Tawny owl

Six weeks ago, I picked up a year-old tawny owl with a broken leg off the main road near our home and dropped him off at our nearest vet.

After a few days, I received one of the most bizarre phone calls I’ve ever had, asking “So when are you coming to pick up your owl?” 🧵

A tree trunk fills the center portion of the picture. The right lower corner has a clump of rhododendron leaves. The left lower corner is framed on each side by a large fern frond. The left upper corner has rhododendron leaves. The right upper corner shows a deeper background to the picture where light is shining through and hitting vegetation in the background. The real star of the picture is the tree trunk which has moss along the surface of what looks like birchbark, with an opening in the tree trunk. Long, shaggy green, moss in a lighter green color forms, almost a beard from the opening in the tree trunk, giving the tree trunk the look of a mouth being alive in the forest.

#moss

#Treebeard #forest #nature #tree #fern

Beautiful pink and orange flowers set against a landscape of fog, trees, and hills.

#Relax is today's #BlueSkyArtShow theme. Makes me think of this early morning in the Willamette Valley of Oregon -- enjoying the beautiful vista while the fog slowly lifts. “I will meditate on your wonderful works.” Psalms 145:5

#willamettevalley #foggymorning #praisethelord #flowersandfog

"Midnight in Kyoto" by Susan Maxwell Schmidt A full color photograph I have altered to capture the noir mood of midnight in Kyoto on a night long passed. Desaturating the photograph to black and white, I retained just the barest whisper of faded selective color in the ancient bonsai tree to suggest its strength and endurance through the ages, and significantly adjusted the lighting to give it emphasis and add moody drama to my scene. In the end I managed to make myself want to transcend time and space and find myself standing in this place, and that gives me an inordinate amount of satisfaction. While I'm trying to figure out how to do exactly that, more info may be had at susanmaxwellschmidt.com, if you're so inclined.

"Midnight in Kyoto"

(deets in the alt)

#AlphabetChallenge #WeekNForNights
#Photography #Art

Good morning & welcome to #Caturday

It's always possible to find a reason to be positive.
Some days you just have to search a little harder.

5 mushrooms hiding in a space between two moss covered tree roots with a sixth mushroom at the apex of the crevice. The tree rootss begin upper left, cut diagonally to right then turn to bottom left . The grey green roots provide contrast to the green moss and light tan /brown mushrooms

#fungiFriday
#forestFriday
#mushrooms
#moss
#BlackRocktrail
#Grandfathermountain

I love the Bobby story.

If I remember correctly you walk the lower mounded rocks and the trail turns right and you go past the pancake stack.

Geology of Grandfather - Grandfather Mountain

grandfather.com/geology/

Metoconglomarate rock. It used to be sedimentary and in places you can still see fossils in it. Locally it is known as “Pudding stones”.

The picture shows deciduous bushes and rhododendrons in deep shadow, tips in the upper part of the picture are being hit by sunlight. A flat gray slab of rock is in the lower left corner as floor of the picture, at an angle. What appears to be a pancake stack of 6 foot wide and 6 inch deep rocks rise like Jenga blocks on the left side of the picture. In front of that the rock stack is a pile of rocks, slightly different. These rocks are a little thicker and their edges are more worn. They are fallen and semi stacked on top of each other. At first, you are not sure if this is just a picture taken at the side of the trail, or if somehow the trail makes its way through the mounds of rock, then 2/3 of the way up the picture on a narrow tree trunk to the right of the picture is a round reddish orange circle with the image of a hiker on it in black, indicating that it is the Cragway Trail.

#ForestFriday

#forest #trees #Rhododendron #rock
#Cragwaytrail #Grandfathermountainstatepark

Sounds life changing. As evidenced by, you now do it to all coffee. What an impact.

Lovely story.

Unless you have a southern accent. (Speaking from experience), however it is faster to edit the mistakes. You end up with some interesting text if you say the word Rhododendron. Every. Time.

Different grasses blurred on purpose.

"Do not wait for life. Do not long for it. Be aware, always and at every moment, that the miracle is in the here and now."

-Marcel Proust

Everyone copes in different ways.

Tall trees some covered with moss and a narrow path

Stay together, stay optimistic - the path may be narrow but we will find it.

A grey dirt path extends from the right lower corner to 2/3 of the way into the picture and then fades from view. 5 foot wide, but only 6 inch tall gray rock. The same color is in the middle lower part of the picture with several smaller gray rocks closer to the viewer. Beyond the wide gray rock is a low moss covered rock in the center of the picture jutting slightly to the left. Three smaller rocks angled in different directions on the dirt are also covered in a thin green moss. A clump of deciduous trees is in the upper left corner. The upper right corner has a row of deciduous trees along the path extending into the distance. Sunlight hits low trees and bushes beyond the described trees, creating dimension as a lighter green is in the distance

#Midweekmoss

#nature #rock #moss

I’m not trying to start a fight or anything here, but I am gently commenting that my statement is sarcasm. Yes. More serious.

32 Chunk voted as Fat Bear Week 2025 winner after 2 years as runner-up As one of the largest bears that resides along Brooks River at Katmai National Park and Preserve in Alaska, 32 Chunk was estimated to be over 1,200 pounds.

Next time you feel like things are tough, just remember that the winner of fat bear week came in second place twice and then won despite having a broken jaw all summer

Needed to count how many women and minorities were left and get their names.

#4. Need right now, lol

Thank you for your service.

Night night sweet dreamies

You haven’t failed, my friend.
You’re simply resting for a moment so you can keep going stronger than before.
I have absolute faith in you.

Believe in yourself too

Yes! They must go back!

I’m glad it is getting easier.

Near view of a purple stemmed flower with fallen petals, 9 flowers extending from a horizontal step, with green leaves. Flowers are in focus. Gray rock is behind with black fungus in the distant rock. 3 maples with the tops becoming yellow are beyond the drop off of the gray rock. A slightly twisted sparse pine is beyond the maples. Green trees in The distance show touches of orange. Rows of mountains become bluer into the distance. White clouds can be seen in a blue sky.

#Stunday

Very sorry to hear about your roof and deck. We had a bit of water in the basement but not as bad as some folks. 4 trees down. Landslide in 3 different directions but not affecting us. The worst here was about 10 am that’s when the landslides and trees started.

Highly skilled panda warrior!

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

#bluesky #animals #nature #wildlife

Life changing.