Rarely do I shoot directly in the sun, but these maple leaves on our path caught my eye today. Another belly shot.

If they look too vivid, let me know. I did not increase saturation, but I do know how to lessen it. Might depend on all of our monitors.

A tad chilly and windy; we had to scurry to find warmer hats and gloves ;-)

Very rarely have I come across a hare as laid back and confiding as this one, allowing me to share its world for so long a period.

The location was a grassy bank on the edge of a stubble field beside a wood. The track I crept along was slightly uphill enabling me to keep low until I dropped down and inched gently forward on my knees in order to photograph it eye to eye.

I make no apologies for posting several more intimate images after this one of it nibbling the grass, scratching, washing, grooming and glancing casually my way from time to time by way of checking that all was still ok.

Pleasingly, when I carefully backed away, overjoyed and thankful, it just carried on with its Brown Hare business.

I rarely post more then one picture per day but I was doing some indoor shooting today using my 40mm macro lens along with an 12mm extension tube. Shooting inside allows me to get really close to my subject and I don't have to worry about the wind! The head of these Sun Roses are about the size of a nickle, so pretty small. I was pretty happy with a couple and wanted to share. Thanks for your continued support of my habit! LOL

When last we touch

we rarely know

this time’s the last

you’re soon to go

But since we’ve touched

you’ll always be

a special light

inside of me

Farewell dear friend

Beth's final image was, fittingly, a tribute to another: www.flickr.com/photos/61357175@N08/15681796280/

See Beth's lovely work here: www.flickr.com/photos/61357175@N08/

Or say goodbye to Beth here: www.flickr.com/groups/photopigs/discuss/72157649159582490/

White-Tailed Deer.

From between 27 to 45 inches tall and 6 to 7 feet long and weighing 150-310 pounds (male) and 90 to 211 pounds (female). Tan or reddish brown in summer and grayish brown in winter. Belly, throat, nose band, eye ring and inside of ears are white. Tail brown and edged with white above often with a dark stripe down the center and white below. Black spots on side of chin. Buck's antlers can spread to 3 feet. Does rarely have antlers. Fawns are spotted.

The White-Tailed Deer inhabits farmlands, brushy areas, woods, suburbs and gardens.

They range throughtout the southern half of the southern tier of Canadian provinces and through most of the United States except for the Southwest.

Kensington Metropark, Livingston County, Michigan.

I rarely post two pictures on the same day. But I had already taken this photo for the Looking Close... on Friday! group's birds theme when I realized that today would have been my mom's 99th birthday. For several years after she died, I went for a photo walk on her birthday and then posted an image. Somehow I let that habit slip when we moved here a few years ago. So I went to my archives to find a bird photo to post today in her memory and for the group. Unfortunately, my skills and camera are not up to a live bird close up. So the (previous image) post for my mom is post processed, and the one for the group is this little sculpture. It's about 3 inches (7.6cm) long and 2 inches (5cm) high. The background is an art glass "basket" by Preston Singletary.

Wood Duck (male).

17 to 20 inches in length. A crested, multicolored duck. The male is patterned in iridescent greens, purples and blues with a distinctive white chin patch and face stripes with a mainly red bill and long tail. The female is grayish with a broad white eye ring.

They inhabit wooded rivers and ponds and wooded swamps. VIsits freshwater marshes in late summer and fall.

They range from British Columbia south to California and from Montana east to Nova Scotia and south to Texas and Florida. They are absent in the Rocky Mountains and Great Plains. Winters near Pacific Coast north to Washington and to New Jersy in the Eastern United States but rarely further north.

Kensington Metropark, Livingston County, Michigan.

Naples Botanical Gardens

Southeaster Florida

USA

The Pied-billed Grebe is common across much of North America. These small brown birds have unusually thick bills that turn silver and black in summer. These expert divers inhabit sluggish rivers, freshwater marshes, lakes, and estuaries.

They use their chunky bills to kill and eat large crustaceans along with a great variety of fish, amphibians, insects, and other invertebrates. Rarely seen in flight and often hidden amid vegetation, Pied-billed Grebes announce their presence with loud, far-reaching calls.

