Daisies for breakfast

They always remind me of fried eggs.

Sunny side up.

A bit silly tonight, after hours of wrestling with my computer.

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Siempre me hacen pensar en huevos estrellados. Unas margaritas en un terreno baldío.

Estoy un poco loca esta noche, después de horas de luchar con la computadora.

Shivery

The moon was fat and round, a searchlight riding high in the sky, too high to make its accustomed path across the strait; the water, instead, gleamed faintly shore to shore.

On my way home from an evening with friends, I stopped to get a better look. I got out and crunched across a lawn that's usually wet enough for my shoes to sink into the mud underneath, where now I could walk a foot above the tips of the grass blades. When my way was blocked by icy, snow-covered logs, I stopped and pulled the little camera out of the pocket where it was keeping warm.

I tried to focus on the moon. No good; I was shivering too much to keep it in the viewfinder. I leaned on one of the tall chainsaw carvings Campbell River residents leave dotted over the landscape, using it as a tripod of sorts. The moon still danced.

Aiming away from the moon itself, the viewfinder and screen were completely black. I hugged the carving and took photos, anyhow; Photoshop does wonders in finding light where none was visible.

Logs under snow, and the lights of a resort on Quadra Island. And moonlight.

Back at the car, with the heater going, I was still shivering. The steering wheel served as my tripod substitute this time, as I focused on the garish lights of the hotel across the highway.

The lights look better without the hotel. Photo as taken; no Photoshopping.

'nuff silliness. I'll be sensible tomorrow, once my brain thaws.

Name this critter

I spent the afternoon wading thigh-deep in eelgrass beds, and I'm tired, sunburnt, and somewhat wound up. I'll have photos and a report as soon as I finish sorting.

Meanwhile, just a bit of silliness.

Can you identify this ten-legged thing I found? Or take a wild guess?

I've removed the background, because that would make it too easy, since I've already given you a hint.

And that's a second hint.

Third hint: it's about an inch across.

I'll give you a couple of days to come up with ideas, then post the whole photo.

Hermit complaint

And revenge.

"It's no fun being small, ...

when the big guys walk all over you, ...

And knock you all topsy-turvy.

But two can play at that game.

There! How do you like them apples?"

... says Junior, going off to tell his buddies up on the eelgrass all about it.

Snail road maps

Satellite view:

Sand Hills National Park, trails and campsite circles.

Highway with rest area

End of the road. The Pit. Or, more pleasantly, Ye Old Watering Hole.

We got down to the beach yesterday for the first time in it seems like forever. Fresh air, empty water, blue sky: it's turned me a bit silly.

Cross-eyed chickadee and alder hieroglyphics

I'm back, rested and in my right mind. If you can call it that. Because I've been seeing strange things around here.

Like a cross-eyed chickadee.

And messages left by a red alder next door, written in discarded male catkins on cement.

One-armed man threatened by an angry cobra?

I can't read this one. Can you?

Maybe the chickadee has been trying to read the sidewalk.

All the colours of the rainbow

It stopped raining. The sun showed up to work. While I went out and tidied the garden, Laurie took my pocket camera and went for a walk. He found a yard full of crocuses, purple, yellow, and deep, deep blue.

About time!

A hermit crab went out, too. Outside the tank, at least.

"Can't eat this green stuff. Put me back!"

And the cat stayed home and did what cats do.

Antique Japanese ceramic cat. Sleeps 24/7/365.

(I was trying out a new lens, 85 mm. Good for sneaking up on bugs without scaring them off.)

Strathcona wildlife

They promised us rain all week, but sunshine for the weekend. What we got was sunshine all week, but Saturday it alternately snowed, hailed, rained, and threatened more of the same, or worse. Neither of us felt like going beachcombing, as we had hoped.

A good day to stay home and get some more work done. Laurie cooked; I sorted and cleaned out half a year's worth of photos. In the last two days, I've managed to delete almost 10 Gigabytes of duplicates, copies of duplicates, copies of copies ... It feels good.

In the evening, when my eyes were burning, and my stick-to-it-iveness was just about dead, I ran across a folder labelled "Strathcona wildlife". It made me laugh, and gave me energy for another hour of work. So I'm passing it on.

These are from street scenes, walking around Strathcona when I was housesitting there.

Have to start with a cat.

Driveway guardian

Tree snake

Lost in a gravel wasteland. And so hard on her tender toesies!

In a window, with reflections. Deer and lizards. (Well, the remains of deer.)

Maybe the sun will shine tomorrow. I can always hope.

B. Just B.

B on a painted rock:

Crescent Beach, 2011

I've been working late, I'm tired and a little silly. I'm going to bed.

Insane eagle

These two photos are total duds, but I can't look at them without laughing.  This eagle was on the sand at Boundary Bay beach at low tide and 'way off in the distance. The gull came up behind him, and he started to dance.

