© Giliell, all rights reserved
As you can see in the light, winter is approaching fast.
Wednesday Wings
Affinity
Art, Fun, & Nonsense.
© Giliell, all rights reserved
As you can see in the light, winter is approaching fast.
Yesterday we saw Part 1 of Nightjar’s quest to find mushrooms as a Tree Tuesday post. Today, the mushrooms have been found and Nightjar’s photos of them are so wonderfully evocative that I can almost smell that earthy forest scent.
... and here are the mushrooms! The yellow Tricholoma equestre were the ones we were searching for, and we did find enough for a meal. And then there were some pretty ones of unknown edibility (to us). There were more, but the mosquitoes make photography a very difficult task.
Thanks for braving the mosquitoes to get these photos, Nightjar, and thanks for sharing.
1. A mushroom-promising sight. © Nightjar, all rights reserved
I’m lichen you, ©voyager, all rights reserved
These big rocks form a breakwater protecting railway tracks that run alongside the beach for miles. It’s not the prettiest breakwater I’ve ever seen, but that bright orange lichen on the rocks makes it one of the most interesting. It’s been there as long as my husband can remember and it never seems to change. That colour is fairly true if it looks like Cheetos on your screen and it stays that bright in all seasons and temperatures. I think it looks like paint splotches and it makes a great foil for all the blues that like to blend at the beach.
Sent in by Nightjar, our trees this week tell a cautionary tale about the effects of climate change.
Mushroom Hunting Part 1...We went mushroom hunting last weekend and I decided to share some photos. I split them in two parts. The first doesn’t show mushrooms but rather our journey to find them. I knew that the wildfires last year had affected this area, but wasn’t sure if our favourite spot had burned or not. It did. I say green isn’t always hope because that green in the third photo is mostly acacias (Acacia longifolia) taking over the place. The future of these historical pine forests doesn’t look bright. We turned around and drove a bit south until we found a patch of forest that escaped the fires and didn’t look as dry and sterile. That’s when the mosquitoes attacked me, but there was also a lovely damselfly to make up for it.
Mushroom Hunting Part 2 will be posted tomorrow and it’s chock full of interesting photos of fungi found in the forest. Be sure to check it out. Thanks, Nightjar.
1. The road that no longer leads to mushrooms, ©Nightjar, all rights reserved
A biological vacuum cleaner for your many legged problems.
©Giliell, all rights reserved
©Giliell, all rights reserved
Just imagine she’s singing “anteater”
Today we have one last look at Ruston’s Roses courtesy of DavidinOz. It’s been a real treat for me to see such fresh, lush roses at this time of year. Although this is the last post about Ruston’s, David has sent us a few more flower photos that we’ll be posting later in the week. I guarantee they’ll chase away the winter blues for at least a moment or two, so please check back.
Thanks David.
©David Brindley, all rights reserved
©Giliell, all rights reserved
Sadly the bird is somewhat out of focus, but the light was just too lovely.
It’s a white winter wonderland in Ontario today, but Jack and I are hiding out in the house avoiding the snow. It looks like it’s going to stick around for a while, though, so Jack will be able to frolic to his heart’s content on Tuesday. In the meantime, I thought today I’d share some winter photos of the Gaspe Coast. This is sunset on the Perce Rock and it’s magical to watch. Mt. St. Anne sits directly behind Perce in the west and as the sun slowly sets it casts a shadow that rises up the rock. Every day the sun shines, the show goes on. These photos were taken in October of 2016 on North Beach.
©voyager, all rights reserved
©voyager, all rights reserved
©voyager, all rights reserved
Riviere Peche, ©voyager, all rights reserved
It’s been snowing here since last night and Jack is chuffed. He wants to go out and play, but he’s isn’t allowed any exercise until next week when the stitches come out. Jack does not like this and he’s been making his displeasure known. He sits wistfully looking out the windows and whenever we pass by he looks up and makes little crying noises. When we tell him he has to wait he heaves a heavy sigh and lays his big, bowling ball of a head down dramatically with a thunk. He hates the word wait and his patience has worn thin. He was full-on giddy with excitement this morning when I took him out to the yard for business and even the promise of cookies couldn’t lure him in. I had to promise ice cream (a rare treat) before he even paid me any mind. It’s going to be a long few days until Tuesday.
The summer photo for today is of Riviere Peche, or Fish River. The river empties into the sea at the bottom of the hill where it meets the beach at Smuggler’s Cove.
This is a bit of an extended Jack’s Walk with a few photos we took while traveling through the Matapedia Valley on our way east. The area is world renowned for salmon and trout fishing and the river is dotted with high end fly fishing resorts. The Mr. and I fish with rod and reel, but we’d both like to try our hand at fly fishing. Most resorts are now catch and release (after the photo, of course) and there are strict limits on what can be kept. There are also fishery officials out and about watching. I know from personal experience, but that’s a story for another time. The last three photos were taken from the car.
Passing over the great rivers of the Matapedia Valley, ©voyager, all rights reserved
David sends these wonderful images of pelicans. Plus a bonus cormorant, I think.
I don’t think there can ever be too many Pelicans, so here is a bunch
roosting on a submerged tree, Murray River, Loxton, South Australia.
©David Brindley, all rights reserved
©David Brindley, all rights reserved
©David Brindley, all rights reserved
Fashionista with a happy tail, ©voyager, all rights reserved
This is Jack this morning and you’ll notice that his tail is out of focus. That’s because he was wagging it for the first time since his surgery last week. He had a few post-op complications, including a vein that popped out and bled for 2 days before the vet had to add 3 staples to his incision. Even after the staples were inserted the area oozed for another few days. That finally stopped on Sunday, but it wasn’t until this morning that Jack looked up at me and smiled his goofy guy smile. Now I can relax a bit. It’s another week before the stitches come out, but the incision is looking good and Jack is his usual happy self again. I’ve never been happier to have an out of focus photo.
At some point Affinity became the go-to place for spiders and Nightjar continues this tradition with a wonderful set of photos taken at dusk.
I’ve noticed a lack of spiders on Affinity lately and since there is one currently living right in front of my bedroom window I thought I would share. I’ve only seen it after sunset, I think it’s one of those spiders that only sit in the middle of the web at night. I got home late today, saw it and went inside to grab the camera to get some silhouette shots against the evening sky, but the light faded too quickly and I had to resort to using the flash for a few more photos. The flash really brings out all those hairy and spidery details, making the last photos particularly unsafe for arachnophobes I think.
All photos are posted under the fold.