Their feet are located near their rear ends. This body plan, a common feature of many diving birds, helps grebes propel themselves through water. Lobed (not webbed) toes further assist with swimming. Pied-billed Grebes pay for their aquatic prowess on land, where they walk awkwardly. Pied-billed Grebes are poor fliers and typically stay on the water.

Pied-billed Grebes can trap water in their feathers, giving them great control over their buoyancy. They can sink deeply or stay just at or below the surface, exposing as much or as little of the body as they wish. The water-trapping ability may also aid in the pursuit of prey by reducing drag in turbulent water. - Wiklipedia

I rarely see the yellow females - only when I spot a mating pair. The red males perch on grasses out over our larger reservoirs and mountain lakes. Even more rarely do I spot one with the big spots in their wings - once considered a separate subspecies. Lathem Reservoir, North Georgia

Not very sharp - sorry! Was trying not to spook them on a hot & humid day

I rarely see Lesser Goldfnches. I have only seen a couple of them at my home. Not a great photo but I wanted to document this bird. Photographed through window glass. At most this bird stopped by for 3 minutes. IMG_4599

or not! lol! see what a little water in a spritzer bottle can do? well, i rarely get up that early to see morning dew, so i thought why not make it myself?

sorry for being late in catching up my friends ill see you really soon!!!

oh, HBW! my membership is still not accepted in the group, but here is a post anyway.

EHBD!

I rarely have candy at home.

Fortunately, this pack of marshmallows was in my cupboards when the Candy theme was announced.

The silky texture of these pastel colored candies reminded me of the sweetness and carefree nature of childhood .... in regressive mode. 😉

i rarely see ladybugs and when I do I get so excite, so I carried the one in the previous shot on the green stem over to my cone flowers for another photo op.

Thanks for all your comments and visits... I am so guilty of post-and-run I apologize...going for a long walk with a friend this AM..

sorry you will rarely find a continuity in my pictures, I demand a lot from you, but the world is just too interesting to always commit to the eternal same, at least for me ... ;-) ...

Der Hirsch (stag), so der Titel des Kunstwerkes von Bertram Jesdinsky, der schon eine sehr der Natur angenäherte Form besitzt, interessiert sich für 3 Blätter, die auf einer orthogonalen, unnatürlichen Steinanordnung liegen ...

und im Grunde zeige ich hier eine ungewöhnliche Szenerie seiner Ausstellung, denn der Künstler scheint Kind geblieben zu sein, und das ist die beste Voraussetzung für Neugier und kreative Kunst, eine Ausstellung, bei der ich dachte, sie ist auch für Kinder interessant ...

Als das Kunstwerk ein bestimmtes Stadium erreicht hatte, patinierte er es und um den Atelierboden zu schützen stellte er es auf Metalplatten.

Man erreicht die Patinierung von Kupfer durch Oxidation der Oberfläche ... durch die Salze der Salpetersäure, also durch Nitrate. Die grünweiße Schicht ergibt dann einen Rostschutz.

Zufällig entstanden durch die herabtropfende Salpetersäure auf den Bodenplatten Bilder ... sie nennt er "Salzbild II, III, XII" usw..

_NYC0359_pt2

We have driven past this reserve many times over the years always without stopping.

Thus we decided it was time for a visit and it certainly won't be our last.

A sign board illustrated the regularly seen and rarely seen wildlife on offer. Amongst the latter was the red squirrel, so imagine our delight minutes into our walk when this beauty ran out, right in front of us.

Red Squirrel (Sciurus Vulgaris)

Highland Titles Nature Reserve, Duror - Scotland

Many thanks to all those who take the time to comment on my photos. It is truly appreciated.

DSC_4863. Explore 12 September 2020 #324

The smallest kingfisher in the Philippines at only 14cm long and rarely seen. They live in dense forest and this one was no different, sitting in a tangled mess of palms.I had to wait 40 minutes for it to return to this perch. Then I had to shoot through a narrow space in the leaves at high ISO. The effort was worth it though.

