food and spirits
View allAll Photos Tagged SUSTENANCE
A Snowy Owl has graced Sidney with her presence over the past few weeks. Although not a rare bird, it is rare to have them winter on the island.
It tends to happen during years when their population explodes due to abundant prey during the breeding season. Over the winter months, the population spreads out more to find sustenance over the leaner months.
Here she is sitting on a house roof in a residential neighbourhood, and yes, this rarity coincided with another rarity for Sidney...a white Christmas! What a great combo! The best Christmas gift ever!! :))
Published in Traditional Learning Academy's electronic, February 4th newsletter: docs.google.com/document/u/1/d/e/2PACX-1vTTVshzMFdkkFO8Up...
Please don't use this image on websites, blogs, etc. without my permission.
The days became shorter and darker; the autumn flowers were shriveling, and most songbirds had migrated to the South. But amid the dried New England Asters, a solitary Monarch Butterfly tried to gain sustenance from a final bloom.
They started life pretty much like any other human legs - sprouting from a bean-shaped thing in some strange slimy broth. But once they were exposed to air, they needed independence.
"We are sorry," they told the infant girl to whom they'd come attached. "We cannot be tied down. We cannot live your straight suburban life. We must strike out on our own and explore the world and have adventures."
So the little legs toddled off into the woods and beheld many things. They did not need a body or a brain. They took sustenance directly from the earth and air, and stood side by side with trees for hours and sometimes days on end, growing.
When they had achieved their full height, the legs set off for the city, where they explored many things, and had adventures. Once, they even swung from a trapeze at a circus. Even though the sight of them, all on their own, made people queasy and the circus had to promise to never show the independent legs again.
That was fine with the legs. They had things to do. They lived long. They had their day. Their time came and went.
Now they sit alone in a dusty room, propped on a cardboard box, looking out a window. They don't go out any more. They just sit. And that's okay. These days, the simple warmth of sun along their length is all they need.
[AERTH] Moon Tears Body Tattoo OCEAN, :: ANTAYA :: Shell crown "Syren", FantaSea : Marina Corset Dress.
Aerth:
maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Atheneum/132/70/66
Antaya:
maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Doriath/22/168/93
Living the FantaSea:
maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Doriath/69/181/93
Photo locale:
Gaalthyr by Amethyst Ytelde and Scarlet Fey
Sponsored by Jeanette’s Joint & Scarlet Fey
maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Gaalthyr/126/114/155
The sea holds great powers: healing, sustenance, shelter and cleansing.
Gone are the days when a Summer's Wasp's nest would provide its adults with sugars to survive. The grubs that exuded them have become adults and flew out into the world. So now wasps are left to their own devices to find nutrients. Here's one on an Autumn Tamarisk seeking sustenance from the nectar there still may be although the Sun is quickly losing generative warmth.
As chicks grow into adults their parents tend to leave them more and more alone, in the end just dropping off food once in a while. Owls in general, at least the few species I've been lucky enough to observe, tend to show
more affectionate bonding. I've seen it with Barred Owls, like the ones in this picture, Burrowing and Great Horned as well. To my eye the young one just can't wait for Momma to come home, even if she'd not carrying food. Sometimes affection is sustenance enough. (Strix varia)
This adorable Jian pup and I decided to brave the wintery weather that has been taking SL hostage seemingly overnight, and go exploring! I live in the southern US. There is no snow here! I am not joking when I say that maybe...maybe...once every decade or so, we will get about a fourth of an inch of snow, and it is as if martians had landed when that happens, as it is so fascinating and novel to us!! lol Don't get me wrong, I have seen lots of snow...I do get out and travel and such, but I don't see it outside the door of my own house!
Newfie said that he was fine with snow...I glanced at his dense, luxurious coat, and then at my ill put together black lacy top and shorts and was thankful that this was only pixel snow, or I would have surely perished! Thank Heavens as well for the sustenance of cinnamon rolls! :) Happy Sunday to everyone! ♥
Left early last Saturday morning, to arrive at Derwentwater and get in position for dawn.
This tree struggles for sustenance from a crack in the rocks. Some nice pastel shades in the sky and snow on Blencathra in the background.
I was here two weeks ago and the water level was so high, it was impossible to get this shot.
