Not on-message

Last week I posted a shot of someone's heartfelt exclamation that the Edinburgh Festival was over for another year. Now I see that it was thought not to be 'on-message' in the week when innocent, impressionable students return to the campus.

Chinatown Lights

Night Lights, originally uploaded by ParsecTraveller.

While exploring the shops in Chinatown, San Francisco, this one stood out due to its huge collection of lights and lanterns.

Grasshopper Snack

I had a fun encounter with this little bird at work today. One of my co-workers had noticed that this small bird was hanging around on the lawn in front of the visitor center and was apparently not bothered by people being close by. After watching the bird for a few minutes we realized it was hunting for grasshoppers. Over the course of 10 to 15 minutes we watched this little fellow catch at least a half-dozen grasshoppers and swallow them right after catching them. I laid down on my stomach with my 100-400 lens to capture an eye-level shot of the bird. I was hoping to catch him with a grasshopper in his mouth, but wasn't overly optimistic that I would actually get the shot. Within seconds of laying down on the ground, however, the bird hopped towards me and plucked a grasshopper up from the ground!

Swanson River City Shootout

Another HOT day today. Thermometer reached 90 degrees. The competition was just a heated. Nearly 200 mountain bike racers hit the singletrack as Swanson Park (Bellevue, NE) for Swanson River City Shootout.
Photos I took during the races are posted at http://win-photo.photoreflect.com
Photo files are available for purchase (non-commercial use, please). As usual, the photos posted are proofs. I will adjust exposure, etc before sending the file (I have the camera RAW files).

MEET THE FAMILY

I had great fun playing around with the camera today - I spent a great deal of time trying to photograph the cats, the dogs and the hens - not altogether successfully!











Toby - top photo - was certainly not amused and Pip wasn't exactly thrilled to see me with a camera either.





So, I moved on to the cats:











Bennie - tabby and white - agreed to sit still briefly, but Sparky muttered something and stalked off to terrorise the mice.





I decided to find the hens, they spend their day pecking around in the wood so they are not always easy to find.









I found them easily enough but they beat a hasty retreat.

Plant Pest: Sunflower Moth

If the flowers on your Coneflowers, Black-Eyed Susans or Sunflowers seem to be fading faster than they should, check to see if they have been infested by the Sunflower Moth. Now is the time of year that they, and other caterpillars, are at their peak.
Caterpillars, the larval stage of moths and butterflies, are particular about the plants they feed upon. The Sunflower Moth (Homoeosoma electellum) only feeds on the flower heads of plants in the Compositaceae Family like Zinnias and Coneflowers.
Something is going on if you look at the center of the flower and it looks dusty like this:

Cut one of these flowers open and you're likely to find a caterpillar hiding inside!
To manage this pest in your garden or nursery, simply prune off the damaged flowers and throw them away.
Or, you can simply revel in the fact that your garden is hospitable to moths and butterflies and congratulate yourself on the oasis you have created.

A New Pet Peeve

I've noticed a trend in new fiction that's making me crazy; yeah I even throw books across the room. And that's when they don't use quotation marks. It makes the book way too hard to read.
I don't want to take time to try and figure out who's saying what and when they're saying it. Why do they think quotation marks were invented in the first place?
Here's my stand. If there are no quotation marks, I'm not reading it. Period. I say, "Put back the quotations marks!"

... And I have returned

Yes, I have returned from my search for the lost winter, without finding one. I did, however, find some stunning scenery along the way, and I also found my nemesis. Having previously slaughtered some of the biggest climbs in the country (Mt Hotham, Mt Buffalo, everything in Tasmania, a century in the Adelaide Hills, a double-crossing of the Grampians in a single day etc etc), I can categorically say that none of them come anywhere near the difficulty of the climb to Queen Mary Falls to the west of here. The gradient on that one is Brutal, and that's just the start!
Having said that, I'd love a crack at it without carrying a full touring load, or without getting quite so enthusiastic when it comes to stocking up on fruit at the farmers' market at Boonah. More on that later. I have decided to prepare a full journal over at crazyguyonabike.com, rather than try to upload 45 photos here in one hit. I'll post the link to the journal when I get around to preparing it.
Also interesting to note: At some point on Sunday, I managed to ride my 10,000th kilometre of 2005. I think it was somewhere between Legume and Urbenville, but perhaps I'll work it out exactly later on. Right now, here's a sneak preview of what can be expected when I get the full ride report prepared:

Chilly Peppers

We've had our usual up-and-down weather here in Austin - mild weather interrupted by several freezes and some rain to soften the ground. I missed GBBD, but a few days ago the sun felt warm as I clipped back some of the dead plants. What a surprise to find a handful of peppers still firm & fresh on the two plants next to the back house wall next to the Meyer's Lemon tree. The leaves of the pepper plants had been hit by frost but the stems were still green. These are 'Holy Mole' peppers - very hot little devils. These will belong to Philo ... not me!
I didn't make a Garden Bloggers Bloom Day post - but there are a few photos of January flowers and a late GBBD List with botanical names over at Annie's Addendum.

Sun Rays and Ice Clusters

This morning's awe-inspiring sunrise over Lake Superior. This shot was much trickier to obtain than it may seem by looking at it. The entire shoreline here was covered in ice, which necessitated the use of ice spikes on my boots just to even get anywhere close to the water's edge. I had to sit/lay down in this groove in the ice and set up my tripod over my lap in order to get this angle on the scene. Every now and then a wave would wash up in between these two clusters of ice and splash my butt. Good thing I was wearing water-resistant snow pants! I sat in this position on the ice for a good 10 minutes waiting for the sun to peek out from behind the clouds. When it finally did, it was glorious. Beautiful rays of light shone into the sky above the clouds, and by shooting with my lens aperture set at f22 I was able to obtain a nice starburst on the sun. It was definitely worth the cold and uncomfortable seating position on the ice (and the wet butt!) to get this shot.