Sarah - ☮️🌙🌎💫🌈⛈️❄️

View of NYC after departing from LaGuardia. This is a shot of the NYC skyline in silhouette with the sun shining from behind it, and golden light sparkling off of the river as a ship heads out to the open water.

View from the airplane window looking down across a sky filled with clouds in each and swirling patterns. The light from the sun is orange and yellow towards the horizon as the sun goes down in the late afternoon.

Very soft and gauzy looking clouds, reflecting yellow light as the plane flies above the clouds.

View from the plane of the pastel colors of sunset reflected in the sky, as we descend towards O’Hare. The colorful fall foliage is especially pretty in the golden hour light.

Pretty views from an airplane window as my flight left NYC and then arrived in Chicago.

#goldenhour #fall #NYC #clouds #flying #photography

Three bluebirds are in a concrete bird bath. There are two male bluebirds on the edge of the birdbath, their feathers are bright blue on their heads, backs and tail feathers and their bellies are white with some rust colors. The females have the same colors but are not nearly as vivid, their colors are much more muted. There is a bird in the middle of the bath but it's barely visible amongst all of the water it is splashing around.

Two bluebirds are in a bird bath but it's hard to make out two because one of them is splashing so much water everywhere that it obscures itself. A second bluebird is making it's move towards the water.

A bluebird is splashing in the water in the birdbath and its beak is open because it was really letting the other two birds know that it wanted the water all to itself.

A male bluebird is on the edge of the birdbath and it has twisted its head way around so it can keep an eye on the sky. There might have been a red-tailed hawk or a turkey vulture flying over, they are also frequent visitors to this area.

Some bluebirds made a surprise visit to the birdbath and had themselves a good splash, though not without some arguing about who was allowed in the water.

#birds #birding #nature #photography

This is a view of storm clouds, taken from the vantage point of a view across a lake, and the trees around the shoreline are starting to get their fall colors. The sky is various shades of gray and white, and there is a rain shaft in the center, that has a slight green/teal tint to it.

Another view from the same vantage point with a nice scud cloud forming as the storm comes together. Bright orange trees are visible in some areas

The light is changing as the clouds become less dense and the contrast of the gray sky and water really makes the pretty fall colors, red, yellow and orange, stand out.

As the storm continues to pass the colors in the sky are growing lighter, allowing for some bright reflections of light on the water in some places.

Storms rolled through Southern IL on 10/18 and the fall colors were popping in that light.

#weather #wx #storm #photography #nature #fall #clouds

A group of people outside on a sunny day, holding American flags and various posters with protest messages written on them.

A person wearing an inflatable baby Trump costume stands along a road where people are lined up with the protest signs and American flags.

A woman standing outside holding a protest sign that says “REPLACING SCIENCE WITH IDEOLOGY - that is fascism” and a sign that spells out “NOPE” but uses a crown for the “E” in NOPE

A few shots from the No Kings rally against governmental overreach, that I attended in Southern Illinois. It was wonderful to see the honks and waves of support from so many driving by. Proud of this little town with a turnout of 400 people or so.

#nokings #standup #democracy #resist

Happy Caturday

He’s trying to figure out how to call Sarah McLachlan for help, because he’s not convincing me to give him his dinner, an hour early.

#caturday

I always thought the expression was, “Jesus take the wheel!”, not, “Jesus take the needle!”.

😢

I’m afraid to ask what this is in reference to, but, here I am asking anyway.

It’s so incredibly sad. I don’t understand how so many people can be so uncaring.

I don’t understand the timeline I am living in. There isn’t a lot that makes sense anymore.

Macro (extremely close-up) photograph of a black and yellow bumblebee, feeding on red zinnia flower. The background is a blue sky and the green leaves of the zinnia plant. The bee's face and legs are covered in the yellow pollen grains and its proboscis (the part of its' mouth that it drinks the flower nectar through) is extended towards the flower. The bee is very fuzzy on its body and legs and it's evident that it's late in the season, by how beat-up its wings are.

Macro (extremely close-up) photograph of a black and yellow bumblebee, feeding on red zinnia flower. The background is a blue sky and the green leaves of the zinnia plant. The bee's face and legs are covered in the yellow pollen grains and its proboscis (the part of its' mouth that it drinks the flower nectar through) is extended towards the flower. The bee is very fuzzy on its body and legs and it's evident that it's late in the season, by how beat-up its wings are.

