I got up early the other day, and glanced out the west window and saw ... a stunning full moon, just setting.
I set the camera on a solid surface and propped it upward a bit with a piece of thin wood so I could capture the lunar beauty without blurring.
Down, down, down...
I'm glad I got to see it sink below the horizon.
Just one of those beautiful moments.
Here are a few random bits and bobs from the last few weeks.
We have a shed in our yard we use for garden tools, etc. The doors were open on it for about a week or so. One day Don saw a robin fly in with food in its beak, and we thought, "Uh oh, robin built a nest inside." If that was the case, we'd have to keep the shed doors open until the babies fledged.
Later that same day I went to put something inside the shed and saw this:
Not a nest, but a fledgling that had made its way in.
Of course we left the shed doors open. By the next day, it was gone.
Ground squirrel.
Full moon behind a pine.
There is a single volunteer sunflower plant growing in one of the potato beds.
It's always worth examining things like this up close...
...because you never know what you might see.
And another small spider, this one on our screen door. I believe it's a young orb weaver.
I have some basil plants growing on the deck. I was going to transplant them into the garden beds, but never got around to it, so I repotted them in larger pots and they're happily growing.
However something was eating the leaves.
Aha! Found the culprit. Look how closely it blends in, color-wise. I scooped it up and dumped it over the side of the balcony.
Grasses, blooming.
Allergies, anyone?
A clump of irises growing by the side of the driveway. This photo was taken about a month ago.
In late June, I baffled to see what looked like carrots growing in the rocks next to one of the garden beds. Carrots? How?
The mystery was solved a few weeks later. Not carrots, but Queen Anne's lace, a member of the carrot family.
I know Queen Anne's lace is technically an invasive weed, but I absolutely stinkin' love it.
A very, very distant doe and her fawn.
Some quail parents herding their chicks toward the safety of some brush.
Sunrise..
...and sunset.
We've been having cold but clear weather lately – well below freezing at night (averaging about 20F) and no higher than 38F during the day (yesterday it didn't break 28F). This means we're getting some exceptionally heavy frost.
Early mornings, when the sun backlights everything at a low angle, are the most striking.
Even ordinary barbed wire is all dressed up.
In the driveway, the fallen willow leaves are glued to the ground.
Every stalk of grass in the pasture gets lit up.
As do any remaining oak leaves on the lawn.
This glitter will end today as we head into cloudier and warmer weather. Over the next week, high temps are supposed to rise into 40s and even low 50s, and nighttime will be well above freezing. As the saying goes, if you don't like the weather, wait five minutes.
Bonus photos: Full moon rising.
Early on the morning of August 14, I noticed a new moon just rising in the eastern sky.
Early this morning (August 30), I noticed a nearly full moon just about to set in the western sky.
This full moon – both a "blue moon" and "super moon" – will occur tomorrow (August 31).
What a beautiful satellite our planet has.