Enchanted River, Mindanao Island, Philippines

Bruges, such a beautiful city. I admit I rarely went to it, although it's not that far from my home. The reason is, I'm not such a big fan of medieval architecture, I prefer modernism. How could I be so wrong. I managed to make some incredible long exposure shots, definitely will go again.

When I first spotted the doe and fawn mule deer, they were standing in a rain catch basin with a 4 foot brick retaining wall. The catch basin was about 50 yards down a hill densely covered in chaparral. The only way to get it was via a power utility access road closed off to vehicular traffic. When I walked down the road to get a shot of the mule deer, I spotted this beautiful graffiti on the far side wall. It is likely only a very few people have seen this art (until this photo).

The Baltic Sea and its daily business. It is my penultimate photo. We had a good rest here on vacation. I had a little time to experiment here. It's amazing how differently people spend their vacation by the sea.

etherwood — follow the river ♫

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EOSR | RF50mm f/1.2L USM

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◤Guys, this is a comment-free post. Nevertheless, thank you very much for viewing the photo. Best greetings. fr̅a̅n̅k

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This image is subject to full copyright © Please do not use my images on websites, blogs, or in other media without express written permission. It is not permitted to copy, download,

reproduce, retransmit, modify, or manipulate my photos.

F̶̅G̅. 2022 © all rights reserved

Rarely see them folks, they are remarkably beautiful and so different than the R.S.'s and will take all I can.

Have a great Friday and a great weekend, and as always thank you for visiting and for commenting.

I rarely get up for sunrise so staying at a B&B right by the water in Digby gave me no excuses! I was hoping for a few more clouds to make the sky interesting, but at least there was no fog...the fog bank on the left rolled in about an hour later and completely blocked the view of everything

rarely captured in the open, moose are natural brousers and spend most of their time in the brush....rocky mountain national park...

Rarely do I get these shots, and I didn't do so well this day with my new camera and Florida's bright morning sun.

“Мною редко кто восхищается. И что с того? Так даже лучше!” 😔 Rosa canina.

Rosa blanda, commonly known as the smooth rose, meadow/wild rose, or prairie rose, is a species of rose native to North America. Among roses, it is closest to come to a "thornless" rose, with just a few thorns at the base. The meadow rose occurs as a colony-forming shrub growing to 1 m (3.3 ft) high, naturally in prairies and meadows. The roses are quite variable, the characteristics such as leaf tip number of prickles and glandular hairs usually do not always remain constant, thus it is often confused with Rosa arkansana or Rosa carolina, the two other prairie rose species.

MISS ROSIE, A CORPSE FLOWER, bloomed at Tucson's Botanical Gardens on Monday April 23, 2018. I photographed it the following day when it was in the early stages of closing. The Flower was pollenated and the eventual seeds will hopefully produce more Corpse Flowers. This image is a detail.

The corpse flower is a pungent plant that blooms rarely and only for a short time. While it is in bloom, the flower emits a strong odor similar to rotting meat or, aptly, a decaying corpse.

I rarely shoot traffic from the high iron of the Drummondville Subdivision but, I'm trying to make exceptions for these soon to be gone 900 & REN sets. With the arrival of new Siemens-built trainsets, the 900's, Renaissance, LRC's and even most of the HEP fleet will be removed from service.

LE Trainee M.B, LE P.G and ICLE O.C are at the helm of daily QMO train (Quebec-Montreal-Ottawa) №37 from Quebec City to Montreal with P42DC 920 and a solid set of Renaissance equipement.

Rarely seen in the open for more than a few seconds, this Water Rail bucked the trend and waded in front of a hide for more than 10 minutes to the delight of visitors at the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust's Slimbridge reserve in Gloucestershire.

Rarely seen in these heavily farmed areas, but recalled from childhood hedgerows and meadows. Now they are mainly seen as the flowers of remembrance as Armistice Day approaches. Beautiful and delicate - brightly they shine!