Macro shot of a green caterpillar on top of a tomato that it's eating. The caterpillar is green, with some white and black dots in symmetrical patterns along its body and hairs are visible sticking up all around its body. I don't know what kind of butterfly or moth it will become - please feel free to ID it in the comments, if you know.

Macro shot of an orb-weaver spider in the center of her spiral web. Her abdomen has a mottled brown color and her legs have yellow and brown stripes. Her tiny little black eyes are visible. She has lived on my porch for a couple of weeks and reweaves her web every couple of days after it gets damaged. If I shut the door too hard when I come out, she will violently shake the web. I assume that it is a female spider because of it's huge abdomen which I'm guessing is filled with eggs.

Up close and personal with some pollinators and a spider that I have named "Charlotte".

#macrophotography #macro #photography #pollinators #nature #naturephotography #spider #insects

What in the world of AI is this article, it’s awful!

This is a photo taken in a nature preserve at night. There is a long streak of light in the sky that is the International Space Station passing over. The stars have left "trails" because it was a long exposure so the movement of the Earth and the stars is captured. In the foreground there is a road that leads to a vanishing point. On the right is the silhouette of a ridge of trees in the distance. On the left there are also silhouettes of trees. The light on the horizon is light pollution.

Went to a nature preserve to "touch grass". The white streak in the sky is the International Space Station passing over. All of the small "dashes" are stars/star trails, because this was a long exposure.

#astrophotography #photography #nightsky #nature #Wisconsin #peace @thephotohour.bsky.social

Photo was taken looking southeast at dusk, looking across Lake Michigan during a thunderstorm. There is a very large lightning strike hitting the lake in the distance. The lightning bolt is a bright, white/purple with many little tentacles faintly visible. The lightning is centered within a rain shaft visible with the storm clouds defined on either side of it. Building are visible on the shore, to the right.

Roll cloud that was forming over Lake Michigan as thunderstorms moved through on all sides. Photo was taken at dusk so the sky and the water are all various shakes of gray. The clouds almost resemble lenticular clouds.

Storm arrives over the northwest suburbs of Chicago, creating a surreal sky that looked like something from a Steven Spielberg movie. Dramatic shelf cloud that suddenly turned the sky quite dark and created some light turquoise colors within the clouds as they filtered the sunlight.

Storm clouds move out over Lake Michigan at dusk, creating a dramatic scene with a high contrast of light and dark between more open areas of the sky or the areas with heavier cloud cover.

Storms that came through northern IL on 8/18 - with @ninabrady.bsky.social

#weather #wxbsky #storms #photography #LakeMichigan

What gorgeous light!

Large, black and yellow garden spider waiting in its web to catch some prey. These are very large spiders, not venomous to humans. All garden spiders make that zig zag pattern in the middle of their webs, I think it’s for extra stability.

A clearwing moth drinking nectar from a zinnia. These are large moths also called hummingbird moths. Gentle and beautiful little creatures that just flit around the flowers delicately.

Different view of the clearwing moth that shows how they get their names. Their beautiful wings look like leaded glass windows, with the intricate lines and patterns.

A freshly made orb web that is perfection in its spirals. This might be a crab spider but not sure. These are not venomous to humans and are great pest control around our homes.

Beautiful nature in action!

#insects #spiders #nature #beauty

Largely good advice.

Shame, shame, shame on them. Disgraceful.

I guess they are just finally saying the quiet part out loud.

They freak me out the way they turn their heads to keep an eye on us when we watch them.

Beautiful!

Make it make sense. Seems like a headline from The Onion 🤦‍♀️

That sounds intriguing!

I have joined the “We do not Care” club and I highly recommend it 😉😂

I have a couple of very, very silly, rescue pets. They are the light of my life.

#adoptnotshop #rescue #pets #animals #cats #dogs #silly #humor

So beautiful!

Ahhhh, this is the review I needed! Can’t wait to start it.

Important reminder.

That just would have been the final straw for me, in these trying times. 😉

Beautiful architecture. They don't make them like this anymore - and that sounds like something an old person would say. Oh wait, I am that person. 😆