The Cormorant, the Dragonfly, and the Bee: June 2015

Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Afternoon Variety

After walking around the Res. and frustratingly taking no pictures because nothing seemed photo worthy, I returned home and took all these pictures from afternoon through late late afternoon.

All pictures in this post taken with my Olympus 75-300mm lens. For non-photographers, this is a telephoto zoom lens, not a macro lens; so I had to stand a short distance away to take the closeups. All handheld. All pictures are uploaded with a max dimension of 1000px.

Found at the Library. Check it out!

Flower and Bee

Mom's Echinacea

Study in Green

Globe Thistle

Butterfly Plant Welcomes Bee

Enough Tart Cherries to Share

Dog Watches On

That's Enough Cherries, Dad!

Had to Go Back for the Camera for this Shot

And This One

And This One Too

Monday, June 29, 2015

Meet the Neighborhood

Deb and I go for walks around the neighborhood pretty much every day, weather permitting. Our neighbors are wonderful. We often stop to chat and learn how everyone is doing. The children and pets are particularly photogenic in my/our view, and it is with great pleasure that I present to you several photos of the neighborhood children and pets, with an occasional adult thrown in for good measure.

I don't have photos of all the children. I may add more photos of neighborhood kids or pets to this post or another post in the future. I should add that there are a lot of babies and small children on the block. We think it's something in the water.

Dinner Time with Friends

I Promise I Won't Jump on You This Time... Ha!

Screen Window Cat Watching the Neighborhood

Handsome Dude

What Child Doesn't Love Ice Cream?

I'm Strong but I Play Ever So Nicely with Other Dogs

Ummm, Did You Just Take a Selfie in my Eye?

They Say a Good Grip is Important

My Dog Expressing Some Love

Precious Baby with Mom

A Typical Family Stroll

No Boundaries for Happiness

A Very Wise Dog

Carefree Fun

Sweetness

Here's Looking at You Kid

Brother and Sister Practice

Dare Me to Get Wet?

It's Easy For Me to Drive This Thing

Pet Me

Mischief Maker

This is My Serious Side

Saturday, June 27, 2015

Pottery and Demo at the Farmer's Market

My wife, Deb, does pottery; today she demonstrated her throwing prowess at the local Ashland Farmer's Market, and also sold some of her wares.

Everyone loves to watch a potter! There is something truly amazing how she crafts a beautiful bowl from a lump of clay. As you can tell from the photos, children and adults are enthralled by watching this process. Deb had some help from one of her students, Tonya, who also threw some pots.

If you'd like to learn and see more about Deb's pottery, go to Debra's pottery site: dagworks.com.

Practiced Hands Make It Look All too Easy

That's Really Neat How You Do That

A Dedicated Observer. He followed the process closely from start to finish.

The Crowd Watches On; And Deb Isn't Even Looking at her Pot

Tonya Shows Us Her Throwing Style

Art For Sale

A Proud New Owner of an Original Piece of Deb's Pottery

Friday, June 26, 2015

Strange Bugs

We got some rain last night, so it seemed a good time to capture some water drops on flower petals. While doing so, a strange bug decided to capture my interest in the viewfinder.

All Legs and Antenna

A Closer Look

This is more like what I had in mind:

Sans Bug

Since the sun was hitting the garden just right, I took a fresh look around. I noticed a new tiny (less than one inch) flower that seemed very photo worthy.

Jumbled Inside

Though taken on another day, this photo of a strange bug seems worthy of including here, given today's blog title:

You Can See Right Through Me

Thursday, June 25, 2015

Attacked by Sparrows

While attempting to get my camera wifi working - pretty sure it's broken, but that's another story - I heard all kinds of "scraping" noises nearby. So I looked out the back window and there were *lot's* of sparrows gathered on or near our roof gutter. Must have been some exciting food in there?

So I snapped a few pictures of these female house sparrows. All photos are taken through the window glass. The "in flight" photo shows how fast these birds move. That's a 1/500 second shot.

This Gutter is so Comfy

I Have a Lot to Talk About

Outta Here

Wednesday, June 24, 2015

Sunset

Last night's sunset.
After lots of crazy warnings during the day about possible tornados. Thankfully none materialized, but the light had a strange glow; not the usual sunset light.

Sunset After an Unsettled Day