Anne Opossum

Photo of the front of a mosque entrance at night. The Kalyan Minaret is a tower that is to the left of the entrance, and is lit up in white light from the bottom and at the top. The mosque entrance is a mosaic blue archway that is lit up red on the inside dome of the arch. The entire building is covered in intricate tan brickwork

Six months ago I visited Uzbekistan, and I have a lot of photos to share from that adventure.
The Kalan Mosque, in Bukhara, was completed in the 1500s, while the Kalyan Minaret was built in the 1100s.
#uzbekistan #TravelPhotography #CentralAsia #history

Photo of a drawing of a spider in a sketchbook. The spider has 2 legs up, and is displaying his colorful abdomen Maratus volans, peacock spider

Male peacock spiders (Maratus species) are very bright to convince mates to give them a chance, while the females blend into their surroundings, as the ambush predators in the jumping spider family.
#SciArt #entomology #spiders #GelPen #illustration

Photo of a field of pink wildflowers and dried grasses. One pink flower is in focus in the foreground, it has 4 pink petals with a dark pink spot on each petal.

Farewell-to-spring (Clarkia amoena) and hello summer!
Farewell-to-springs vary a lot in their coloration across their range from British Columbia to California. This, plus their good seeding ability, has made them a popular annual flower to grow in gardens.
#BloomScrolling #GardenSky #WestCoastKin

Scratch-art line drawing of a plant with many small flowers, growing on the ends of spiral curving stems. Different parts, angles, and life stages are included. The background paper is black, and the lines are rainbow.

Most forget-me-nots have very small flowers and even smaller seeds, called nutlets (the texture of which can help ID to species).

Myosotis laxa are circumboreal, they are native across the entire Northern hemisphere!

#botany #SciArt #nativeplants #etch #ScratchArt #GardenSky #BloomScrolling

I have only seen places selling seeds to ship. It seems some local nurseries around the West have plants and bulbs available in person, seasonally.

Close up photo the of an orange lily flower in a forest, with sun rays gleaming through the out of focus trees behind the plant.

Columbia tiger lilies, Lilium columbianum, are a native #wildflower across the northwestern US and British Columbia. Their bulbs were used by native peoples for food, and can be cultivated to spread in your garden.

#macrophotography #BloomScrolling #GardenSky #OnlyBeautifulThings #ColorsOfNature

Scratch-art line drawing of a wildflower where the flowers have 5 petals in a star shape and a large spur coming off the back, with different parts, angles, and life stages included. The background paper is black, and the lines are rainbow.

All species of Larkspur are toxic, just like most plants in their family, Ranunculaceae. A familiar poisonous relative is monkshood, Aconitum sp.

#SciArt #botany #BloomScrolling #etching #ScratchArt

There are way less than there used to be. Lawn monocultures, habitat destruction, and irresponsible insecticide use is really doing a number on their populations.

Photo of a small glowing green beetle being held in a hand in the dark.

Photo of a small glowing green beetle walking on a hand in the dark.

I saw #fireflies (that light up*, see footnote) for the first time last week! It was just as magical as seeing the aurora last year!

*I have seen #beetles in the #firefly family, Lampyridae, in the PNW before. It is just that most Washington and Oregon species don't light up.

#ColorsOfNature #DC

It's me!!!

Same.

Scratch-art line drawing of a wild sunflower, with different parts, angles, and life stages included. The background paper is black, and the lines are rainbow.

Puget balsamroot, Balsamorhiza deltoidea, is a sunflower native to the west coast from British Columbia to California. It's populations thrive with frequent burning, but can still grow in a well drained Western Pacific Northwest garden

#SciArt #FlowerSky #GardenSky #NativePlants #pnw #WestCoastKin

Photo of a yellow shirt with a screaming opossum on it and text that reads: "Yeah, so I'm already dead... on the inside, but I can still pretend. Motion City Soundtrack"

Exactly!
Plus the one piece of merch I bought there 😆

Photo of a large inflatable schedule

Photo of a large outdoor stage with a performance occurring

Photo of 3 bmx bike riders each doing a different trick in mid jump

Photo of a large inflatable schedule

Yeah! There are two more dates this year, and they seem to be doing presale for next year's dates as they each happen.
It is not like warped tour used to be. Only 3 dates instead of like 50. Each one is a two day festival. And costs a lot more than the $20 tickets used to be
www.vanswarpedtour.com

Photo of a person standing next to a sign. The sign reads: "No moshing or crowd surfing You mosh or crowd surf. You get hurt. Your mom sues. No more Warped. *sad face emoji*" With a logo for the Vans Warped Tour on the side

The amount of moshing was exactly what you would expect at a historically-punk festival.

At least A Day To Remember wasn't playing this one, otherwise there would have been surfing on the crowd surfers in addition to a general disrespect for your surroundings.

