Posted on

It’s Only Natural

What’s only natural? How I spent my Saturday afternoon.

Hubby has been doing maintenance on his motorcycle. It is still in pieces. I hadn’t ridden for awhile, so after I was sure it wasn’t going to rain, I went for a ride by myself. I went to Brookside Gardens in Wheaton Regional Park. Wheaton is a suburb of Washington, DC. I’d been there before, but after seeing some of my Flickr buddy’s photos from there, I wanted to revisit.

It a nice, very large park. My destination was the nature center. Traffic was horrendous, and I was way overheated, so I didn’t spend much time there. As a result, I didn’t shoot a ton of pics, but managed to get a few really good shots. I hope you enjoy them.

This one is my favorite.

A turtle. I keep seeing lots of these for some reason.

A cool flower in the conservatory.

A very large fern. It was like 5 feet tall and 8 feet wide.

Posted on

Mystery Solved

Remember this pic of an unidentified critter from the other day?

From ToadMama’s Web Abode

Well, I hate not knowing what critters are called. Like, not knowing if it was a moth or a butterfly was killing me (not really). I looked through a bunch of pics last night — a whole bunch, like hundreds — to no avail.

Finally, I asked someone at the Butterflies and Moths of North America Web site. This helpful fellow responded to my e-mail query and told me it is a Spiny Oakworm Moth (Anisota stigma).

From ToadMama’s Web Abode

He told me that at this stage (photo immediately above), it must have just emerged from the cocoon and hadn’t yet dried its wings. That would explain why the wings were moving constantly.

So, now we know. I hope you feel just as enlightened as me.

Posted on

The Hodgepodge (Playing Catch-up)

So, I’m setting a bad precedent. Today is June 5 and this is my first post of the month. It’s been sort of a rough week with some definite ups and downs. Let’s just say the highs were high and the lows were low.

The high for the week was our dinner with half of the Swiss Family Mac. The elder half, of course, Mr. & Mrs. Mac. Some other friends, Mr. and Mrs. White, joined us, too. We ate a bunch of really expensive, but good, Maryland-style steamed crabs, and got to catch up on the various happenings in each of our families. No pics. Sorry. Two bloggers together and not one picture shot. What losers!

I did get a cool pic in WV last weekend. Actually, the image is not so cool. It’s the subject. Remember this weird bug I got photos of on May 18? It grew up! I still don’t know what it is though. I also don’t know if it has finished growing.

My girls both celebrate their birthdays this month. Meg (left) turns 10 while Belle (right) is 2. They both got haircuts the other day. As soon as the sun comes out again, I’ll take a picture to share. Yes, I have a flash. But natural light is better. So I’ll wait.

Our lizard showed himself. As I told Hubby, I think we intrigue him. He watched us for quite a while. At one point he even climbed down into the grass and started to make his way toward us. Until Belle walked past and scared him.

This is my favorite, recent Belle picture. You can see the smile on her face as she runs free at the WV place. She LOVES it there.

Here are some miscellaneous nature pics. This is one Hubby swears I’ll be hating in a couple of months. Once the seed-heads dry, they become big ole burrs that’ll get caught in the dogs’ fur.

There’s just one of these pretty flowers in our driveway. At the very end, too, right beside the road. Don’t know what it is, but I like it. We have lots of very small raspberry bushes, too. I am anxious to see if they yield any berries.

I don’t know what this is, either. It’s a tree. Not a bush. I liked the red berry.

That’s all for today. Hopefully the next post will be new and exciting!

Posted on

Everything Here is So Green

It is still raining here. Sort of. It is not raining right this second, but it is supposed to rain some more later today. And everything is still wet. It is cloudy, too, so it feels like it is still raining.

The good thing about all the rain is that everything is very green. It’s pretty colorful, too.

I don’t have a lot to say today, but I do want to share some of the artsy pics I shot this past weekend. The first is one I shared the other day.

Why the repeat? Because I want you to click on the image so the large version is visible. While looking at the large version, tell me if you can see the spider peeking out from the top of the flower, on the left, with the big drop hanging off of it. I thought that was a pretty cool accident.

I have a thing for wet pine needles.

This flower is only about 3 inches tall, if that.

The Redbud blooms are starting to fade. If I had a horse, I would name it Redbud. I think that would be a cool name for a horse, but a stupid name for a dog. Not that I ever expect to own a horse…

I shot this one toward evening, which why the light is super soft.

See how green?

I thought these little red leaves were cool.

The red leaves, for whatever reason, are slower to emerge than the green ones.

The same leaves from further back. Just cause I like to experiment.

Look at the big, fat raindrop.

This one is my favorite. It is very artsy, don’t you think?

It is so artsy, I felt it needed a frame. And a name.

I hope you enjoyed today’s little taste of nature.

Posted on

Simple Things

I haven’t been taking many pictures lately. It’s that time of year I guess. Or laziness. Maybe both.

I can only take so many pictures of my dogs, right? There are no leaves on the trees. Most of the flowers are dead. The natural world around the ToadMama abode is looking rather dismal.

But things are looking up. Spring is in the air. I did buy some pansies to plant yesterday. A pathetic few not worth photographing yet. Especially since it is raining.

I also bought myself a small bunch of fresh-cut carnations at the grocery store. A simple thing, really. But they are quite colorful and perky. So colorful and perky, in fact, that I was inspired to take some pics.

I posted the rest of the shots on my FLICKR page. Along with a few shots of my African Violets, which are only blooming thanks to Hubby’s diligence in watering and feeding them.

I embedded a little slide show here for your viewing convenience.

I hope you enjoy the images. As you look, think SPRING!

Posted on

Snow Geese and Making Connections

This post has nothing to do with Christmas. But the video, embedded below, which I saw earlier today inspired me.

One of the things I like about Flickr (a photo sharing Web site) is the community feel of things. A while back, when planning our Alaska trip, and searching for Alaska images on Flickr, I sort of befriended a guy named Alaska Dave. He’s from Soldotna. He had to make his images private (long story) so I can’t share. But trust me when I say they’re awesome. Especially his eagle and other wildlife images.

One day I asked Dave to tell me about some folks on Flickr he shares with regularly. One of those folks was Jon, aka Nikographer. He also takes amazing eagle and other wildlife pics. The video below was taken by Jon and posted on his Flickr site.

The funny thing about this whole connection? Dave lives in Alaska. So, while I can admire Dave’s photos and wish I were closer and could check out some of the spots where he shoots, chances are I won’t get there for a long time.

Jon, on the other hand, lives in the Northern Virginia area. He has posted lots of truly inspirational images from places like Great Falls National Park (straddles the MD/VA border near Washington, DC), Conowingo Dam (northeastern MD, just south of the PA border), the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge (on MD’s eastern shore) and the Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge in Delaware. I’ve been to all of those places except Bombay Hook. But that’ll change soon. And all of these places are within driving distance for me.

Not that I’ll ever get the same quality wildlife shots Jon has captured, but at least I’ll get to see the places for myself. I’m going to try really hard to get to Bombay Hook before late February, early March, which is when I think the snow geese leave. Until then, I’ll just watch this cool video. And look at Jon’s Flickr pics. And be thankful I’ve become pen pals of sorts with a core group of folks on Flickr — AK Dave and Jon are just two of them — that regularly create magic with their cameras.

UPDATE: I forgot to mention that Jon has a Blog, too.