Filed under: animals, dogs, life, pets, photography | Tags: cameras, cyclorama, dogs, life, photography, pictures, plants
ahhhh. new camera.
a new point and shoot. sooo happy. i absolutely love it.
i haven’t had time to rock it yet, but…
here’s a plant:
that was macro, here’s wide angle:
and…oopsie…the cyc is dirty!
more on that later!
what camera is it, you ask? it’s a new point and shoot! the canon A2000 IS.
i should be blogging more now that i have a new camera. that sd750 had whacky mojo.
Filed under: friends, gardening, life, plants | Tags: friends, gardening, life, pictures, plants
welcome to goodbear’s house. well, her front patio, at least.
my first pair of friends have started their move. these folks to portland. their real estate agent demanded they get rid of their many potted plants. i guess she thinks they were cluttering the yard or something. foolish woman.
so i am fostering some plants! as you can see, they’ve assimilated with my existing potted plants quite well!
Filed under: gardening, photography, plants | Tags: cactus, life, photography, plants, television, winter
hello all!
tuesdays are the days i work in quickbooks. but before i get into it, here’s the state of things in my town….
cold.
in television: i will be watching “what would you do?” on abc tonight. i’ve never seen it before, but i saw a preview and this guy in a diner refused to serve a spanish speaker!
ok, that’s random and stupid, and i’m sure you don’t care. ok, bye.
Filed under: cooking, food, garlic | Tags: cooking, gardening, gardens, garlic, plants, succulents, vegetables, vegetarian
i really should have planted these guys weeks ago!
now that we’ve gotten our cheeky garlic shots out of the way, i have to give you some sad news:
most of my succulents have died from the terribly cold weather! and you KNOW how much i love those guys!
i…i…i think i’ll be o.k.
Filed under: flowers, gardening, nature, new mexico, photography, plants | Tags: cacti, cactus, cholla bud, flowers, garden, gardening, nature, photography, plants
Filed under: beetles, insects, nature, photography | Tags: beatles, beetles, bugs, entomology, gardens, insects, nature, photography, plants
….on my paddle plant!
i don’t have time to find out what kind he is because i want to post a blog about the dogs then have to run out to the wildlife center, but….doesn’t he look like a muppet????
he’s one of the few beetles i’ve found in my yard that doesn’t have cody bear fur stuck to him! instead he has some sort of spider web stuck on his nose. messy guy.
what beatles song goes best with this insect?
update: it’s a weevil! i didn’t know they got that big! so he’s NOT a creature from fraggle rock. bummer.
Filed under: life, weather | Tags: cactus, life, nature, photography, plants, weather
hmmm…..
why would goodbear & co. be sleeping with a flashlight?
a storm. a big one. i had soooo much web design work to do last night, as well. grrr.
so glad i bought that maglite a few months ago. and my blackberry kept it’s signal! i considered posting a blog in the dark…but thought not.
our backyard flooded and cody bear’s trenches were filled in.
my patio roof has been rearranged. everything is wet, wet, wet…
i don’t know yet how our two resident white wing dove babies faired. i was just noticing yesterday that they can already fly about 20 feet. proud of them they managed not being killed by the dogs or the feral cats that keep hunting in our yard.
well, off to work. we’re going to be busy with i.t. crap because of the power outages.
buh bye.
Filed under: gardening, insects, nature, photography, plants, trees | Tags: biology, botony, entomology, insects, nature, parasites, photography, plants, science
ready for the answer to yesterday’s science question???
this….
photo courtesy of buzzybeegirl
is a GALL!!! an insect gall! “what!?” you ask!?
i know, right! i can’t believe i have never heard of these before. and apparently my back yard is riddled with them, yet i only noticed them today. (why did i never notice them? well it could be because i am stupid and not very observant…orrrrr ….it could be because my dogs are so cute i never focus on anything but them!)
they never told us about galls in any of my literature or liberal arts classes at university! fancy that!
outside of my biology and entomology pals a.h. and r., so far no one i have asked has ever heard of these. apparently they’re all over the place!
i emailed her first thing this morning and she knew exactly what it was. and….we could dissect it if we wanted to! “okay!” i said. (virtual high five)
warning: the following pictures are great, but they do contain a tiny benign critter or two. i do hope you’ll continue viewing.
photo courtesy of buzzybeegirl
a.h. dissected the balls and found that each rosette seen from the outside contained a little tunnel and in each tunnel was one of a variety of insect babies. we found 3 species in one of the living galls. they may even eat eachother, but who knows.
photo courtesy of buzzybeegirl
that one above is actually in a tiny cocoon. let’s note, the creosote gall seemed like a strange mutant broccoli, that was sticky with a sap-like substance. we all expected it to be more hollow, like a nut, containing the larvae, but instead it was dense plant matter with several small tunnels.
the more tiny larvae she found, the itchier my head became. (probably why the scientific community will never take me seriously….my low “skeev tolerance.”)
there i placed a tiny gall in front of the larvae so you wouldn’t be as grossed out. but…that tiny gall has just one baby insect in it. perhaps one day it would have had more. these babies were either wasps or flies or aphids. not really sure.
it was fun and nerdy. i hope you weren’t too grossed out. i hope instead you were like “wow! i never knew about those crazy things!”
and don’t you appreciate the pictures!? i love buzzybeegirl’s photos because she used her BAM….Big Ass Macro!
tonight’s virtual prize goes to hannah and dave for guessing “or some other parasite.” good job!
if you like this post, or insects,…or quizzes, buzzybeegirl just put a quiz up and will reveal the answer wednesday. personally, her quiz is easier than the gall quiz, if you ask me.
oooh ahhhh! come back tomorrow when we explain what THIS is!
(i’m so excited!!!)
maybe you know already! maybe you want to guess and win one of my virtual prizes!
pleasey weasey lemon squeazey…venture a guess.
i have clues if you’re interrresteddddd…
today i am posting a soothing picture, because the day was….far from soothing. but no worries, we’re ok. let’s review….
after the soothing picture:
after a weekend of rest, pain killers and packs of ice, i woke up with considerable less back pain. went to work aware that i shouldn’t over do it, so i asked my coworker to carry some heavy boxes for me. he did. that was nice. but then things went kind of kerfluey.
’twas the first day of our boss’s vacation, and we were swamped. the one tech couldn’t handle it so well, and only got about 1/4 of the emergencies worked out. meanwhile, back at the office, i was working on a new demo, but the boss got nervous: i have a degree in literature, not computers, and my coworker hasn’t had enough experience that my boss felt confident at all letting him touch it for the final testing either. by four o’clock monday…today…the boss was deciding he had to leave san diego and fly home. our contracts are too important and he can’t just let it go up there without messing around with it. i totally understand, but it was stressful: he and i working on it together over the phone.
by this time, my back was already starting to hurt, especially after running errands for a couple hours.
it wasn’t a bad day….it wasn’t. but we were very stressed. and we are so behind that we start tomorrow already stressed. pressure. and see, my job is a low pressure job. so there, i vented. i’m leaving now…to pick my boss up at the airport. he will be really stressed, but i’m NOT going to soak it in. i’m not.
back later.
oh, and….isn’t that a pretty cactus? it’s a prickly pear. one of many varieties.
