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"And just like that…winter opened cold bleary eyes to the newborn colors of spring."
~ Angie Weiland-Crosby
The leaves of the Muscari plants fill my flower garden. Soon I'll remove the layer of soft Autumn leaves and greet the soil once again. Here's to digging in soil and celebrating new growth. Come on, Spring!
Happy Thanksgiving to U.S. friends!
(yes, I baked that :-D)
a note about the bokeh in the background: it's a piece of kitchen tin (aluminum) foil taped to the wall behind the cake and lit with a flashlight - a trick I picked up somewhere on the interwebs
A long exposure renders the surf on these granite blocks soft and fluffy, as spotted along the Galveston, Texas, seawall.
Eventhough I've posted this NORTHERN CARDINAL 4 times in the past, but I had not counted him till now.
Common Grackle I think? Can I just say, Count Chocula Bird? Kinnelon Lake, Borough of Kinnelon, County of Morris, State of New Jersey
www.bing.com/videos/search?&q=count+on+me+music+video...
Taken at the newly completed sim : The Lost Islands of Penrose
maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Brimstone%20Village/230/15...
I counted off a few bucket list items on this trip, this being one of them. What a way to start the year off! The weather wasnt "ideal" It was overcast and dreary, it lacked in contrast, the light was flat and it was raining cats and dogs. Amazing! I had on a waterproof jacket and my duck boots were perfect. I stood on that beach till I HAD to put my cameras away and head back to the car because the tide started coming in and the wind pretty much knocked me over. It was blowing so hard the trees were bent at the top. I couldn't have set up a tripod even if I tried. I'll share a photo from the beach sometime else. If you follow me on the other platform then you saw that already!♡
My favorite composition of the beach was as I first saw it, arriving at the beach. I'll never ever forget seeing it for the first time. I swear time stopped, I couldnt breathe and my heart was beating so fast. I dont think I've ever had a scene do that to me before. I am so glad my husband was driving or I would have likely run off the road.
My husband was a very good sport and spoiled the mess out of my eyeballs and we burned several great memories into our brains on this beach ♡
Happy fence friday y'all!
Lately I'm in love... series
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μια φιγούρα γκράφιτι, σκιά χρώματος σε ένα τοίχο, παρέα στη φαντασία ενός παιδιού της γειτονιάς
σκιές χρώματος στους τοίχους μιας φωτογραφίας της γειτονιάς, παρέα στην πραγματικότητα της φιγούρας στη φαντασία του παιδιού
ένα δίδυμο, ένας κύκλος, μία συνέχεια, μία εμπιστοσύνη, μια πίστη στον άλλο.. you can count on me..
____________
Lately I'm in love
Just enough
Lately I'm in love
Late night on the roof
So confused
I call truce
I just want to say
Every kind of way
You can count on me
You can count on me
If your worried mind
Lets you down sometime
You can count on me
You can count on me
You can count on me
You can count on me
You can count on me
You can count on me
I just want to say
Every kind of way
You can count on me
You can count on me
If your worried mind
Lets you down sometime
You can count on me
You can count on me
You can count on me
You can count on me
You can count on me
You can count on me
(Count on Me, Superheart, 2017)
Eurasian Jay (Garrulus glandarius)
My best photos are here: www.lacerta-bilineata.com/ticino-best-photos-of-southern-...
More TICINO/TESSIN Wildlife Photos (all taken in my garden in Monteggio/Ti, Switzerland): it.lacerta-bilineata.com/ramarro-occidentale-lacerta-bili...
If you're interested, you'll find a more detailed closeup here (it's the 8th photo from the top): www.lacerta-bilineata.com/western-green-lizard-lacerta-bi...
My latest ANIMAL VIDEO (it's very brief but pretty unusual: a tiny wall lizard attacks two young great tits): www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQqkSsyrm7E
THE STORY BEHIND THE PHOTO: MY LONG AND ARDUOUS JOURNEY TO BIRD PHOTOGRAPHY
If you've set yourself the challenge of exclusively shooting the wildlife in your own back yard, you might find - as I did - that bird photography is really, really hard.
It's not that reptiles are easy to photograph either, mind - but at least the ones in my garden stay (for the most part) on the ground, and one can learn how to carefully approach them with a camera. They're also clearly egoists, which from a photographer's point of view is is a great character trait: if a lizard detects a human in its vicinity, it's only interested in saving its own skin, and it won't alarm its buddies.