#WarpedTour #DC #emo #PopPunk

Scratch-art line drawing of a wild rose, with different parts, angles, and life stages included. The background paper is black, and the lines are rainbow. Text reads: Rosa gymnocarpa, baldhip rose

I'm so excited that my #NativePlant baldhip #roses are finally old enough to bloom! They love the shady forests of the #PNW

#ScratchArt #etching #PriDemonTh #SciArt #QueerArt #botany #GardeningFeed #FlowerSky

Photo of a night sky, with a very faint smudge in the middle that could be aurora.

Same photo of a night sky, with a very faint smudge in the middle that could be aurora, but it is slightly more visible due to editing.

Same photo of a night sky, with a faint smudge/ live in the middle that is probably aurora, and it is standing out from a lot of saturation and editing.

Same photo of a night sky, that has been very highly edited in a vaporwave app to be very bright, have a lot of colors, and a sticker of the Jazz Cup design going across the corner.

Aurora were maybe visible in the lower 48 of the Pacific Northwest last night. Here is the best shot I got of it, with varying amounts of editing.
#vaporwave #JazzCup #aurora #NorthernLights #pnw #SkySky #PhotographyOfBluesky

Photo of a deer eating foliage

Photo of a deer looking up at movement

Photo of a small food looking out a window at a deer

Photo of a deer slowly walking towards some more foliage

Mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) eating inside-out-flower (Vancouveria hexandra) and large leafed avens (Geum macrophyllum) while being occasionally observed by ancient dog (Canis incontinence)

There was drama this morning! See the following post for the entire saga of my amazingly observant guard dog/wolf who didn't even see the deer until she moved.
#DogsOfBluesky #mutt #JackRussellTerrier #RescueDog #wildlife #pnw #deer

I believe it! My best friend lived in Dublin for 2 years like a decade ago. She still regularly rants about the slugs in her bathroom there 😆

Photo of a field of lavender-colored wildflowers, with a single white flower of the same species in the foreground.

Common camas (Camassia quamash) is usually shades of purple, but periodically all white individuals grow! They are not albinos, as plants with albinism wouldn't be able to photosythesize.

Prairie Appreciation Day at Wolf Haven International was great today!
#LandscapePhotography #NaturePhotography

Grayscale illustration of a pangolin, a unique looking mammal that is kind of like a mix between an armadillo, porcupine, and an anteater. Text says Manis pentadactyla, Chinese Pangolin

Pangolins are some of the most endangered mammal species in the world. They are popular in illegal wildlife trade, while being difficult to raise in captivity for conservation and re-release.
#wildlifeWednesday #SciArt

Photo of a field of wildflowers. The flower in the foreground is bright orange, most of the plants behind it are yellow, and there are lavender colored flowers sprinkled across the background.

Golden paintbrush (Castilleja levisecta) is a formerly endangered species. It is closely related to harsh paintbrush (C. hispida), and thus can hybridize, making a range of orange individials.
Prairie Appreciation Day was great this morning!
#pnw #botany #nativeplants #landscapephotography

Grayscale illustration of a lifecycle of a fish. Starting with eggs, and fish getting larger Ave darker as they go around the circle. Text says Oncorhynchus keta Chum Salmon

Chum salmon (Oncorhynchus keta) are not very popular for eating, partially because their meat usually isn't orange. But! One run in Washington, the Nisqually run, do have orange meat.
They occur all around the northern Pacific, so there are probably other unique runs.
#fishfriday #pnw #sushi 🐡

I wish I was eating uncrustables in Portland!
On a separate note, my spouse gets uncomfortable when I categorize uncrustables as ravioli.

Maybe next year! It happens the second Saturday of May each year. Other south sound prairies have started having them around may too. Wolf Haven International is having theirs on May 17th. There are others, but I don't know those

Make sure to go to Prairie Appreciation Day at Glacial Heritage on Saturday! It is just a few miles from Mima Mounds! Almost 1000 acres of Camas and other flowers, and it is the only day of the year it is open to the public

3 photos. Left photo is of a large, sleek, brown moth, who is attached at the end of the abdomen in a mating position with another moth facing the other way. The top right photo is a close up of a large caterpillars head. The caterpillar has a smooth orange head, tiny orange legs, and it's thick body is black and yellow striped. The bottom right photo is a close up of the same caterpillars back end. It had a large orange spine pointing up, just above it's butt.

White-lined Sphinx moths (Hyles lineata) are known as hummingbird moths, since they are so big. Even their caterpillars are huge and showy! The caterpillars do vary a lot in coloration. These were in Death Valley National Park last April.
#MothMonday #MacroMonday #entomology #DeathValley

Another person on here that I enjoy everything I see from them, to the point that I'm worried they will think I'm a weird stalker liking so much!

@hayleyfern.bsky.social's church illustrations are SOOOO beautiful!!!

Black and white ink illustration of a chicken-like bird. Its eyebrows and water balloon-looking air sacks on both sides of its neck being bright orange and yellow. Text reads: Tympanchus cupido, Greater Prairie Chicken

Greater prairie chickens can display a quite noticeable sexual dimorphism, the males have large, brightly colored air sacks. During mating season they inflate these sacks while coo-ing and moving their feathers alluringly. This is called booming!
#SciArt #ornithology #birb #lekking #biology