AndiF

I'm very happy that we were able to get all that rain and have it nourish the forest instead of filling the creeks.

Ouch and damn.

A pair of Caspian Terns, gray and white birds with black caps and orange bills, are splashing in the ‎⁨Platte River⁩ at it's mouth on Lake Michigan. This is part of ⁨Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore⁩, ⁨⁨Michigan⁩.

It won't impress these two that we got 3 and a half inches of rain last night, but it was our first significant rain in nearly two months. We were as excited about it as these two appear to be. #photography #birds #Support_Public_Lands

Surprisingly there were very few. The ground was so dry from the drought that it just slurped up all that moisture.

It seems I'm wrong. I'm walking in the woods and the creeks have a small flow, no gushing. The ground is still firm. I guess the rain was steady for hours instead of hard for brief bursts.

Black-and-white photograph taken along Arnarfjörður on Road 63. The sky is filled with clouds but light is streaming through them. The fjord is in the foreground and mountains/ridges ringing it are visible in the distance.

The Westfjords peninsula in #Iceland is a champ at providing dramatic shots.
#photography #clouds #sky #fjords

It's good to have the rain but I would've much preferred to have the same amount spread over 3-4 days so it got a chance to thoroughly sink in rather than run off into the creeks.

We're in a moderate drought so the weather gods thought it would be funny to give us the rain we've missed in one go: 3.6 inches since about 8 p.m. last night.

A medium-sized chestnut colored dog with a black muzzle is on a trail in the woods with a long stick (around 5 feet) in her mouth. Her head is raised to keep the tail end of the stick off the ground.

Flit's #MondayMorning Wisdom: Rigorous testing has confirmed that -- whether softly or loudly -- opening your mouth to speak is the end of carrying the stick.
#photography #dogs #dogsofbluesky

Fungus is living on a dead birch tree. A brown bracket mushroom is decomposing a dead paper birch tree. This photo was taken at the Clay Cliffs Natural Area, Leland Township, Michigan. https://leelanauconservancy.org/naturalarea/clay-cliffs-natural-area/

Looking at the forest floor #photography #Support_Public_Lands #Michigan #fungus

Not as sorry as I am. 😜

The name was taken from the translation of the Cherokee name for the mountain range: place of blue smoke. The 'smoke' results from plant life in the dense Appalachian forests emiting natural hydrocarbons called terpenes that react with ozone particles drifting down from the stratosphere. Moisture condenses on these hydrocarbons which then scatter the shorter wavelengths of light in the blue-violet spectrum to create haze. A panorama shot from Cove Creek Road of a series of mountains tops with haze muting the mountains farthest away and clouds rising in the valleys between them. The mountains are all tree covered. There is a cloudy sky.

Just the Smoky Mountains splendidly reminding me how it got that name.
#StunDay #photography #mountains #NationalPark #clouds #NorthCarolina
More INFO in ALT

Six ruby throated hummingbirds are either on or landing at the feeder. This photo was taken in the middle of June, 2017. All of the ones that I can clearly see are either females or immature males. The 2025 fall migration seems to be done here or all the noise in the woods from loggers cleaning up the storm damage from last March has scared them away. Whatever the reason we have taken down the feeders until next spring. Turn, turn, turn.

Collective nouns are fun: a murder of crows, a gaggle of geese, an exaltation of larks. A group of hummingbirds are known by several names a charm, glittering, shimmer, or bouquet. I like shimmer because a group of hummingbirds is as ephemeral as a shimmer. #hummingbirds #photography #stunday

Sadly, that combination is now an invite to my acid reflux to try to kill me. 😬

The Liesegang rings in this photo look sort of like eyes staring out of the rock. There are two central shapes with somewhat concentric rings around them. The rock is rusty red and brown and has gray patches of lichen and green patches of moss. The whole thing looks like an abstract painting. One of the most interesting things about Liesegang rings is that the process that creates them is not understood. More information about them is at this Wikipedia page. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liesegang_rings_(geology)

Here's lookin' at you, kid. These are Liesegang rings of Anvil Rock in the ‎⁨Shawnee National Forest⁩. #photography #geology #Support_Public_Lands

It's a high quality skill ... which amazingly enough every one of our dogs have had.

He knew I was a sucker who would let him get away with anything.

PS They might not be as satisfying as socks, though.

Gold star for me!

I was really only uncertain about the grackle. I haven't seen them that often and never around here.

Overhanging trees and bluffs line this section of Trail 3. When most people think of Indiana, they think of the glacially flatend sections of the state not the meltwater carved canyons of this jewel of a state park. More about the park's geology is at this URL. https://www.turkeyrunstatepark.com/turkey-run-state-park-geology/

Trail 3, Turkey Run State Park, Parke County, Indiana #photography #geology #Support_Public_Lands

I highly recommend Kong stuffies. She tore all of hers apart right away until Jim's brother gave her a Kong monkey stuffy more than 2 years ago. Now she has a variety of Kong stuffies, loves them all, and they last forever (well the squeakers don't but she still likes the toys).

Trying my bird id skills: grosbeak, grackle, red-bellied, bluejay

Correct?

A medium-sized chestnut colored dog with a black muzzle lies on a blanket on a dog bed. There is a stuffed bear toy by her nose.

Here you go. She weighs almost twice as much as she did then and is several inches taller.

A medium-sized chestnut colored dog with a black muzzle who is about 6 months old lies on a plaid blanket in the back seat of a car. She looks relaxed and happy (and she was).

The same dog now lies on the same blanket but it is on a dog bed and she is now relaxed and asleep. One of her paws is resting on top of the end of a rope toy.

The Friday Digital Archive Dive is gleeful as a dog's wagging tail to celebrate Flit's Gotcha Day. Happy 4th Anniversary to all of us.

Taken #OnThisDay October 3, 2021
#photography #dogs #dogsofbluesky

Heads up Indiana. Heads up all those red states voters and all the 45-64 year-olds (Trump by 10 percentage points) who thought Trump cared about their financial struggles.

It's awful to think about all the people who will no longer be able to afford health care if the credits aren't extended.

You'd probably would have had to pick your neighborhood carefully to get the right concentration of Jews. There were only 2 schools that had a sufficient population. I'll bet there was similar clustering in St. Louis.

😆

OTOH, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur were very popular at my high school. There were so many Jewish kids that while we were out, the school days were basically one long study interspersed with meaningless audio-visual amusements.

A deep pink rose is the subject of this photo. In the background is the out of focus Eifel Tower. If the #Support_Public_Lands hashtag seems strange. It makes more sense if you read the Wiki article at this link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musée_Rodin

A late summer rose taken at ‎⁨Le Jardin de Rodin⁩, ⁨Paris⁩, ⁨Île-de-France⁩, ⁨France⁩ #photography #flower #Paris #Musée_Rodin #Support_Public_Lands

A large clump of small mushrooms with round caps grow on the base of a tree. They are in shadow and light.

A black and white photo taken from below of weeds against a metal railing. The weeds have cylindrical ends that look like small bottle brushes. The 'hairs' of the plant are glowing in the sunlight.

Verzuz: Rural vs Urban. Color vs Black-and-white. Down vs Up. Fungus vs Plant.
#photography #fungus #mushrooms #plants #light

I know I don’t often share my ‘other’ artwork here, but tributes to the legends deserve an exception…

‘’What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make." - Dr Jane Goodall.