Medium-sized songbird with stout bill and bare skin around eyes. Male olive above, yellow below (some with gray throat), with red skin around eyes, black cap, and black tail. Female olive-brown above, pale with fine streaks below, with gray skin around the eye and olive-brown tail. Female Olive-backed Oriole has longer bill, red eye, and greener back. Common around fruiting trees, and in parks and gardens, often in noisy flocks. Calls include fluting whistles and popping squeaks.(eBird)
------------------
The female figbird looks so different from her mate that it took me some time to recognize her. But here she is, sitting helpfully in an Australian fig tree, where she had been happily feeding. These figs provide food and sustenance to many Australian birds.
Bicentennial Park, Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia. October 2022.
A grizzly in Denali National Park on the hunt for sustenance.
By August, which is early Autumn in Alaska, grizzlies are eating constantly, predominantly soapberries and blueberries. This mama bear had two older cubs with her, and their hyperphagia made them nearly oblivious to the tour bus driving along the road.
After a pretty heavy thunderstorm her web was destroyed but luckily this big girl was clinging on underneath the concrete roof to a transformer box, where hence is her home. And as you can see was happily munching away not a bother, with pearls of raindrops hanging on nearby. This is the same beast from...
...and to say she is big is an understatement, now yes many would think, "oh yea the one that got away was THIS BIG", but this Orb Weaver is perhaps one of the biggest I have ever seen before. It has been reported that Spiders are in fact getting bigger year on year.
So, I hope everyone is well and so as always, thank you! :)
PS: Zoom in ;)
About a quarter mile southeast of the East Entrance Rd this grizzly tucked in for a mid-day nap.
It was early summer as I was driving into Yellowstone from my room at Pahaska Tepee when I came across dozens of people pulled alongside of the road looking off into the distance. If you know Yellowstone, you understand that bison don't garner that sort of attention (and they're typically on the road themselves), so I stopped to see what everyone was looking at. Someone told me there was a grizzly on the far ridge line, but I couldn't see it with my bare eyes. Fortunately, the 400mm lens brought it into focus for me. The best part was being able to share this view with families young and old who did not have equipment adequate to the task. I don't know how long the grizzly napped before I got there, but within about 15 minutes, it awoke and headed out of sight to forage for more sustenance.
Sculpted in low relief on the granite rock of Covão do Boi, this is an image of the Virgin whick honors the protection granted to the shepherds who have the sustenance of their herds in the mountains.
Not exactly a good shot, it was taken with my cell phone, but I thought I should share the place with you.
Serra da Estrela, Covilhã, Portugal
Lewa Downs
Kenya
East Africa
Black rhinos are browsers that get most of their sustenance from eating trees and bushes. They use their lips to pluck leaves and fruit from the branches. White rhinos graze on grasses, walking with their enormous heads and squared lips lowered to the ground.
Except for females and their offspring, black rhinos are solitary. Females reproduce only every two and a half to five years. Their single calf does not live on its own until it is about three years old.
Black rhinos feed at night and during the gloaming hours of dawn and dusk. Under the hot African sun, they take cover by lying in the shade. Rhinos are also wallowers. They often find a suitable water hole and roll in its mud, coating their skin with a natural bug repellent and sun block.
Rhinos have sharp hearing and a keen sense of smell. They may find one another by following the trail of scent each enormous animal leaves behind it on the landscape.
The black rhino once roamed most of sub-Saharan Africa, but today is on the verge of extinction due to poaching fueled by commercial demand. Approximately 5,500 individuals left.
The black rhinoceros is classified as Critically Endangered (CR) on the IUCN Red List and is listed on Appendix I of CITES. – Wikipedia
For a ways, there was an animal trail broken out, tamped down and snowed over, but passable. I followed it, trying to spy the spot that looked right, paying attention to my footing along the bank as I went. And then a ways more, after it veered off to a ford, breaking new snow, I came to a mound high enough that caught the random ribbon of Soda Butte Creek, and the mountains beyond. I feared they would go dark under a squally sky. My luck held. When I daydream of the Lamar Valley, it comes to me as a trace on my topo map, with snapshots of things I’ve seen and hiked there flashing through my head like an old slideshow. But having made my ingress to here, it was I who now stood still as the motion of the greater transit of the whole valley struck me. The movement, of course, of the creek riffling over pebbles from shades of silver pools. In my periphery, the curious dark humps of bison far across the plain, a step and a head movement at a time, foraging for sustenance. Barely a breeze, unseen, soughing at a different frequency note than the creek, across the snow. Contrasted by the darker clouds higher up, racing across and through the peaks, the sun searching for purchase through gaps in their pillows. We exist in a great introduction, all manner of nature come through here in a chaos of directions, on course to one another as if by instinct. I am humbled, here only for the moment, granted passage nonetheless.
