Froggy decided I was getting too close and hopped off!
At the hop!
Category: #OptOutside
Beyond cherry blossoms!
There is more to admire than cherry blossoms this time of year! Check out the flowering weeds! At the edge of a tiny park in Leonardtown, MD I was startled to discover Veronica (Speedwell) in full bloom, carpeting a large area with the most darling tiny flowers in endless shades of sky blue. A perfect bouquet for a fairy.
Veronica is the largest genus in the flowering plant family Plantaginaceae, with about 500 species; it was formerly classified in the family Scrophulariaceae. Common names include speedwell, bird’s eye, and gypsyweed. Wikipedia
Scientific name: Veronica
“Fuzzy-Wuzzy was a…”?
In this case, Fuzzy Wuzzy was a magnolia bud! Spring must be coming soon! But now that I take the time to recall the complete nursery rhyme, I guess it isn’t appropriate… “Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear! Fuzzy Wuzzy had no hair! So Fuzzy Wuzzy wasn’t very fuzzy, was he?” Oh dear… Back to the drawing board…
It’s fuzzy but it’s Spidey!
So exciting to open my kitchen door on 1/27/18 and see my exit blocked by a dangling spider! It is climbing up its web to a Chinese fir. Seems like a warm January though it is actually average. I assume many of you are happily enjoying this most bug-free time of year. For that reason I haven’t shown you the beetles I saw on 1/1/18, snuggled up under dead tree bark, in diapause. But I plan to share them eventually…
Moon following Sun
The Moon always follows the Sun so the Sun cannot hide from us, any more than my children could hide from me when they were small because our Border Collie followed them everywhere. I see her tail in my memory, like a crescent moon. The Potomac River’s open water reflects the salmon sunset while the ice reflects the blue sky.
1-18-2017.
Canada geese don’t mind the river’s freezer…
These Canada geese are busy consuming something. It’s just before sunset on the Potomac River. Are they drinking or eating? Please let me know!
Ice textures on frozen Potomac River
So many grades of ice from smooth to rough on the Potomac River!
Spider web was actually goose down!
Apologies! Live and learn! I went back to check the frozen “spider webs” after they had melted. Much to my amazement the under-structure of the “chandeliers” was goose down, not spider webs!
Who would have dreamed? Magic is created in the most unexpected ways!
Altostratus translucidus clouds!
Looks like my advection fog photo from a few days ago but these are “Altostratus translucidus” clouds. Per David M. Carroll, “The low sun is a white disk in a smoked-glass sky.”
Frozen Potomac River in foreground.
Advection Fog!
Warm air over cold water creates advection fog, here backlit by the morning sun.
Here are photos of the ice in the creek cracking and melting in the warm advection fog.
carriestaples 