal creek shrinks and slows to a trickle in some spots.

In addition to several bird species (including a Cooper’s Hawk!), I have also seen deer, fox, bobcat, coyote, rabbit and squirrel availing themselves.

This Western Gray Squirrel (Sciurus griseus) was busy getting a drink as I stepped outside for my walk. *Be sure to click on the image for an amusing bonus shot.* You lookin’ at me??!

In the active months of summer, it can be hard to get past the front of my cabin withougt being distracted by some new arthropod.

In this case, the wooden porch railing was hosting something otherworldy!

This is the immature (nymph) stage of some leafhopper (Family Cicadellidae) species. Up close, It’s very impressive looking — with that spiked tail — but its actual size is all of about 2 to 3 millimeters.

One of the best parts about cool weather in the summer months is that many of these insects will slow down considerably.

Looking for resting bees hanging out in the center of flowers is one of my favorite pastimes.

I would have stayed longer taking more photographs of this bee (no ID yet!) resting in a white Oleander bloom, but one of my neighbors was apparently becoming quite agitated…

Another gray squirrel had climbed high into the bare branches of an olive tree, twitching its tail and loudly alerting everything to my presence.

I tried to assure the squirrel that I was not even remotely worth all the fuss.

But the yammering continued and I decided to peaceably move along.

One of the increasingly few remaining California Poppies still blooming this late in the season.

The eye-popping orange is even more startling amidst the browning backdrop of our summer hillsides.

I stopped to photograph this sluggish Fence Lizard (Sceloporus occidentalis longipes).

Every time the light shifted and became a little brighter, I would glance skyward to see if the sun was finally going to successfully break through the clouds. I held my breath, hoping the cloud cover would hold.

I glanced down and realized that the lizard was looking up too… I’m guessing it was eagerly awaiting that very moment.

Sun is like coffee for lizards… their day gets off to a slow start without it.

I turned to inspect a large patch of California Sagebrush (Artemisia californica) and struck gold… well, COPPER actually!

This female Tailed Copper (Lycaena arota) was insanely cooperative and let me get close to take some beautiful photos.

Then, she really outdid herself…

…and turned to show off the pretty pattern on the top of her wings.

How do you say “thank you” in butterfly? *GRIN*

When I passed this same spot on the way home, I thought she was still sitting there. But, it turned out to be a male this time. Coincidence? Or was he also waiting, just hoping that she would return?

A frustrating moment at the end of my very lovely walk…

There on the ground among the brightly colored eucalyptus leaves was more balloon garbage.

I wrote about my rather strong feelings on this subject in this post from last May. Along with this item, I also picked up a latex glove (ewww…) and several other random bits of plastic.

I long for a world where we as a species create significantly less waste. Where we are all concerned about what happens to our trash as it infiltrates increasingly remote natural environs.

~ May we all find more feathers than trash on the trail. ~

This one belonged to an Acorn Woodpecker (Melanerpes formicivorus), I think. Compare to image here.

Harsi / July 14, 2011 / arthropods, birds, conservation, flowers, mammals, not nature, plants / 2 Comments

Common Ground

This is one of a series of images that I’ve been playing around with for awhile… Juxtaposing photos of organic and non-organic subject matter. In this case, there’s an interesting thematic similarity in that both the metal pipes and the exposed tree roots are used to convey water. But, in general, I’ve simply been playing with analogous patterns, lines, color or light.

Any thoughts or insights on this concept? I’m quite certain it’s not an original one… Just wondering if it works effectively here?

Harsi / July 11, 2011 / not nature, photography, plants / 2 Comments