Weekly Photo Challenge: Morning

I enjoy looking at this succulent in the morning and then following it throughout the day.

Morning

Midday

Late afternoon

(I think I will go pick off the dried up flowers. Nothing like a photo to make the work that needs to be done in the garden obvious.)

Saying that made me I realize I should look at these flowers even closer, so I picked one of the flowers and took some microscopic views.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Morning

Portrait of a Visitor

A neighbor’s cat is spending more and more time in my yard. He seems to love to sleep on the play chips near my garden. (As I look at the garden picture below I’m aware how close it is to the end of the season. The tomatoes are just beginning to ripen but almost everything else is gone or ending. Must be time to put in some cover crops!)

Yesterday I was quite startled when I unexpectedly found him IN my garden.

When I took the portrait photo at the top of this post I tried to get him to open his eyes. I thought that would be easy because he usually takes off when he sees me coming near him. This time he stayed put, but would only open his eyes a sliver. He was probably thinking “Would you just go away and let me sleep!”

Written for Discovery Challenge: Portraits

Wordless Wednesday

The Roses are Still Beautiful

I’m amazed by how many beautiful roses I am still seeing in my neighborhood even though it is now August. In April the roses were in full bloom so I thought their season would end early.

I think this collection of roses is particularly interesting because they are so close in color, yet each is different.

The Wonders of Nature: Fig

Who would have guessed that a fig would look like this under a microscope? I sure didn’t.

Following My Intuition

When I was at Amma’s Amritapuri ashram in India last fall, I took a Tai Chi class for the first time. I fell totally in love with it. My top priority on returning to Seattle was to find a Tai Chi teacher. Within a short period of time, I found Viola Brumbaugh. She was exactly the type of teacher I was looking for. I immediately enrolled in her classes, and started attending them two times a week.

My joy was short-lived though. I had returned to Seattle in mid-January and in mid-February I hurt my back doing litter pick-up without using a litter pick-up tool. I have congenital spondylolithesis and scoliosis and have had problems with my back throughout my life.

In the past when my back pain has flared, it has only lasted two or three weeks at the most. This time, month after month went by and I was still unable to stand in one place or sit for very long. Driving was and is particularly uncomfortable. There has also been more nerve involvement than I have had during previous flare ups.

About a week ago, I sensed that I had reached a point where I could start doing Tai Chi again. It seemed like the classes might even promote my healing. So on Tuesday, even though I was still have problem standing in place, sitting and driving, I returned to class!

My intuition seems to be right. I’ve been to two classes now and have had no negative side effects. If anything, I feel better! And I am so happy to be learning Tai Chi once again.

One of the fantastic things about attending the class at this time of year, is that it is held in Lincoln Park, a large beautiful park in West Seattle. In addition to the joy of participating in this blessed practice under the huge trees, being there has given me the opportunity to take more tree photos. I took close ups of the tree below on Tuesday.

After taking the pictures, I ran my hand along the trunk to see if there were any loose pieces of bark. I took home a small piece of bark and something I am calling “orange plant debris” that was hanging on the tree. If you know what it is, please tell me!

Today I looked at those items under the microscope and took more photos!

Bark

Orange plant debris

Slugs are NOT Always Slow!

A few days ago, I decided to take microscopic photos of a slug. That was the only live creature I could think of that would move slow enough to allow me to get some good shots.

I soon discovered that slugs are able to move way faster than I thought. In fact, I had to bring it back to the microscope’s field three times in order to take these photos. The pictures are not as clear as I had hoped they would be, but that’s not surprising since my subject was in motion!

Written for Senior Salon at Haddon Musings

Wordless Wednesday

(Click on individual galleries for closer view)

Weekly Photo Challenge: Narrow

This week’s Weekly Photo Challenge reminded me of a microscopic photo I took yesterday. It is a picture of an avocado but it looks a bit like a pastry to me; one with a (narrow) crust covered by a (narrow) layer of chocolate!

avocado

What’s Your Guess?

I thought it would be fun to show readers a variety of microscopic pictures I’ve been taking and see if you can identify what they are. Make a list and compare your answers with the key at the end.

#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

#6

#7

#8

#9

scroll down for the answers

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keep going

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Answer key

gold sari fabric
crook neck squash
blue microfiber cloth
red strawberry- the small variety
white strawberry- the small variety
Black Eyed Susan flower petal
avocado
dragon fly wing
slug

How did you do? I’d love to hear in the comments below.

I have many photos of the slug, the dragon fly and the avocado and will share them in future posts. I found the dragon fly dead on my rug but the slug was alive. I had no idea how fast slugs could move. It was pretty funny trying to get pictures of it!

Here is a photo of several of the items on this list.