The threat of a zombie apocalypse has been looming over our heads for YEARS, fueled by countless movies, tv shows, books, songs. They would have us believe that all these shambling, rotting, walking corpses are after our brains. Brains for dinner... brains for lunch... brains for breakfast...brains for brunch. That may be the case, but it's only the result of what is really driving these countless undead. Like the rest of us, they simply want to enjoy the holiday season, from the decorating, to the huge production dinners with other dearly departed loved ones. Of course, they can't go forever without eating... they need sustenance like we all do, which brings us right back around to the brains.
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maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Zen%20Soul/188/64/26
/Vae Victis\ - "Basileus" - Brooch - Gift
Gift for the teleport hub group, available at the mainstore. joining costs 10L.
maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Eldritch/64/165/1015
Also worn:
Corvus : Paulina Skin Lel EvoX -Zombie
[Vile] - Close to Death Skull Face
no.match_ ~ NO_DISORDER ~ Pack of BLACKS
Angel Eyes - BLOODY Hairbase Lelutka EvoX - BLACK
VALLEMONT - Autopsy Eyes
-Pixicat- Harlow Jacket (Black)
L'Emporio ::*Nena*:: - Hat &
Boots
Domicile, Duhamel, Québec, Canada.
Full Frame
Enfin, l'hiver commence tout doucement à laisser place au printemps et la glace du lac devant la maison a laissée place à environ 75 pieds d'eau libre ce qui est ma saison favorite pour tenter ma chance avec les canards qui longent les rive à la recherche de leur pitance.
Les nuits et matins étant encore plutôt froids et sous le point de congélation -9 c il me faut plus souvent qu'autrement patienter en après-midi avant d'avoir la chance de voir des canards et ou autres dans cette bande d'eau libre. L'eau a beaucoup montée (1 mètre/3 pieds) ce qui complique souvent la tâche...
Hier, j'ai eu de la chance, un couple de Garrot à eye d'or est venu pêcher devant moi et en a même profité pour s'accoupler. C'est la première fois que j'ai la chance de faire quelques images Full Frame de ces magnifiques et si farouches canards.
Je vous présente donc la femelle dans un premier temps, le rouge qui est réfléchi dans l'eau est la toiture de tôle de la maison en face de chez moi sur l'autre rive.
Residence, Duhamel, Quebec, Canada.
Fullframe
Finally, winter is slowly starting to give way to spring and the ice on the lake in front of the house has given way to about 75 feet of open water, which is my favorite season to try my luck with the ducks that line the shore at looking for their sustenance.
The nights and mornings being still rather cold and below the freezing point -9 c, I have to wait more often than not in the afternoon before having the chance to see ducks and others in this strip of open water. . The water has risen a lot (1 meter / 3 feet) which often complicates the task...
Yesterday, I got lucky, a pair of Common Goldeneyes came fishing in front of me and even took the opportunity to mate. This is the first time I've had the chance to take some Full Frame images of these magnificent and fierce ducks.
I therefore present to you the female first, the red which is reflected in the water is the reed sheet metal roofing of the house opposite shore my house on the other side of the lake.
Slumber on,
slumber on, you sleepy Summer babies.
Slipping gently through my garden on a hot Summer's day.
Slowly creeping from leaf to leaf.
Jumping along the jungle limbs of your tiny precious world.
A hard day's work brings sustenance for your soul.
While mother nature soothes you onward,
weaving her sunny warm blanket.
Slumber on, you sleepy babies.
Slumber on and dream of tomorrow.
A delightful catch from my garden as the baby lizards roam along on a warm Summer's day.
