Winter is a slow time here on the mountain. Not much is moving and wildlife is elusive. However, Nature does provide a little interest in the variety of strokes in which she uses her frosty paintbrush. There are leaves carefully rimmed with ice crystals. On the cliff sides, bladelike crystals arise from the earth, separating roots from soil and rocks from their beds. And there are those those tiny, rimming crystals — flakes that stand on end in seeming defiance of gravity.
The water strider’s place in the world is fleeting, subject to the whims of wind and water.
And the source of all these fleeting moments:
http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2013/06/07/weekly-photo-challenge-fleeting/
The Ouachitas got a little bit of rain over the last couple of days. This morning, the clouds parted perhaps long enough for the Easter sunrise service down by the Arkansas River, but it wasn’t long before the dark stormclouds were again in full throat. The rain fell so hard at 8 a.m. Mass, the pastor said he could barely hear anything above the din of the drops battering the roof.
During yesterday’s walkabout, water was everywhere from tiny drip-drip-drips from the edge of a stone to white mini-rapids in the deepest part of the valley.
Alisa’s challenge this week is liquid. Below are two shots of soda straw stalactites being formed. Water from last night’s half-inch rain slowly worked its way through the concrete in the deck, leaching calcium carbonate and adding tiny amounts to these hollow stalactites before the water droplets fall to the ground. Although they can grow very long when left undisturbed in caves, the longest of these dissolving deck formations reached 2 inches before falling to the ground.
There is something lovely and delicate, yet so primitive about dragonflies. Oh to see one of their Permian ancestors, the meganeura, with their 2-foot wingspans. Today’s dragonflies happily dine on mosquitoes. Considering their non-vegetarian leanings, perhaps it’s best the meganeura are admired from a safe distance in time.
This web in the grass captured more than prey this morning. Suspended in its threads were droplets from sprinkler, each catching the filtered morning light and each acting as lens and window into a world closer to the ground.
As kids, volunteering to wash the cars was a great way to get cool. Still works when you’re grown up too.
Visit the parent page for this week’s photo challenge and other visions of summer.
Summer? Sandy Hook. Wildwood. Monmouth Park. Mungo Jerry. “Close to You.” Water pistols and nickel punks. Bikes with baseball cards flap-growling in the spokes. And when it got really hot, we begged Dad (the man in charge of all things lawn-related) to deploy that ultimate weapon against the July heat: the sprinkler.
Don’t miss these visions of summer:
Arizona hot: http://galen911.net/2012/05/25/arizona-summer-sun-halo/
Another sprinkler fan: http://sideyardflock.wordpress.com/2012/05/26/weekly-photo-challenge-summertime/
http://implicado.wordpress.com/2012/05/26/weekly-photo-challenge-summer/
http://thoughtsunrestricted.wordpress.com/2012/05/26/weekly-photo-challenge-summer/
http://mostlymonochrome.wordpress.com/2012/05/25/weekly-photo-challenge-summer/
Happy beach umbrella: http://fourdeeroak.wordpress.com/2012/05/25/weekly-photo-challenge-summertime/
http://windagainstcurrent.com/2012/05/25/weekly-photo-challenge-summer-take-two/
http://theretiringsort.com/2012/05/22/travel-theme-summer/
http://wilsondeane.wordpress.com/2012/05/26/weekly-photo-challengesummer/
http://davidrwetzelphotography.wordpress.com/2012/05/25/weekly-photo-challenge-summer/
The neighborhood pond is a favorite stop for small flocks of geese who make the rounds in the county. It’s also the wintering duck hole for some very skittish buffleheads.
Two random objects, a sprinkler and a wild grass seed panicle, united by two things: 1) they represent different facets of our current near-drought and 2) their graceful arc.
The (Urban-Wildlife) Interface 