The Beauty Of The Changing Seasons

This morning I had my "cuppa" on the deck. It was so relaxing.

The Honeysuckle are full bloomin' babes. 3 of the pergola corners are just filled with blooms

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I need to get to trimming under those bushes, but there is a robins' nest in there and I don't want to disturb her till the babies are grown and flown.
 
Nice picture of Sassy! I loved it :)

We have had Methuselah for ~45 years so he is probably between 45-50.

About the pergola, we have a lot of that stuff too! It has a nice fragrance, the moths and hummingbirds love it.

We even had a squirrel build a nest in there once, and the birds like to occasionally swing through. Just beautiful.

Love to Sassy! :circle-of-love:
 
He dug several of his own dens. As he got older and bigger he had to build a bigger one.

He lives outside in his own den. He hibernates in the winter for a matter of months, hes very particular about the weather.

He dug down about 7 feet and his hole bends around a corner so you cant see him sitting in there. He is a California Desert Tortoise in his own little garden of preservation :Namaste:
 
Well, my walk yesterday and this morning was full of surprises of new flora and critters.

I will start with my roses. When I get in close on these I imagine being out in some alternate universe with all of the swaths of color flowing around like a new star being born:

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These are from my Catalpa tree that a relative gave me about 6 years ago. It was only a foot high when I got it, and it has shot up about 40 feet tall now. It has long seed pods that will start growing soon, and the flowers on it are just beautiful.
I will have a pic of the whole tree up soon:

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Look at the size of the leaves early in the season:

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And of course there are always critters getting into the goodies inside the flowers:

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Whipped cream? A lovely topping on a pie? Looks yummy!

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Well, not quite but some people do eat them. This is a puff ball mushroom, early stage. When they mature they explode open releasing their dust:
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Here's some critters. First up, I think this is a rose bug. He's munching on my grape leaves. The brat!

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I caught this butterfly in motion on the honeysuckles:

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I do not know what this seed pod is, but the plants are invading the area around the pond something fierce:

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You are always so kind Lester. :hugs:

Photography was in my life for many years, it's nice to resume doing what I used to love.
I used to have my own darkroom back in the day when film was our only option. Then digital came and I lost interest. To me it just wasn't as much fun as working those camera settings and playing in the dark room to get the effects you wanted. What used to take hours to master, now can be done in seconds. Ah well, we must move with technology or get left behind. LOL

I've been having trouble with blurry pics due to trying to hand hold the camera phone. I rigged up a tripod for my phone this morning and it made a doozy of a difference in my opinion. It reduced that hand shakiness by leaps and bounds.

Here's what I did. I have a tripod with a tilt head on it, I scored some foam pieces for the phone edges to fit in and then rubber banded the phone to the tilt head. It worked perfectly.

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So next up will be the shots I took this morning with the tripod rig.

:thumb:
 
Before I get the rest of the pics uploaded tonight, I thought I would show you the hunting blind I set up for stealth pictures of the pond activity. It is sitting on a deck that goes out over the pond somewhat.

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This is the view from inside the tent:

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Hopefully I can get some clearer pictures of the water fowl like these two Mallards this morning. It was a bit hazy from humidity this morning.

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Now why am I posting a picture of dirt, you ask?

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You know me better than that, there's a critter there.

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That little toad was no bigger than my pinky nail. There were several others around the lawn. Must be a fresh newborn hatch.
 
My initial thought is you would be a fun person to walk with. Then I thought about it a little and realized I'd always be running ahead to see what I could find next while you were taking pictures. ;) :rofl:
 
:rofl: PeeJay.

I actually invited a friend over for my morning walk with me this morning. Sadly, I don't think he is into the flora and fauna as I am. He got bored. LOL


SO, here's a little something I thought you might be able to recognize with your vast knowledge of this kind of thing. I found a tree that had these very strange growths all over the leaves. Any ideas what kind of disease or bug could do this?

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These tall and lanky plants are about 4' high on just the stalk area. They are starting to bloom out with some beautiful yellow flowers:

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The flowers on this are very tiny. Smaller than my pinky nail. Inside they look like they are growing mini acorn squash:

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And here's the difference between having a tripod and not. This picture is with the tripod:

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I think it's a much clearer shot than I have been seeing.
 
This is a teaser for the next set of pics. What a burst of color! I have not seen these on my property before today, I must be missing their blooming stage through the years:

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Here's the rest of them. I was just fascinated by these:

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Crap! I'm having a brain malfunction. The name of the tall lanky plant is in there, but it wont come out... Anyway, if you harvest the tops before they bloom you can simmer them in water and make a dye for raw wool with deep reddish brown hues that is very fetching - if you ever have some spare time...
 
Spare time? Do you know that time is a four letter word? :laugh:

I will keep that in mind when I check on them next. I'll give a couple days for full bloom to see what they do. :thumb:

How about a couple of critter pics?

I have never taken a clearer shot of an uglier worm:

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So I headed back to the ranch and found something prettier:

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