Mystery Flora/Cryptopod Double-Header: Dragonfly Flowers

We’ve not had a mystery about here for some time! Let’s remedy that with a double-header. I’ve been busily editing photos from the summer whilst I watch Jessica Jones, and I have some lovelies for you.

Image shows some water flowers from above. They are long, thin clusters of tiny, pale pink flowers, with long, narrow green leaves.
Mystery Flora I

As you can see, these tiny buds were barely opening. But the bees were already busy with them.

Image shows a few stems of the flowers standing vertically. A bee is wrapped around one of them.
Mystery Flora II

These lovely flowers filled the wetlands around Juanita Bay last July. They definitely seem to like to keep their feet wet. Continue reading “Mystery Flora/Cryptopod Double-Header: Dragonfly Flowers”

Mystery Flora/Cryptopod Double-Header: Dragonfly Flowers
{advertisement}

Sunday Songs: Highly Irregular!

Everyone seemed to enjoy our last music post quite a lot, so I figured we’ll start making this a regular feature and see what happens. Like last time, I’ll give you a theme, you give me a song (or a couple), and I’ll make a playlist from our results.

Most of us have a particular genre or general style we love most. For me, it’s symphonic, black and death metal with a bit of old-school power metal on the side. I was that person running around in high school wearing the ripped-up jeans and studded jackets. I adore corpse paint and death grunts accompanying ethereal sopranos. That’s the stuff!

I’m not much of an alternative music fan, really. And I wasn’t much in to the alt music scene of the 90s. Most of that stuff leaves me shuddering and reaching for Emperor or Epica. But every once in a while, the right song will hit at the right time in just the right way, and I’ll end up adoring something you’d never expect to hear in my rotation.

That’s what happened with 4 Non Blondes’ “What’s Up?”. This is so not my type of song. And yet, when it came up in Sense8 and worked so perfectly, I fell deeply and forever in love with it. Now it makes me happy right down to my toes whenever I hear it.

You can see the scene it was in here.

Image shows Kala, a young Indian woman, sitting on top of a building at night, with a city skyline behind her. She's singing into the sky, where a semi-transparent image of Riley, a blonde Icelander, is singing back to her.
Kala (right) and Riley (left) from Sense8. Image created from screenshots from the episode where they’re all singing together.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it: what’s one of your favorite songs that’s completely out of character for you?

Sunday Songs: Highly Irregular!

The Super-Eclectic Reader Faves Playlist

A couple days ago, I asked you for just one song – and my, did you ever respond! Some of you couldn’t stop at just one song. (I get it, I do, it’s really hard to pick a single one.)

I’ve made a playlist of your songs. For those who recommended more than one, I chose your first song. It makes for a charmingly eclectic music mix!

The Super-Eclectic Reader Faves Playlist

The Solution to Our Challenge!

Our first UFD turned out to be more of a challenge than I expected. Identifying birb blogs in real life is obviously much simpler than identifying them from a photo. It requires a little extra information. After some small hints, you got it! Tis a Great Blue Heron indeed!

Image shows the silhouette of a Great Blue Heron sitting on the bare branches of a tree. Its back is to us, but it's identifiable by its shape and its bill, as it has turned its head to the side.
Great Blue Heron chillaxing.

Continue reading “The Solution to Our Challenge!”

The Solution to Our Challenge!

A Hint for the Challenge!

I posed you a bit of a challenge yesterday: identify a birb blob. Alas, the challenge was too challenging! So I shall have to give you a further hint or few.

Now, keep in mind that our perching bird is quite common to the PNW wetlands. It’s sometimes seen in trees, but quite often is on the ground. And when you zoom in on its back, it looks like this:

Image shows a bird sitting in a bare tree. We can't determine color, as it's a silhouette. It is large, kind of blobby, with some fringy feathers popping out at odd angles. Its head is barely visible, but has a high dome and a long bill.
UFD I

All right, I’m pretty sure at least a few of you will be able to identify it now. Good luck!

A Hint for the Challenge!

Hit Me With Your Best Song

We’ve all got a special song that we love, yeah? That song that always gets you right in the feels, or makes your feet tap, or that you would shout to the world if you could. Let’s share a song, then! One of my Facebook friends posted this, and it struck me as completely awesome: Give me one song that means a lot to you, and I’ll listen to it. It can be anything. It can be serious or corny or musically complex or dead simple. It can be uplifting or despairing or anything in between. It can be absolutely any genre at all. It doesn’t even have to be your favorite song of all time (like that’s so easy to pick!). Just a song that you love.