But birds... oh man. Over the years, my feathered friends and I have developed a lovely routine that now defines our peaceful co-existence. As soon as I as much as open a window (let alone the door), I'm instantly greeted by an eruption of panicky fluttering and hysterical shouts from my garden: "SAVE YOUR WOMEN AND CHILDREN AND FLY FOR YOUR LIVES: THE HAIRLESS, PINK MONSTER IS COMING!!! (Yes, I speak bird, and I know that this is exactly what they are shouting 😉).
Needless to say, with the exception of the redstart I already showed here, all my efforts to get the kind of detailed shots I usually strive for with my nature photography ended in complete failure and utter disillusionment. I was ready to give up on stalking the winged misanthropes in my garden altogether, but then winter came - and changed everything.
One day this past January I observed my neighbor Signora P - a kind, elderly Italian lady - putting something on the low garden wall in front of my house. At first I thought she was just putting some treat there for her cat Romeo; the young tom patrols that wall constantly (it's his favorite spot in the garden, and during the warmer months he usually lurks in the thick foliage next to it to prey on lizards).
But once I detected a lot of movement on that wall through my window, I understood she had put a little pile of bread crumbs there; she was feeding the birds who soon arrived in flocks. This was certainly well-intended on my neighbor's part, but her noble action came with a catch, and I'm afraid quite literally.
When I took a stroll through my garden the next day I discovered a suspicious amount of feathers on the ground next to the wall. Romeo had apparently switched from his low-calorie summer diet (lizard) to more energy-rich meals consisting of "fowl" (it was winter after all, so from a nutritionist's point of view this made sense).
I would find fresh traces of Romeo's victims (mostly feathers, but also the odd wing) in my garden over the following days; so my first intuition that my neighbor was feeding her cat hadn't been that far off after all, as Romeo was now clearly being "served" fresh birds on a daily basis. And although the hungry visitors seemed to be aware of the danger and became slightly more prudent, they just couldn't resist the tasty snacks Signora P put on that wall - and neither could Romeo.
It was obvious that I had to act, but talking to my neighbor - who is as stubborn as she is kind - would have been futile, I knew that much. I pondered the matter long and hard - until a light bulb went off in my head. The idea was genius. If successful, what I had in mind would not only increase the birds' chances of surviving Romeo's appetite, but also greatly benefit my own photographic endeavors.
I started to enact my master plan the very next day by buying a giant bag of bird feed (consisting mainly of sunflower seeds) from the store. Then I dragged a huge piece of a tree trunk (approx. 120 cm in height) that we normally chop firewood on from the shed out into the garden and emptied almost half of the bag's content on top of it. Signora P's buffet for birds (and cats) was about to get some serious competition 😊.
My reasoning was as follows: not only would the birds be lured away from the fatally low garden wall to a place where they were safe from the cat - there was nothing around that tree trunk that provided cover for a predator, and the birds had a nice 360° view around it at all times - but I was also able to photograph them while hiding in the shed.
However, in order for my plan to work there was one little extra measure I had to take, and it was one that risked lowering my own life expectancy considerably once the owner of the property - my mom - discovered it. You see, our shed is completely windowless, so if I wanted to use it as a blind, I had no choice but to cut a hole into one of its wooden walls... which I promptly did (I figured all's fair in love - and photography 😉).
Granted, I have absolutely zero carpentering skills, and it showed. That hole was an ugly mess: the shed's wall seemed to have had an encounter with Jack Nicholson's ax-wielding lunatic character from the film 'The Shining'. Needless to say, I was incredibly proud of my work (I mean, come on: there now was a hole where before there wasn't a hole, and it was big enough for the lens of my camera to peek through, so it was mission accomplished as far as I was concerned).
Now all I had to do was wait for the birds to discover the tree trunk. In the meantime I started to mentally prepare myself for the inevitable confrontation with my mom and go through possible explanations for that splintering hole in the wall (it was either gonna be a rabid woodpecker attack or an emergency rescue mission with a feeding tube for a little kid that had accidentally locked himself inside the shed - both seemed valid options, though I slightly preferred the locked-in kid due to the involved drama and heroism 😉).
A whole day went by, and not a single bird visited the sunflower seeds. I had expected that it might take a few hours until the first of the ever curious great tits or blue tits would show up, but given how tiny my garden is, an entire day seemed excessive. Then another day came and went: the birds kept flocking to the bread crumbs on the wall, and my tree trunk kept collecting dust. To add injury to insult, a few fresh feathers on the ground were proof that Romeo was still feasting.
It was incredibly frustrating: I provided my winged guests with a much better view - plus a higher chance of surviving the cuisine - than Signora P's place; I risked (almost) certain death at the hands of my own mother (OK, the act of vandalism on the shed I had committed for my own benefit, but still), yet the birds kept ignoring me.
