Murray's Garden

I went over to Murray's today because we needed to check the observing site for the astronomy class that we are involved in teaching. For some reason he had mentioned in one of our emails that he had a two-year old garden that was doing nicely. So today when we got back to his house from the observing site, I asked to see it, and of course brought my camera with me. Some of the flowers had passed their prime, but I was able to photograph this view of the garden with the flowers looking pretty nice, for the most part. It was an amazing transformation to what had been an ordinary back yard.

The Water Glass

Each day before going out on my bike ride, I drink a whole glass of water, and then I bring a water bottle on the bike. The sun happened to be shining in on the kitchen counter, and that's where I happened to set down my half filled glass of water. I was stunned when I looked down at the glass and saw its shadow. So I grabbed the camera and made a few shots. The shadow of the glass and water makes such an amazing pattern on the counter. What is also interesting is that this is a color photograph!

The Crouching Kitties

I don't remember what attracted me to the back room, but the first thing I saw was one of the kitties crouching low in the chair, obviously looking at something outside the window. The second kitty came in, saw the situation, and jumped up beside the first one. And they were both transfixed by whatever they were watching. I spent a minute waiting for the perfect moment. This photo to me seemed like it was all about the shapes of their bodies. I never did figure out what they were looking at.

The Beauty of Cirrus Clouds

For the last three evenings I have been taking a class down at the school that is part of St. Brigids. It is three days long, and three hours each day, with two short breaks. It is tough to sit for longer than an hour at a time, so I get up and walk outside to stretch my legs when the breaks come. While walking back and forth outside the school, I just happened to look up and saw this! It stopped me in my tracks. It was the cirrus clouds I saw first, then the tiny cross, which completed the photo for me. Fortunately my toy camera was where it should be on my belt. It was surprising how quickly the clouds moved - I didn't take that many frames before the composition no longer worked for me.

I See Spots

There is an absolutely enormous sunspot group on the face of the sun. It is the largest grouping, both in numbers of spots, and surface area covered that I have ever seen in 24 years of looking at the sun. I could have missed larger groups in the past, of course. Sunspots are cooler areas on the surface of the sun, caused by huge magnetic fields which inhibit convection. It is a spectacular thing to see. In a few days, the sun's rotation will take these spots out of our view. Please click on this to see a larger image.

Wildflowers

There is a house a ways up the street that is up high on an embankment with a big cement wall in front of it. There used to be some kind of stuff with prickers on the branches growing in the strip between the wall and the curb. They recently ripped it all out, and planted "something." Well that something turned out to be a wildflower garden, and it is subtle and beautiful, and wonderful. I did take a photo showing the whole scene with a gate and the curb, but realized that I needed to be closer, because it is all about the flowers themselves, not the scene. Please click on the photo to see a larger image with more detail.

By Popular Demand...

OK, by popular demand, here is a photograph of the pink lady, in all her glory. The paint is faded some, even though the boat was under the front porch, out of the sun. I should take the time to sand it down, and give it a fresh coat of paint, both inside and outside. Unfortunately, the boat was backlit, and so the sunlight is not shining directly on the pink paint, and the color is subdued. And, yes, although I never thought of it before, it is definitely "Stellafane Pink!" Thanks for pointing that out!