Snow Lake, Alpine Lakes Wilderness, Washington
This photo is another view of Snow Lake, a hike that was previously chronicled in Lake Day. This shot is from above, and on the opposite side of, the lake. By the time I was hiking back in the mid-afternoon, the morning clouds had cleared and the sun was highlighting the lake’s glorious signature shades of blue. I paused for awhile in this spot just to revel in the dazzling colors and the summer warmth.
Days like this are why I try to hike as much as I can through the summer. So I can soak in all that brightness and sunlight and color, and store it away in my mind to pull out during the times when the rain seems endless and it feels like every day is lived in muted shades of gray.
And looking back at these photos of vibrant summer memories reminds me that even in the gloom of winter, the sun still shines. Sometimes one just has to search a little harder to find it. (Or if one is really lucky, sometimes a friend shows us where to look.)
In the hallowed grounds of Pashupatinath, Kathmandu, two Sadhus engage in a discerning exchange, their watchful eyes hinting at a subtle competition. As the auspicious union of Shiva and Parvati unfolds on this blessed day, their slight animosity finds its roots in their shared pursuit of bestowing blessings upon devotees and seeking alms in return. Amidst the divine ambiance, caution intertwines with the hope of acquiring favor and sustenance, adding an intriguing layer to their encounter.
All bees are hairy, a crucial trait for pollen collection. Flowers and flourishing vegetation often attract bees, and there is no insect as important as the bee when it comes to pollination. Many female bee species have rows of bristles on their hind legs which form a hollow basket. When the bee lands on a flower, pollen grains are combed into the hollow basket and bristles. Cross-pollination occurs when the displaced grains of pollen are distributed to the fertile pistils of other flowers as the bee alights upon them. Although only females are able to transfer pollen, all bees are able to sip the nectar from flowers using a tonguelike organ. This nectar is their primary source of energy. Pollen is sustenance for both adult and larval bees, as it contains protein and other nutrients necessary to their survival. Bees possess an organ that converts nectar into honey, which is collected, depending on the species, inside the hive or bee colony.
Thistles add beauty and sustenance to rural Texas pastures, especially after a good soaking rain. This one near the ghost town of Ibex, Texas.
It was a wet Sunday and the birds in the garden were looking a bit miserable and hungry so decided to cheer them up with a bit of extra winter sustenance with this mandarin that had fallen from our tree. Not sure if Jen's noticed she's one wooden spoon short yet though.....
© Dominic Scott 2023
A NZ silvereye or waxeye in our garden - an occasional little bit of extra sustenance to help these tiny little birds through the winter months. Always welcome!
The silvereye or wax-eye (Zosterops lateralis) is a very small omnivorous passerine bird of the south-west Pacific. In Australia and New Zealand its common name is sometimes white-eye, but this name is more commonly used to refer to all members of the genus Zosterops, or the entire family Zosteropidae.
In New Zealand, the silvereye was first recorded in 1832. It arrived in greater numbers in 1856, and it is assumed that a migrating flock was swept eastwards by a storm. As an apparently self-introduced bird it is protected as a native New Zealand species. Its Māori name, tauhou, means "stranger" or more literally, "new arrival".
(From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
© Dominic Scott 2022
Spearlike stems,
reaching for sustenance,
spent flowers returning their seed to the earth,
spring brings forth their potential.
Perfect simplicity.
This is how it should be.
Happy Umbellifer Wednesday everyone.
Palo Alto CA
The cicadas are a superfamily, the Cicadoidea, of insects in the order Hemiptera (true bugs). They are in the suborder Auchenorrhyncha, along with smaller jumping bugs such as leafhoppers and froghoppers. The superfamily is divided into two families, the Tettigarctidae, with two species in Australia, and the Cicadidae, with more than 3,000 species described from around the world; many species remain undescribed.
Cicadas have prominent eyes set wide apart, short antennae, and membranous front wings. They have an exceptionally loud song, produced in most species by the rapid buckling and unbuckling of drumlike tymbals. The earliest known fossil Cicadomorpha appeared in the Upper Permian period; extant species occur all around the world in temperate to tropical climates. They typically live in trees, feeding on watery sap from xylem tissue, and laying their eggs in a slit in the bark. Most cicadas are cryptic. The vast majority of species are active during the day as adults, with some calling at dawn or dusk. Only a rare few species are known to be nocturnal.