So here’s mine:

There you go. Now you know a song that I love, the first that springs to mind when someone asks me for just one song. What’s yours?

Image shows a gray cat on a lawn, standing on its hind legs. Its mouth is open and its paws are clasped by its cheek. Caption says, "Opera cat sings only soprano."

Hit Me With Your Best Song

First Mountains of 2016, Plus a Challenge!

Welcome to 2016! Some of you are dealing with extreme weather and the fruits thereof. I hope that’s the worst you have to deal with, and that the rest of it goes rather more smoothly after this.

Seattle’s weather has decided to be magnificent. If you overlook the cold, it’s quite nice, really: abundant sunshine and super-crisp views of the mountains. Funny Diva turfed me from the house on New Year’s Day after we’d had a pizza and Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries party. We headed down to Magnuson Park for some views near sunset, and folks, the mountains were out. In force. Continue reading “First Mountains of 2016, Plus a Challenge!”

First Mountains of 2016, Plus a Challenge!

A Nutcracker Guaranteed to Crack You – Up

Happy Christmas Eve, my darlings! For those of you celebrating some form of midwinter shenanigans or just grateful you’ve got some time off work, I wish you merry festivities. For those of you bah humbugging your way through the next few days, or having to deal with things that make this season less than joyful, you have my sympathies.

I’m deep in re-plotting The Novel, so I won’t be around much unless my characters decide we need a very silly midwinter story. But I did get you something! Of course I did. I love you and wouldn’t leave you with nothing. Here is absolutely the best ever version of the Nutcracker, via my friend Merideth, who always finds the neatest things. It’s okay if you don’t like ballet or classical music. That isn’t really the point. The point is, we can create something new and funny and fabulous when we mix up sophisticated old stuff with delightfully talented modern people. I present to you the most excellent results when you combine dancers Cyrus “Glitch” Spencer, JR Tight Eyex, and James Derrick with the California Philharmonic Orchestra and some Tchaikovsky. Continue reading “A Nutcracker Guaranteed to Crack You – Up”

A Nutcracker Guaranteed to Crack You – Up

Your Mount St. Helens Honeysuckle. Plus: Bodacious Botany

See, my darlings, you always come through! Kilian Hekhuis and Lithified Detritus were able to identify our orange clarinets as Orange Honeysuckle (Lonicera ciliosa). Can you believe that for once we have a beautiful flower that is a native? Awesomesauce!

I found some down by the shores of Silver Lake this summer. B and I had just arrived as the sun was lowering in the sky, and it shone upon this lovely flowering plant, which was just short of bursting into full bloom.

Image shows an Orange Honeysuckle cluster. The orange blooms are still closed, but on the verge of opening. Sad to say, they look a bit like a bunch of dildoes. Behind them is an oblong leaf or bract that's pointed at the ends. The sun is shining through it, making it semi-transparent and highlighting the veins.
Orange Honeysuckle at Silver Lake.

This is one of my favorite photos of a flower I have ever taken. The sun was absolutely perfect.

The honeysuckle was climbing a bank with some rose bushes, and everything was budding, and it probably would have been spectacular if B and I had just come a few days later. Oh, well. It’s still quite pretty, as you can see here: Continue reading “Your Mount St. Helens Honeysuckle. Plus: Bodacious Botany”

Your Mount St. Helens Honeysuckle. Plus: Bodacious Botany

Mystery Flora: Orange Clarinets

I’ll have a special treat for you once you identify this one.

Anyway, I was at a bit of a loss as to what to do for this week’s mystery, so I put out a poll on Facebook and G+. It came back Mystery Flora. This is why you should follow me on social media, my loves. You get to vote on things!

This one is from mid-May, when B and I went up to Lord Hill. That’s a really great time to be up on Lord Hill, incidentally – many flowers bursting out all over the place, and everything’s lush and green and splendid. You’ll get to see a few of these singing out around the summit.

Image shows three orange flowers. They're long, narrow, and flare out at the ends like a clarinet.
Mystery Flora I

These aren’t abundant, or at least they weren’t when we were there. I only saw a couple of clusters, and I’m not even sure if some of them are the same flower. This is why I am not in botany today. Okay, I could probably learn how to tell similar flowers apart, but I’m too busy nosing around the rocks. Alas, the rocks at the summit of Lord Hill are mostly covered in vegetation, so I really had no choice but to photograph botany for you. Continue reading “Mystery Flora: Orange Clarinets”

Mystery Flora: Orange Clarinets