And Then There was August & September

Yes, August has its good points. Taking a break from packing the house. Foolong around a bit with the long lens. Hmmm. I wonder how close an 800mm will bring a plane flying overhead? I wonder if I could even hold the lens still enough to get an unblurred image? Oooh, nice picture of the clouds. Yeah, uh huh. Where's the plane? A couple more attempts. Geepers those things go fast way up there. I finally managed to catch one. You can even read the numbers on the wings... now I can check that one off of my list!

The blue jay is acting a bit self-conscious. Pin feathers coming in make him look quite awkward and so he compensates by acting with more bravado and investigating things more fiercely. If I leave the back door open he will hop right up to the threshold and survey the inside of the house. I suppose he is either acting in a supervisory role or seeing if there is anything inside that he has a use for. In either case, he is keeping an eye on things. Everyone should have a watch-jay.

It seems like time is running short so quickly... So much to do. I've hired a storage unit out by Sacramento & have been hauling stuff the 200 miles out there. The storage space fills as the house empties out. I'm learning the joy of driving through the East Bay. Ah jinkers, really? People really drive through that mess on a regular basis. I'm surprised BART isn't more popular.

There is a Tree along highway 50 in Nevada that is called the Shoe Tree because it seems that everybody that drives by has to throw a pair of shoes up into it... (I just took pictures). In Idaho there is a fence that runs about a mile that has old boots slipped over every fence post. My Mother saw this boot and knew it would make a perfect bird house. with a piece of copper to keep the rain out it did!

The onion has bloomed & is seeding. This is the same onion flower that I took a picture of in May. It s at the bottom of the page in that post. Onions are interesting plants.

I like the debris that falls from birch trees.

I was completely mystified then this twisty plant showed up in the yard. It seems I had some store ginger that was starting to bold so I stuck it into the ground & promptly forgot about it. When I took the picture it was about 10 inches tall. the twisty bits are from the tip of one leach being captured in the bas of the leaf below. I don't know if they always do this or because I had stuck this in a part of the yard that didn't get too much water.

I really do like birch duff. It has such an interesting visual texture. I figure it would make a really good background texture for something... Maybe just cover an entire wall...

Once I start taking pictures for background images it's hard to stop with just one. It's very handy to have a wide library of all kinds of textures. This is the 60 year old concrete that makes up the back yard patio.

This is a background shot of an old brick. Lots of interesting aggregate used in this one.