For the Smile on Saturday challenge: "Poppies"

Cliché and Smile on Saturday: Here

Flowers wild and local: here

Cleo rarely visits the world on the other side of the fence as usually she doesn't see any sense in summoning the energy for such an endeavor. It's not easy for a cat of her size to climb over a fence. She has a ladder on my side of the fence which makes it easier for her but there still remains the big question how to get back. The neighbour hasn't seriously considered yet to put a ladder on his side of the fence as well. When Cleo has ended up in the neighbouring garden and wants to return home she often rather walks around the neighbour's house and along the street to our front door where she has to wait until someone finally lets her in. As she can't reach the door bell that can take a while. If she is lucky a neighbour who sees her informs me that "the big cat" is waiting in front of the door. Cleo doesn't consider "big cat" as a compliment, btw. :) Happy Fence Friday !

Solanum laxum, commonly known as potato vine, potato climber or jasmine nightshade, is an evergreen vine in the family Solanaceae. It is native to South America and commonly grown as an ornamental garden plant.

The jasmine-flowered nightshade is a woody climber that forms branches 2 to 8 m long and has a base that can reach more than 10 centimeters in diameter. Fast-growing, it climbs by winding the leaf stalks around supports. The shoot axes are strongly angled zigzag, hairless or in the youth stage with simple, white, single-row trichomes less than 0.5 millimeters in length. New growth is hairless or finely to sparsely hairy. The bark of older branches is green or reddish green or, if the plant grows in direct sunlight, often purple-green. The ovate or ovate-lanceolate leaves are 30 to 50 mm long and 15 to 25 mm wide. The sympodial units contain many leaves. These are usually simple, only very rarely divided with one to four irregular lobes and pinnately split.

MOVING FORWARD... As you all know I rarely post private/personal stuff...today is a milestone for me..hopefully one of many to come. At 9 am today, my attorney and I will go before a judge to restore my maiden name. Most people change their name at the time of their divorce but mine was not a typical divorce...it ONLY took 4 years. At that time I was alone, completely terrified because of his erratic insane behavior (which many of you have witnessed for yourselves still happens to this day). My focus was on staying safe and not a name. It's a great feeling knowing I will be free of the final piece that ties me to 19 years of unhappiness. To those who have been through this journey with me..thank you..I love you.

<3

'Rarely pure and never simple' might be a better title as it better describes the reality of nature.

I rarely get to see the Chipping Sparrows up close but this one was perched in our Rose of Sharon tree outside the kitchen window.

When it turned its back to me I couldn't help but notice how pretty its plumage is. It almost looks like this one is wearing a cozy little shawl over its shoulders.

I rarely take or post pictures of a captive bird but this feisty little Kestrel certainly caught my eye. He was born and raised in captivity and is part of a traveling educational show performing during the Fall Family Day at Upper Canada Bird Sanctuary. The other raptors--a Harris's Hawk, Red-tailed Hawk, a Barn Owl and Peregrine Falcon were so well trained they could be taken off leash and allowed to fly freely in the field and trees. Really amazing to see how they would then return to their trainer. Not so, this little guy. He would love to escape and I am sure you would never see him again!

"Tremella mesenterica (common names include yellow brain, golden jelly fungus, yellow trembler, and witches' butter) is a common jelly fungus in the Tremellaceae family of the Agaricomycotina. It is most frequently found on dead but attached and on recently fallen branches, especially of angiosperms, as a parasite of wood decay fungi in the genus Peniophora. The gelatinous, orange-yellow fruit body of the fungus, which can grow up to 7.5 cm (3.0 in) diameter, has a convoluted or lobed surface that is greasy or slimy when damp. It grows in crevices in bark, appearing during rainy weather. Within a few days after rain it dries into a thin film or shriveled mass capable of reviving after subsequent rain. This fungus occurs widely in deciduous and mixed forests and is widely distributed in temperate and tropical regions that include Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, North and South America. Although considered bland and flavorless, the fungus is edible. Tremella mesenterica produces carbohydrates that are attracting research interest because of their various biological activities.