One exclusively North American genus, Magicicada (the periodical cicadas), which spend most of their lives as underground nymphs, emerge in predictable intervals of 13 or 17 years, depending on the species and the location. The unusual duration and synchronization of their emergence may reduce the number of cicadas lost to predation, both by making them a less reliably available prey (so that any predator that evolved to depend on cicadas for sustenance might starve waiting for their emergence), and by emerging in such huge numbers that they will sate any remaining predators before losing enough of their number to threaten their survival as a species.
The annual cicadas are species that emerge every year. Though these cicadas' life cycles can vary from 1–9 or more years as underground larvae, their emergence above ground as adults is not synchronized, so some members of each species appear every year.
Cicadas have been featured in literature since the time of Homer's Iliad and as motifs in art from the Chinese Shang dynasty. They have also been used in myth and folklore as symbols of carefree living and immortality. The cicada is also mentioned in Hesiod's Shield (ll.393–394), in which it is said to sing when millet first ripens. Cicadas are eaten by humans in various countries, including China, where the nymphs are served deep-fried in Shandong cuisine.
Class: Insecta
Kingdom: Animalia
Order: Hemiptera
Phylum: Arthropoda
© All Rights Reserved
It is said Yarrow's Latin name comes from the story that the great Greek hero Achilles used it to help heal his wounds. Of course, it didn't help the heel wound caused by a poisoned arrow shot off by Paris. It killed him...
Here a flower umbel is offering sustenance to a small Potter Wasp, identified by Bernhard Jacobi as an Ancistrocerus. Many thanks!
Spring Creek cascades through a rocky section before running into the South Yuba just downstream of the historic bridge at Edwards Crossing. This dynamic little creek is typical of the many creeks that are part of the Yuba River drainage system. This system is the life blood of Nevada County. It provides a spiritual sustenance to we locals that serves us during good times and hard times alike. No matter what, there is always the river.
Nevada County CA
It's said to be 6 C. today in Amsterdam, but the Sun is bright and warm enough for some insects. I saw a Bumblebee bumbling on its way outside my window on the third floor; some Droneflies in the Botanical Garden. And just a few doors up the street I was happily surprised by this pretty Hoverfly on Viburnum. I'm not quite sure what Our Hoverfly's scientific moniker is... No doubt she doesn't care and is intent on gathering pollen for protein sustenance; you can see the kernels sticking to her legs and tongue.
a familiar title, the sun is a cloud. a phrase worth repeating, to find and fix, in treasured memory, an idea that should be true, and make it a part of my normal belief system, an unspoken fact, metaphysically true, physically true, absolutely true, requiring no further thought, embedded in my being.
i am human, the air is my sustenance, the earth is a rock, all you need is love, instant karma's gonna get you, the sun is a cloud.
the sun is a cloud.
littletinperson
All bees are hairy, a crucial trait for pollen collection. Flowers and flourishing vegetation often attract bees, and there is no insect as important as the bee when it comes to pollination. Many female bee species have rows of bristles on their hind legs which form a hollow basket. When the bee lands on a flower, pollen grains are combed into the hollow basket and bristles. Cross-pollination occurs when the displaced grains of pollen are distributed to the fertile pistils of other flowers as the bee alights upon them. Although only females are able to transfer pollen, all bees are able to sip the nectar from flowers using a tonguelike organ. This nectar is their primary source of energy. Pollen is sustenance for both adult and larval bees, as it contains protein and other nutrients necessary to their survival. Bees possess an organ that converts nectar into honey, which is collected, depending on the species, inside the hive or bee colony.
The Dehesa de Cobeña,
To the north of the town we find the Dehesa, this place is a municipal property that in the past provided sustenance to the livestock hut of the village: sheep, cattle, pigs, etc ... It is an ideal place for grazing for quality and amount of grass it produces and the multiple springs and wetlands it has. It had a work corral in a circular shape the size of a bullring with guardhouse where at night the cattle were protected.
