Monday color 38

For this week’s Monday color, we rely on the brilliance of Aconitum blossoms, otherwise known by a zillion different names such as monkshood, wolf’s bane, devil’s bane, Queen of All Poisons, and flake attractor, the last of which is my own, coined after seeing the woo-related claims and usages for the plant that can be found online. While purported to have countless different read more

On the negative side 6


For this escapee from the film negative vault, we go back, oh, about twelve years to a casual photo competition on the rec.photo.equipment.35mm newsgroup (c’mon, don’t make me explain that, it’s not that old.) While I was well into shooting on slide film at the time, I often did the competition shots on negative film and took them to the local drugstore read more

Real quick

First off, you do know Halloween is coming, right? This little lady seems to…

I know, after claiming I could completely blow off the blog in the last post, I pretty much completely blew off the blog, a demonstration of dependability from me that is entirely unprecedented – it just took the right motivation. More is coming shortly, since I have some recent pics to feature, but first is read more

Monday color 37+

So, the important stuff first: with this post I surpass all previous records for posting within a year, and we’re only in mid-October! Everything past this point is gravy, and even if I stop posting now, I’ve still got that accomplishment under my belt. It’s a warm fuzzy feeling, let me tell you.

A lot of this is due, naturally, to starting this whole “Monday color” read more

Monday color 37

Decisions, decisions…

We have an Euonymus americanus in the yard, more commonly known as a “hearts-a-bustin'” or even a strawberry bush, the latter by people with little imagination and no concept of being confusing as hell, since it has no relation to the plant that actually produces strawberries. As can be seen here, instead it has a remarkable display when the seeds read more

Cry, “Sexism!” and let loose…

I’m not going to finish that header, because no matter what, it’s going to be taken the wrong way…

If you’ve been checking out links on that blogroll over on the sidebar, you may be aware that Ed Yong at Not Exactly Rocket Science has a semi-regular Saturday post called, “I’ve Got Your Missing Links Right Here,” that often has links to some interesting read more

The nights get chilly


That’s the best reason I can think of for suddenly finding a grey treefrog sitting atop a fencepost two afternoons back, since the active season has passed and I haven’t even been hearing their calls for a while now. But I suspect that, with the temperature dropping to around 15°c (59°f) overnight, the ectothermic amphibian was aiming to warm up a bit and aid read more

The day you’ve dreaded is almost nigh

While it would have been nice to completely forget about this, at some time in the past, in a fit of uncharacteristic optimism, I put the damn thing into my calendar and reminders have been popping up for days. Far be it from me to suffer alone, so be warned: tomorrow is National Grouch Day, as you probably already know so this post is an utter waste of time.

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Defying the rain

The nice thing about going long periods without rain is that scheduling photo outings isn’t difficult – provided you can cope with the heat. The recent rains have changed this quite a bit, and I’ve had to switch several student appointments around due to cruddy weather. This past Saturday, we watched the weather reports on practically an hourly basis and chanced a botanical garden read more

Oh, you’re still here?


Sorry, more mantids, but you can’t watch the life cycle of several local individuals, including hundreds if not thousands of photos (I have not tallied them up yet, but mind you, these are the keepers) and not want to maintain updates.

First off, if you’re going to have an interest in entomology, it seems prudent to check several sources for information, as well as to keep checking read more

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