"Come on, dance with me!"

"We make a good couple, don't we?'

Hungry spider, playful lichen

A month ago, I was looking at a handful of tiny spiders on a mossy, licheny twig. Afterwards, I left the works outside on a potting shelf and forgot about it. This afternoon, curious as to what would still be living in the dry moss, I brought it in again.

Still alive, and loaded with sporophytes.

Zooming in on that heart-shaped* moss clump:

Almost ripe sporophytes, most still closed over the developing spores.

Here it is, last month, for comparison:

No orange capsules; just green moss leaves.

I found only one spider this time, and one springtail. The larger (but still tiny) spiders have moved on.

Spider hoping for fat springtail lunch. She wasn't fast enough, though.

The springtail, checking out my foam mat. I moved him back to the moss later on.

Interesting pattern of wood cells in the broken twig.

And my imagination often runs away with me; here's a happy green dog, playing some sort of net-ball game.

A tiny web, built by a tiny spider, holding a tiny drop of water.

*Makes a nice heart wreath for Clytie's Valentine post.

I aten't dead

I'm back from Christmas in Victoria, sleepy and happy, and ready to get on with life. Starting tomorrow.

I brought home a bug. Of the unwanted sort; a cold and a sore throat bug. Laurie brought me a remedy, a tea we bought ages ago in a Japanese tea shop in Steveston. The label gives it no name, but has a list of the ingredients:

• licorice
• fennel
• cinnamon
• ginger
• marshmallow root
• mullein
• dried lemon juice
• thyme
• black pepper (Really! Peppercorns!)
• cardamom

It seared my throat all the way down. And I think I'm cured. And knocked a bit silly.

Happy, silly, solar-powered flower, with her face on upside-down.

Hope you all had as good a Christmas as I did!

Headless dog walkers

Remember these?

Walking the dogs on Semiahmoo Beach

Zooming in. Two topless walkers, one cute doggie.

Long, long ago, in February of 2010, I promised you I'd explain these. I never did. I just found my old close-ups on the hard drive, so I'll do that tomorrow.

Cottontail and stick tail

Every so often we see a rabbit peeking out from underneath a blackberry bush or scuttling through the grass in a ditch. Some of them are abandoned pets, but the majority are descendants of pets or Eastern cottontails introduced as game. (They are extremely fecund.)

This one, in a ditch beside Crescent Beach, looked a little too tame. He saw me skulking in the tall grass a few feet away, and ignored me until I decided to leave the cover and try for a close-up. A released rabbit, or too young to have learned that humans aren't to be trusted?

I don't know what he kept looking at on the log. Nothing edible.

He's awfully skinny, and seems to be somewhat scarred. Could he have survived a fox attack, and is just now venturing out to fatten up on smartweed and dandelion greens?

I've come too close. He froze for just a moment, then turned and walked back where he'd come from. In no hurry, but purposeful.

Questions, questions. This next critter, though, is no puzzle.

The legendary * Horned Nicomekl Chipmunk, with her kit, and the broken shells left over from their lunch.**

* Well, very recently *** legendary.
** Not much is known of their food requirements. Obviously, they're not vegetarian.
*** Recently, as of tonight.

Heart of stone

On the White Rock beach today, someone had carefully placed two small stones on a flat rock above the tide line.

Interesting mix of purple, red, and cream.

I didn't notice until I looked at the photos, that the red stone has an engraved heart. Look on the right side of the photo, near the "neck". A heart for Clytie!

I'm glad I got a bit silly and added some more stones that fell to hand.

Hard-hearted sunbather

There! The heart is now in the right place, on the sun worshipper's left side.

Gotta wait out 2012 to the last gasp

2013, finally. Except in Hawaii; they've got another 18 minutes left in 2012, as of now**.

The year went out quietly for us. Laurie and I sat and listened to a CD of the Mikado, then I treated myself with a pot of ginger tea, and checked in with my kids on Facebook. All very peaceful.

But 2013; what will it bring? It's a year of 13s; 50 Fridays teamed up with the number, another two doubled: Friday the 13th, 2013, in September and December. Will someone decide that's a good excuse to foretell yet another end of the world?*** There are two good dates there! And when was that 2013 comet arriving?

Well, if you believe in bad luck omens, there are also the good ones. I've got mine; today, in a first for the year, in a short burst of 5 minutes, four starlings, one flicker, and a varied thrush all dropped in to visit. I think that's the first flicker or starling I've seen around here since a year ago. And all at once! It must mean something, surely!*

Here's proof, at least of the first two, photos taken without leaving my desk, which would have chased the flicker far away.

Flicker waiting for a starling to get off the suet feeder.

Still waiting. He eventually gave up; the starlings were not sharing.