La Dehesa de Cobeña,
Al norte de la localidad encontramos la Dehesa, este paraje es un campo de propiedad municipal que en el pasado abastecía de sustento a la cabaña ganadera del pueblo: lanar, vacuno, porcino, etc… Es un sitio idóneo para el pastoreo por la calidad y cantidad de pasto que produce y los múltiples manantiales y humedales de los que dispone. Disponía de un corral de obra en forma circular de tamaño de una plaza de toros con caseta de guarda donde por la noche se protegía al ganado.
The cicadas are a superfamily, the Cicadoidea, of insects in the order Hemiptera (true bugs). They are in the suborder Auchenorrhyncha, along with smaller jumping bugs such as leafhoppers and froghoppers. The superfamily is divided into two families, the Tettigarctidae, with two species in Australia, and the Cicadidae, with more than 3,000 species described from around the world; many species remain undescribed.
Cicadas have prominent eyes set wide apart, short antennae, and membranous front wings. They have an exceptionally loud song, produced in most species by the rapid buckling and unbuckling of drumlike tymbals. The earliest known fossil Cicadomorpha appeared in the Upper Permian period; extant species occur all around the world in temperate to tropical climates. They typically live in trees, feeding on watery sap from xylem tissue, and laying their eggs in a slit in the bark. Most cicadas are cryptic. The vast majority of species are active during the day as adults, with some calling at dawn or dusk. Only a rare few species are known to be nocturnal.
One exclusively North American genus, Magicicada (the periodical cicadas), which spend most of their lives as underground nymphs, emerge in predictable intervals of 13 or 17 years, depending on the species and the location. The unusual duration and synchronization of their emergence may reduce the number of cicadas lost to predation, both by making them a less reliably available prey (so that any predator that evolved to depend on cicadas for sustenance might starve waiting for their emergence), and by emerging in such huge numbers that they will sate any remaining predators before losing enough of their number to threaten their survival as a species.
The annual cicadas are species that emerge every year. Though these cicadas' life cycles can vary from 1–9 or more years as underground larvae, their emergence above ground as adults is not synchronized, so some members of each species appear every year.
Cicadas have been featured in literature since the time of Homer's Iliad and as motifs in art from the Chinese Shang dynasty. They have also been used in myth and folklore as symbols of carefree living and immortality. The cicada is also mentioned in Hesiod's Shield (ll.393–394), in which it is said to sing when millet first ripens. Cicadas are eaten by humans in various countries, including China, where the nymphs are served deep-fried in Shandong cuisine.
Class: Insecta
Kingdom: Animalia
Order: Hemiptera
Phylum: Arthropoda
© All Rights Reserved
This cute little square-headed wasp does have a very noticeable quadrate or square-shaped head! Adult square-headed wasps in this genus help pollinate our plants as they get sustenance from flower nectar and pollen. However, females catch flies to feed their larvae that are hatched from eggs laid inside a hollow plant stem or rotten log.
I went ice fishing this evening in hopes of having a fish to show here but that didn't happen as you can plainly see. So I'm substituting these leftover hepatica leaves that caught my eye on the forest floor a couple days ago. Surprisingly, these hepatica leaves emerged and started photosynthesizing in late March, nine months ago, continuing that food production all summer and fall. In fact they could still be adding sustenance to the root system right now since they're considered to be evergreen and are not buried by snow yet. These durable leathery leaves will last all winter and their dark maroon color will absorb precious warming sunlight in early spring to thaw the soil beneath them and boost new growth.
...and for the dead.
Freedom for Ukraine
**another naggy little reminder. the donations to Ukraine are waning after the first flush when the war started. people are still in need of food, medical care, and clothing. sustenance. more than ever.
animals need help.
I gave a little last month through CNN; this month I gave through ActBlue. I can't afford much but I can afford some. we are so much better off than the people struggling there.
I think even a little bit would help if everyone contributed.
This image of a Least Sandpiper conveys the intensity of the bird’s focus as it searches for food, with that straight ahead gaze. This species is small, and its prey very small, but those things do not diminish the importance to it of its need to find sustenance. The “charismatic megafauna” tend to attract a disproportionate amount of attention, while the myriad smaller creatures play important roles in Nature that are often overlooked. This bird was seen foraging along the shore of a slough east of Airdrie in southern Alberta, Canada.