The fruit body has an irregular shape, and usually breaks through the bark of dead branches. It is up to 7.5 cm (3.0 in) broad and 2.5 to 5.0 cm (1.0 to 2.0 in) high, rounded to variously lobed or brain-like in appearance. The fruit body is gelatin-like but tough when wet, and hard when dry. The surface is usually smooth, the lobes translucent, deep yellow or bright yellow-orange, fading to pale yellow, rarely unpigmented and white or colorless. The fruit bodies dry to a dark reddish or orange. The spores, viewed in mass, are whitish or pale yellow." - WiKi

"De gele trilzwam (Tremella mesenterica) is een trilzwam uit de familie Tremellaceae.

De gele trilzwam is het gehele jaar door, maar vooral in voorjaar en late herfst, te vinden op takken van loofbomen en struiken. De soort is algemeen in België en Nederland.

Het vruchtlichaam heeft een doorsnede van 1 tot 5 cm en is onregelmatig hersenachtig geplooid. Het komt tevoorschijn uit spleten in boomschors en is eerst geel en later bleekgeel gekleurd. In droge toestand verandert de substantie van geleiachtig tot kraakbeenachtig taai en ook donkerder van kleur." - WiKi

As promised (to Tom) very early Thursday afternoon, two more Acorn woodpeckers upon request. This is a special pair. Normally, I can't tell a mated pair of these birds because they are not monogamous although they do only mate within the family. In order to become a member of an Acorn woodpecker family,you have to be ... hartched into it. Several generations are part of the family. For an outsider to be nominated, there usually has to be a death in the family. I don't know how the voting is accomplished, but I would imagine if the nominee shows up with three or more acorns, its got the insider track.

This is a pair: the male is on the left; female on the right. You can tell by the differences in the red crown.

The acorn woodpecker's habitat is forested areas with oaks in the coastal areas and foothills of Oregon, California, and the southwestern United States, south through Central America to Colombia.This species may occur at low elevations in the north of its range, but rarely below 1,000 m (3,300 ft) in Central America, and it breeds up to the timberline. Nests are excavated in a cavity in a dead tree or a dead part of a tree. Other characteristics are discussed in yesterday's upload.

One other thing that I always mention is that these "clowns" of the woodpecker species were the inspiration for Woody Woodpecker by cattroonist Walter Lantz in the 1930s. The call, a lioud ratcheting sound, HAD to be the model for Woody's call.

This was one of the earliest successful shots of this woodpecker, and one of the first bird images with the SX20 camera. Knowing the behavior and territory of a family ofhem is exceedingly useful in getting good images. For these two, I found the three main Valley oaks (out of as many as five), saw which was getting the most attention, and staked it out for the better part of two summers. With all that, I never saw where a nest was although I could guess by the activity around a hole in the trunk. Once the young are flying, they do not use the nest cavity again. They're too busy hoarding acorns. The branch of the tree that these two were on, collapsed under its own weight in May of 2011. It was estimated that 100,000 acorns had been hammered into that one branch. By the end of 2013, the whole tree had collapsed. flic.kr/p/23Xpdx4

Rarely did one encounter a perfect A-B-A set of F units on CP (except on the 'Canadian'). Here FP7 4037, F7B 4435 and FP7 4040 sit at Quebec Street in London. 4037 was the last unit to retain its maroon-and-gray livery with script lettering, and was to be repainted a few months later.

Continuing with my winter theme of posting dragonflies I've rarely if ever posted ...

For a few warmer years I was able to find & shoot this species as close as an hour-and-a-half drive SE of here in Georgia where they would perch with Halloween pennants. But apparently, colder winters have driven them back farther south. This male was at a lake along the Gulf coast of Florida, flying with species like Golden-winged, Needham's & Bar-winged skimmers. 4-spotted's are fairly common closer to the coast.

>> male Four-spotted skimmer at a lake in Destin, Florida - 9 years ago

I rarely see oat fields, but when I took a detour on my way home from work yesterday, I found this one. However, the tree has found its way to my photostream before.