Starling and suet feeder. The other three were on the ground underneath, collecting the falling crumbs, and keeping the juncos at bay.

The varied thrush ran past twice, pausing just long enough to be identified. The place was too crowded for him.

*I think it really meant that they were hungry. But sometimes I'd rather be silly than sensible.

**Just checked the time again. It is now officially 14 minutes into 2013 in Hawaii. And that's the very last gasp of 2012.

***Not that I'd worry. I've survived a fair number of world ends already.

Monsters, squirrels, silly me

Bits and pieces; some links, a busy squirrel, photo fixing, and more.

First, the links; interesting things I've seen these past couple of weeks:

Getting in the mood for Hallowe'en, Tim Eisele posted the story of a suicidal caterpillar, then followed up with an even more gruesome tale of a spider who ended up being prey rather than predator. Warning! Not for "sensitive souls". (We critter fans should have no problem with them.)

More "Ewwww" posts: Sea lice eat a dead pig, and "Is this fish evil?" An enquiry into the reasons for our shudders. From Deep Sea News.

Big and beautiful. Ted MacRae calls this a "Monster in the night", but he ends up taking it home as a pet for his daughter. If you skipped the last four links, this one is safe.

This I found fascinating; some land-based hermit crabs do more than just move into discarded shells that they find. Instead, they remodel them first, scraping them out for more room, and less weight, which gives them more speed without sacrificing the protection they need. From the BBC.

Great news! I and the Bird is back! And with a wonderful new format! Do you have posts to contribute? Go check out the new guidelines.

One more. This was really helpful, and has inspired me to take another look at some of my older photos. Ted MacRae takes an old, "crappy" (his word) photo of a beautiful beetle, applies his improved editing skills, and comes out with a decent photo. And don't miss Alex Wild's little fixes (in the comments) that turn it into a dazzling, shiny jewel.

I've picked out a few of my really old ones, and followed Ted's lead. One was the cat photo I posted a couple of days ago. Here's another: a terrible photo of a flatworm, very small, taken with one of my first cheap cameras; slightly unfocused, sprinkled with sand, and against a jumbled background. A few tweaks, and here's what I came up with.

Going places.

Not perfect, but passable. Looks like digging through those old files might be profitable.

Current events: here's a crappy photo which no amount of Photoshopping will fix. It's been a dreary, grey day, pouring rain and windy*. I was at my desk when rapid movement outside attracted my attention. Something was violently shaking a branch of the maple tree. Had to be a squirrel. I took a photo, without flash, through the window. Of course, the shutter was slow, and this is what the camera saw. (Still better than what I saw.)

A squirrel, all right. But what's he after?

He stopped suddenly, ran back up the branch and sat with his back to me. A minute later, he scrambled back down to the tip, and yanked at a winged seed, still not ready to fall and clinging tightly to its branch tip. The whole tree danced with their struggle, squirrel against seed. The squirrel won after a long tussle.

Remaining seeds, resting while the squirrel sits up-branch, eating the latest victim.

And, in the "Silly me" category:

In London Drugs this afternoon, I noticed some specialty reading glasses from Foster Grant, designed for working at a computer screen. They have an amber tint, that is supposed to

• Reduce eye strain and improve contrast
• Reduce blue light
• Reduce glare
• Reduce eye fatigue

Worth a try. And only $30. I bought a pair.

And they do help. The burning I've been feeling lately is gone, and my eyes aren't watering, even after a few hours on the computer.

So here I was editing photos, and the colours just wouldn't come out right. I clicked on areas that were supposed to be white, and they came out orangey. The greens were brown and muddy. I puzzled over those greens for a long while, then gave up and saved a photo as-is. Half-way through the next, I remembered those so-helpful glasses. I took them off, and -- it's miraculous! -- the photos fixed themselves instantly!

Derp!

*And in spite of the stormy weather, the trick or treaters were out tonight, with big jackets over their costumes.

And which way is up?

It has been an eventful couple of weeks; we've virtually abandoned our favourite beaches to hang out in malls and office buildings and home offices. We met family in IKEA, Granville Island, and Surrey Centre. I got blisters on my feet from walking on pavement. We made umpteen cell phone calls; "Where are you now?" I even had a late lunch in a MacDonald's half-way between stops.

And I ended up the week in St. Paul's Hospital, holding a newborn great-grandson. (Hey, wait! I'm too young for this!)  He's beautiful and healthy and has big, dark, sleepy eyes.

Tomorrow, this computer goes into the shop to have its stubborn ways educated out of it. And Thursday, I hope, it will come home, suitably chastened.

And then, life will fall back into its comfortable rut. I fervently hope so, anyhow.

Meanwhile, this sign, from the hospital parking lot, suits my present state of mind.

Um, isn't that left, where the arrow points? Or am I completely back-to-front?