rose

onion bed

cirque du bulbine

anole

farewell adrienne

Your dog, tranquil and innocent, dozes through
our cries, our murmured dawn conspiracies
our telephone calls. She knows--what can she know?
If in my human arrogance I claim to read
her eyes, I find there only my own animal thoughts:
that creatures must find each other for bodily comfort,
that voices of the psyche drive through the flesh
further than the dense brain could have foretold,
that the planetary nights are growing cold for those
on the same journey who want to touch
one creature-traveler clear to the end;
that without tenderness, we are in hell.

- "Twenty-One Love Poems (X)," The Dream of a Common Language, Adrienne Rich

synesthesia

irises and stuff

mockingbird

Stalking the suet. These guys are up all night this time of year. I listened to one tease a frog last night - answering the frog's calls.

jojo

purple and orange

Why, yes, I have been known on occasion to hop on the bike with my camera to go back and follow up after spotting something interesting while hiking. Even for tiny things.

peach hibiscus

spring things

The bottom one is a seedling from one of my favorite trees - I gathered some of its seeds in the fall. Cross your fingers!

friday night in toontown

snippets, 3-21-12

Frida Kahlo's private stash of pictures. Wow. (Number 11 made my eyes water.) (h/t dangerousmeta)

doeskin, march 2012

It looks like the whole western side of the reserve burned during last year's wildfires, but it's recovering nicely. Bren and I got to spend a few beautiful hours hiking together on a cool, overcast spring day. Doesn't get any better than that.

The last shot is of a ranch along the way near Liberty Hill.

black and white warbler

We were stalking golden-cheeked warblers today. I've been trying to get a picture of one for several years. This one fooled me - I thought it was a female golden cheek, but it's a male black and white warbler. Maybe next year! (The golden-cheeked warblers only come to Texas for about three weeks to breed, and then return to Mexico and Central America shortly after the babies fledge. There are thought to be fewer than 4,000 remaining.)

brushy creeek, iii-xvii-xii

blackberries and bluebonnets

fawkes in the tree

field notes, iii-xvi-xii

A bag of popcorn is a good thing to have on hand when someone rings the doorbell or knocks unexpectedly. I tossed a handful into the bedroom and closed Ondine in with it, then put Aries through a series of six or seven sit-and-catch sessions. They both totally forgot someone was at the door.

A good training exercise. But here's the fun part: after watching Aries catch six or seven pieces without missing any, I tossed several in the air for myself. I too, caught them flawlessly. I haven't tried that for years, decades even, but watching Aries do it must have activated my sympathetic nervous system. It was uncanny and fun.

sicut in caelo

field notes, iii-xiv-xii

I took Aries and Ondine out together on a two-mile walk today. They pulled like mules for the first quarter mile but then settled a little. It wasn't a total disaster.

snippets, 3-14-12

Giant corpse flower set to bloom at Cornell. Woot!

lemon, bulbine

I busted my 55-300 a year and a half ago. This year's tax return enabled me to get a 50-200 to replace it. Considering it's one of Pentax's cheapest lenses, it's nice! I'm impressed with how small and light it is. (Someday I'll upgrade to a K5 and the 60-250, but not anytime soon.)

and then it was summer

After a few days of mid 40s and lower 50s with rain, the temperature shot up to 80ish this evening. I took Ondine out for one of our fast walks, and on the way back home through the park she plopped down in a patch of still-cool grass in the shade of some great oaks. HA, I said, but I let her cool down. For maybe a minute. (She was good good good today!)

yeah

sunny sunday

a nice end to the weekend after a few days of rain