The other day I went out to the NC Botanical Garden for the first time in ages, to see what could be found. Notably, this was the first time in several years, I think, that I found no Carolina anoles during my visit, though we’ll make up for that shortly. There were enough other things to photograph, but like
Author: Al Denelsbeck
Lazy swapping
I know people keep going on about this and it’s a bit tiresome, but it really is lazy to just swap out “ne” for “ly” and consider it a whole new month. “August” and “September” I can get behind, two entirely different words with almost nothing in common you know you’re making changes when September comes around. With these
Heartbreaking
I realize we’re in a culture that has more causes, charities, campaigns, and fundraisers for various ills than we can ever tabulate, and that this one is likely to pass under the radar, but seeing it in person is simply devastating. I’m talking, naturally (as always,) about Help Arthropod Color-Blindness Day, which is tomorrow (June 30th, in the Northwestern hemisphere
Toldja
Remember when I said that a frog could be nestled within the canopy of the little potted Japanese maple on our deck and I might never see it? I mean, it was just a couple of days ago, a mere two posts back.
The next day (I’m a little slow on pasting right now,) I was watering that very tree and a green treefrog (Dryophytes cinereus) erupted from within and landed on the deck, obviously
My kind of summer weather
So, really last night now, we were receiving warnings of dire storms to pass through the area, with conflicting time frames, but I was ready for them regardless. I’m fine with sunny clear weather, and even lightly overcast days, because each has their own light quality for different subjects, but when the weather itself is a subject, good bracing storms are a lot more fun. Not too
Need better curtains
I was out on the back deck firing up the grill tonight and checked out the various plants that share that space. One of the hydrangeas showed something grumpy (or at least, I’m wildly interpreting it that way.)
No, I’m not really expecting you to spot it easily at this distance, I just did this one for context, though it’s there if you look close. But even I was
Tripod holes 26
N 35°43’3.71″ W 82°13’21.89″ Google Earth location
Back when I was trying to locate Crabtree Falls, I stumbled across this location on the map (Green Knob Overlook) and instantly recognized it comparing Street View with my photo produces an exact match.
A break
After three days of near-solid rain, including a horrendous downpour while we were getting dinner last night, the sky suddenly cleared, mostly, and I went down to Jordan Lake out of curiosity, mainly to see how much higher the water level was. Surprisingly, it barely appeared higher at all, so either they kicked out the stops down at the dam end, or most of the water in the area
Any falconers out there?
It’s occurring to me that it would be a lot easier to run experiments on photographic and camera options if I had subjects that performed consistently and when I needed them to. I can’t even get the cats to do this (no duh,) so it certainly isn’t going to occur with the raptors. Were there a bigger market among nature photographers (or, you know, if we actually got paid a decent
That kind of day
Today is the summer solstice, the longest period of daylight in the calendar year, as well as World Humanist Day – but I’m not posting about either of these (or much of anything, really.) It’s been raining for two days straight, which we’ve needed, which is a horribly adult thing to say – pathetic all around. But this means I’ve done very little



















































