Stormy Sunrise

stormy sunrise

Stormy Sunrise: Pink to Orange in Less Than Three Minutes

Stormy sunrise this morning, bringing at least the hope of rain. I did not get rain at my house, but I did enjoy photographing the sky. The gif is made with jpgs straight from the camera with no photo editing other than cropping.

stormy sunrise
Stormy Sunrise
stormy sunrise
Stormy Sunrise

This may not be as impressive as the crepuscular rays at sunset a few nights ago. Nevertheless, as we enter our monsoon season, I am looking forward to seeing – hopefully – many spectacular skies. Some actual rain would also be nice. 🙂

Summer Solstice

summer solstice

Summer Solstice, National Selfie Day, and a Day to Celebrate

Summer Solstice – the most amount of daylight in one day for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, and the official beginning of “Summer.” I never heard of National Selfie Day before, but the Twitterverse says it is so. For me, I do not have to see an eye doctor or a skin doctor again until November. I really have nothing to complain about, because my issues were minor and fixable, but the process seemed to drag on from last October until today.

In that time, I have learned a lot about sun protection for everything, including eyes and ears. I now have UPF hats, shirts, neck coverings, etc., etc., as well as UV A&B protective glasses with dark gray lenses and my favorite, amber lenses. I want to do a few more photographs, and then I’ll post those in a post at Southwest Desert Gardening. All gardeners everywhere need sun protection, some just more than others. 🙂

But today, for Solstice (and National Selfie Day 😉 ), I wanted to say “Hello,” dressed appropriately for summer: hat for ear and face protection; UPF 30+ shirt, and very dark glasses as UV protective as possible. I should have been dressed more or less like this all the time I have lived here.

summer solstic
Summer Solstice – Susan in Sun Protective Hat, Shirt, Glasses

What looks like a BandAid is a silicone pad designed to to help flatten the scar from where skin was taken for graft to cover part of my ear where a little skin lesion was removed. It is all healing up very well.

‘Mermaid’ is just about finished with its first bloom, but I thought this bloom this morning was really pretty. I hope you enjoy it, too.

summer solstice
A Beautiful ‘Mermaid’ Bloom on Summer Solstice

Happy Solstice, and may the summer not be as hot throughout as it is today.

Fledglings: Bad Hair Days

Fledgling Woodhouse's Scrub-Jay

Fledglings: Bad Hair Days

Fledglings are abundant here in late summer. They aren’t the cute babies just hatched, and they aren’t the beautiful birds they will become. They are awkward teens, developing some adult feathers but still with some baby fluff and coloration. I enjoy watching them grow. The scrub jays (now Woodhouse’s scrub-jays) are among my favorite, because they are here year around, and will eat peanuts on the patio table while I’m sitting there.

This fledgling Woodhouse’s scrub jay in the early morning light shows some of the beauty it will develop as it becomes adult.

Fledglings Woodhouse's Scrub Jay
Fledgling Woodhouse’s Scrub Jay

These jays will come quite close for peanuts!

Fledgling Woodhouse's Scrub-Jay
Fledgling Woodhouse’s Scrub-Jay – “I can grab that peanut before the woman sees me!”

You know how beautiful adult robins can be. I’m not sure I had ever paid much attention to fledgling robins, but I had a great deal of empathy for this one!

Fledgling Robin
Fledgling Robin

A few days later I saw this one. I appeared much more majestic in the tree top, lit by the morning sun. I do not know if this were the same fledgling or not.

Fledgling Robin
Fledgling Robin in Early Morning Light

This fledgling house finch managed to look quite regal – to me – atop a sunflower seed head. He had already eaten a fair amount. He looked quite pleased with himself.

Fledgling House Finch
Fledgling House Finch

Late Summer Insects

Late Summer Insects in Corrales, New Mexico

Late summer insects were certainly abundant yesterday at the Corrales home of friends Tim and Laurie. I met them years ago through the local rose society, and we have become great friends with a wide variety of shared interests. They grow many roses, but they also plant a wide variety of other things aimed at encouraging pollinators and other beneficial insects. Their land was covered with abundant wild sunflowers, and also naturalized with cosmos, brown-eyed Susans, coreopsis, echinacea, black bamboo, and one I found especially fascinating for the variety of insects it attracted, garlic chives. All of these had been intentionally planted at one time, and then allowed to naturalize their land, which was spectacular in its color. I have been there many times, but I had never seen so much in bloom at one time before. The insects seemed quite happy and were buzzing everywhere! This is a small sample.

Bees, many different varieties, were everywhere. This one seemed to beg to be photographed. The plant is garlic chives.

summer insects bee
Bee on Garlic Chives

If you read my other blog, Southwest Desert Gardening, you recently saw a dead one of these, a Western Green June Bug, also called a Figeater Beetle. On that one, it was easy to show the metallic underside, which was quite beautiful. On this image, you can see some of the metallic parts. The plant is cosmos.

summer insects june bug
Western Green June Bug, Figeater Beetle

This is a Narrow Waisted Wasp on Garlic Chives

summer insects wasp
Narrow Waisted Wasp

Although I generally am not a huge fan of the grasshoppers that arrive in late summer, this one seemed to have a beguiling expression, and I also liked the blue legs. Once again, the plant is Garlic Chives.

summer insects grasshopper
Grasshopper

Butterflies will be in a separate post.

I enjoyed the opportunity to photograph these late summer insects not frequently thought of as “beautiful,” but I liked them. 🙂

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