Then, after three days, just before sunset, I spotted a single blue tit on the tree trunk picking away at the sunflower seeds.
When I got up the next morning I immediately realized that the loud noise that accompanies each and every tit activity had shifted from the wall to the shed. At last the dam had broken: there was a flurry of movement around the tree trunk, and I counted at least 5 different species of birds feasting on the sunflower seeds.
From day 4 onward my plan worked beautifully: the birds now indeed mostly ignored Romeo's "snack wall" and kept to the tree trunk. And yes, I was able to play peeping tom from behind the shed's wall and photograph them!! 😊
Thus, dear readers, I finally managed to produce some acceptable bird photos, and I had even saved my feathered friends from a deadly foe in the process. All through winter and spring I took advantage of my new bird hide, and in late May I started mixing some cherries with the sunflower seeds. The idea was to attract a Eurasian jay (Garrulus glandarius), and as you can see, it worked!
It took me almost three weeks and more than a few tricks to capture that clever fella, but given how long I've been rambling here already, that's a story for another day. As for my mom, she still doesn't know about the hole in the wall, so please don't snitch! 😉.
I hope you like the photo and wish you all a wonderful weekend! Many greetings from Switzerland, and as always: let me know what you think in the comments 🙏 😊 ❤!
P.S. if anyone has their own funny tale about the obstacles we photographers are prepared to overcome for a desired photo, please write it in the comments: I love such stories 😊
A panoramic view of the boathouse and hunting lodge at Woolaroc, the former ranch retreat of Frank Phillips—the founder of Phillips Petroleum—near Bartlesville, Oklahoma.
Good excuse to get super close in then you need to fill the frame! This is from the centre of a Gerbera flower that seems to have mistaken being indoors for spring!
Took loads of shots of it from the abstract to the super sharp, this sits somewhere between I think. Estimated 5mm section of the flower.
Eternal Flame rose
I planted this rose in honor of my late husband. He loved yellow roses.
"Strong, Citrus Fragrance • Good Disease Resistance • For Cutting & Bringing Inside
This Hybrid Tea has classically shaped, high-centered blooms of soft, flickering yellow. The long stems and strong citrus fragrance combine to make Eternal Flame™ a great rose for the cutting garden. This rose also offers above average winter hardiness and disease resistance."
Wishing you all a lovely weekend!
All images and textures are my own .
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Copyright © thethi All rights reserved. No part of this picture may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means (on websites, blogs) without prior permission. Use without permission is illegal
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Vous lire est un plaisir.Merci de votre visite,vos commentaires, invitations et favoris.
To read your comments is a pleasure. Faves, comments, invites are welcome, great thanks :-)
Please also REFRAIN FROM POSTING YOUR OWN IMAGES within my photostream, thanks.
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Cause I can count on you...
Thank you my friend<3
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(Thank you Bueno<3)
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Shoes : [Sleepy Eddy] / Espadrille (Red)
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"If you ever find yourself stuck in the middle of the sea,
I'll sail the world to find you...
If you ever find yourself lost in the dark and you can't see
I'll be the light to guide you..."
L'ADN des gorilles est de 98 % à 99 % identique à celui de l'homme. Ils sont les êtres vivants les plus proches de l'homme après le Bonobo et le Chimpanzé.
The DNA of gorillas is highly similar to that of a human, from 95–99% depending on what is counted, and they are the next closest living relatives to humans after the bonobo and common chimpanzee.
Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever. 1 Chronicles 16:34
This is a remake of a piece I did last year. After learning some new technics, I decided to update it a bit. Hope you enjoy and have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Textures by: Lenabem Anna and D. West
Copyright © 2013 † Divine~Inspirations †
This image is protected under the United States and International Copyright laws and
may not be downloaded, reproduced, copied, transmitted or manipulated without
written permission.
At this time of year I see images of this very common Alberta summer migratory resident on the photo streams of my Flickr contacts who live much farther south of Alberta. It was nice to find this migration denier here today. They are not rare at this time of year here, but they are an uncommon sighting. Five were picked up on our Christmas bird count.
I wonder why a tiny fraction of the summer population decides not to migrate and braves our winter. This one is living along a riverside trail where it has a lot to eat courtesy of the many people who put food out for our local resident winter birds. It also has a snug place to hide and sleep in a snow covered brush pile at the trail edge.
It survived our recent brutal cold snap and I am sure it will be here to greet its returning fellows.
North Whitemud Trail. Edmonton, Alberta.