View On Black

You rarely see the orange on these grasshoppers unless they're flying but for some reason this guy was sitting so some of the orange was in view.

California Orange-winged grasshopper (Thanks to Alice for the ID)

Santa Ynez Canyon

“We are rarely aware of the tangent of the beyond at the whirling wheel of experience.… What is extraordinary appears to us as habit, the dawn a daily routine of nature. But time and again we awake. In the midst of walking in the never-ending procession of days and nights, we are suddenly filled with a solemn terror, with a feeling of our wisdom being inferior to dust. We cannot endure the heartbreaking splendor of sunsets.”

-Abraham Joshua Heschel, Man is Not Alone: A Philosophy of Religion (New York: Farrar, Straus and Young, 1951), 35.

Life rarely exists just in black and white, it is made up of countless shades in between. Every story holds layers, perspectives, and quiet truths that are not always visible at first glance.

Life is far more complex than it appears on the surface. Every person, every situation, every story holds more than one perspective. There are emotions, histories, and unseen reasons that shape what we do and how we feel.

Understanding comes when we step back from judgment and open ourselves to the deeper truths hidden between the lines.

True understanding begins when we step back from judgment and open our hearts to the deeper truths hidden between the lines.

So be humble and kind, and open to the different shades each on of us are made up of.

Compassion grows when we remember that there is often more than one side, more than one reason, and more than one truth.

♫ Music ♫

💖 In advance I want to thank each one of you for your always kindness, support, beautiful awards, favs, and messages and for taking the time to stop by my stream. Please know that I see and read them all, even if I do not reply back to them, I appreciate them all so much as well as each on of you for taking the time.

Lori 💖

One rarely sits under the coffee filter, waiting for the precious coffeinated elixir dripping through.

For this week's Macro Mondays "Look up" challenge, that's exactly what I did.

And once the photoshooting over, I poured myself a nice cup of Joe!

i find the floor is rarely where I left it

First offering with my new macro lens

I could not resist a chance to take some shots, and see what the new camera and macro lens can do. ;o)

I want the lens overwhelmingly for outdoor macro shooting, and ideally hand-held rather than always needing a tripod. My current 30mm macro lens is quite unforgiving when hand-held, and I rarely use it when I'm out and about. So I've been looking online and on Flickr to try to find a lens that could complement my existing macro, and add something different to my range of lenses.

The lens I decided on is too heavy for the small NEX body, so I found an older Sony A Mount camera body for it ... certainly heavy and bulky compared to the NEX! And plenty to learn and discover as I get used to both camera and lens ;o)

So when the sun shone early yesterday morning I took it out into the garden, where the new young shoots on the honeysuckle held plenty of raindrops. This is just one tiny leaf in the sunshine. And yes - the rain came back by midday!!

My Leaves, berries, seeds set here: Elisa Leaves, berries, seeds

Dark and wet areas of the wood are often covered in mosses here is a whole section of the woods that rarely see sunlight on our lockdown walk today.

Rarely have I seen such a profusion of blackthorn blossom as this year - 2 years of warm weather and plenty of rain - blackthorn seems to like global warming even if it frightens the rest of us. And then this herd of female fallow deer walked into the frame - my kind of photo bomb :)

I very rarely walk along the North bank of The Thames when I'm in London. I think it's because the South bank is where most of the bars, restaurants and other weird and wonderful things happen and the North bank is more geared towards the businesses etc. So, on Saturday morning after the sun had risen and was too bright to shoot down river I took a walk over to the other side.

The Shard is currently London's tallest building, a lot of people love it, a lot of people don't. But I'm one of those that do, I think it's a great looking building and one that's always worth photographing.

I've seen a few views from where this shot was taken, mostly on the upper level, but as it was busy with people I moved down to the ground so I didn't get in anyone's way. I set up my camera for a long exposure, using the steps and London Bridge to frame The Shard, and with the early morning sun giving the bridge a nice orange glow I think it came out ok.

I have to apologise for the title, it was the first Shard pun that came into my head lol!!

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