Rob Thacker

The flowers that were previously buds are now completely open. Two new leaves are also growing.

And a few days later in full bloom. With the temperature reaching 26 C today this feels rather apropos...

View of some maple leaves isolated against a dark green background. The maples leaves are a mixture of green and beautiful dark reds.

A single delicate young tree grows in the shade, surrounded by much larger and older pines. It's leaves are yellowing and a single branch reaches up towards the light.

Close-up of a single maple leaf. Down the centre-line of the leaf the red only exists on the right hand side, the left is green. A small dab of red also exist on the farthest most right part of the leaf.

Looking through the shade of the canopy towards leaves in the light. A single hemlock stands in the middle, it's foliage reaching out to the edge of the image, while behind are maple leaves, a combination of oranges and red.

As the northern hemisphere feels the first few portents of winter coming, got out to #Oakfieldprovpark this afternoon for the first time in ages. Such a beautiful place, the colours are vibrant already & will likely be stronger in a few days. Here are a few small vignettes. #photography #mikmaki

Six flowers protrude out of a bud, with one flower opened to reveal white petals of the callery pear flower. Two of the ornamental pears hang beneath the bud cluster. Twigs and a wall of blue fill the background.

Here's a callery pear on the SMU campus blooming in late September. I had a minor freak out on seeing this, but apparently the trees will do this after periods of stress, most notably drought. It's only a couple of blooms as well, most of the rest of the buds are dormant.

The sun rises over distant mountains giving a yellow cast to the sky that peeps through the hard blue cloud cover. Sea mist is lit bright red by the off-axis sun, while waves beach towards the viewer.

A truly spectacular morning at Mellon Udrigle beach in the scottish #highlands. It really is pretty pretty amazing to see the sun rise over the mountains to the east, in turn lighting up the sea mist. #photography

Thanks to all bluesky friends that chuckled at the #joke.

A tractor drives down and across a brown field. Throughout the field are gulls, following the newly turned soil.

Here's a farmer sowing gulls 😉They grow very quickly and are quite mobile. #photography

A break in the cloud ripples across the sky. Shafts of sunlight beam through the break in the cloud lighting up the landscape.

Treated to a truly amazing sky this morning. Clouds were breaking up and letting shafts of light through. #photography

It's 8:15, and that's the time that it's always been.

A hummingbord that is mostly green hovers between sprays of bright red crocosmia flowers.

A hummingbird rests on a metal cage looking towards the photographer intently. In the background is foliage.

And here we go - ruby-throated hummingbirds feeding on the crocosmia as well as landing on the tomato cages and giving us a stare down! 😀Little bit windy tonight so they weren't able to hover for long periods in the same place...

Several sprays of bright red crocosmia hang down together. The flowers are in pairs along a stem, with the tips yet to bloom.

A single purple-headed bee-balm rises up from it's stem. Grass is in the background framing the flower.

Crokey-bees 😉 An awesome #crocosmia spray alongside some bee-balm in the garden. As always @lmcampbell.bsky.social is doing a fantastic job of shepherding everything to bloom. Will see if we can get some hummingbird pics tonight. #photography #bloomscrolling

Looking towards a tree in front of a road. Three fawns are in the foreground while the doe is half-hidden by the tree in the centre of the image.

Doe with three fawns walking around the neighbourhood tonight (quick phone pic). They weren't even remotely scared of me watering the garden. Not good in that it means ticks are going to be spread around peoples' gardens. halisky

Last year we had 241 Growing Degree Days (10 C) by the end of June, this year it is only 224. It might still be a very warm July/Aug (that's been predicted) but to this point the growing season is behind last year.

A spray of bright red crocosmia flowers. The flowers themselves come in pairs along the stalk. The first flowers are open, while those toward the tip or the spray are still closed, showing red and yellow/green colours. In the background is green foliage.

With it being a colder summer, blooms in our garden are about 4-6 days behind '24. However, the first strands of #crocosmia are out! We jokingly call it "hummingbird crack" as they will get pollen on their heads while feeding. @lmcampbell.bsky.social has seen one flit by so far. #bloomscrolling

A cluster of five dogwood flowers forms a cross, updown and across. Behind are leaves supporting the flowers, while vegetation is in the background. The petals each have a point at their tip. The image is black and white.

A cute little dogwood spray on the SMU campus. It's pretty difficult to reproduce the delicate structure on the white petals, but doing the best I can with a phone cam. #photography

Several US Jolly rancher sweets unsafe to eat, FSA says The FSA says chemical compounds in the sweets can increase the risk of cancer and damage DNA.

I guess you call them the "Not so Jolly Rancher" sweets...

From article: "The FSA is advising people who have any of the listed products to not eat them and dispose of them at home."

More details: www.bbc.com/news/article...

Thanks. Yes, I've been making the point about the conflict between AI power requirements vs moving toward Net Zero 4 a while. The fact that GDP isn't taking off suggests to me AI is destroying as much value as it is creating. Which makes everything a race to the bottom with a big environmental cost.

#bloomscrolling

A yellow bearded iris has two petals reaching upward, while two others lay outward from the stem. In the background is green foliage and another flower that is out of focus.

Despite the cool spring, @lmcampbell.bsky.social's bearded irises are starting to bloom. Here's a quick pick from this morning in the overcast light. Halisky

From 2006 😁

It felt like a lot of us, somehow, finally got old at this one...

Total step count for 4 day conference: 94,124 🏃🏃‍♂️

A happy lobster is looking through a telescope. One eye is closed while the other squints through the eyepiece of the telescope.

Just finished hosting the annual Canadian astronomy research conference (CASCA) at Saint Mary's U. in Halifax. That's "Squinty" the conference mascot in the pic.

We loved hosting everyone and it was amazing to receive a standing ovation at the end. But I truly miss 2015 sci twitter. #CASCA2025

#CASCA2025 😉

24,000 steps today....

Astro pun: Clearly I'm into a spin-down process...

(I'll show myself out...)

Conference organizer dubious badge of pride:

28,000 steps today...

😅

TY - they really were quite touched.

View of a framed black and white image. A stream bends around in the bottom right while the mid-ground is full of ferns lit by the evening Sun. Trees extend into the distance, the light dancing through the branches.

Tough to see our awesome neighbours move out. After being friends for almost 15 yrs, & watching their kids grow up it's a truly bittersweet moment. Gave them a little piece of their (now) former neighbourhood as a house warming gift for their new place: A pic of Mt Olivet's stream. #photography

What can go wrong? 🤣

A black and white image showing the Atlantica hotel on the right and a tree reaching out into the middle of the image. On the left a crane appears to be reaching over. The leaves of the tree are lighter than the sky.

Halifax constantly trims trees to avoid powerlines. As a result many trees in the city look "cut in 1/2". This is a tree at the corner of Robie and Quinpool. Consider this image a "sketch" as it really needs to be taken in near infra-red at higher res. @lmcampbell.bsky.social #photography

A small tree stands between three green bushes on the ground. Behind is a building covered in panelling, grey at the bottom and then orange further up. The tree is covered in white blossom.

A little bit of beauty to brighten a dull day - a callery pear in full bloom outside the SMU Science building. Halisky #photography