What are you up to?

[Triduana]

I'm staying on a campsite tonight. I'm back again next week (I'm doing some work nearby and hotels are really expensive). It's really nice and the tent is huge:

I had a walk around the edge of the campsite after work.

Of course I was looking at plants:

Sneezewort

Nettle-leaved bellflower

Monk's hood

Hedge bindweed

Please feel free to use any photos I post in here ...

 

[stlukesguild]

All day tomorrow will be spent sitting in meetings on various programs and curriculum that in no way applies to teaching Art... but I must sit through these because it would be unfair that the Art, Music, and PE teachers not need to sit through this torture... and certainly, they are not going to allow us to go online and explore any sort of professional development that might actually apply to us and be useful. Right now, I'm hoping I can get the assistance of the district tech guy in order to get my computer up and running. At present, I can't access anything and its not like it might be useful to have access to school emails, class rosters, schedules, etc... as the school year starts.

 

[Terri]

I'm staying on a campsite tonight. I'm back again next week (I'm doing some work nearby and hotels are really expensive). It's really nice and the tent is huge:

View attachment 33427

I had a walk around the edge of the campsite after work.

View attachment 33428

Of course I was looking at plants:

Sneezewort
View attachment 33431

Nettle-leaved bellflower
View attachment 33433

Monk's hood
View attachment 33435

Hedge bindweed
View attachment 33436

Please feel free to use any photos I post in here ...

That looks like fun, Kay! Love seeing the inside of that tent. What a great looking platform bed! Sure beats the usual idea of sleeping on the ground in a tent!

Beautiful flower pics. The image of the bridge over the river is gorgeous! Hope you enjoyed it!

SLG - is your computer up and running yet? Sounds like a bumpy start to this semester.

 

[stlukesguild]

Terri, I've got the laptop up and running and can access the school email. That was especially good news as I had to digitally sign my contract for this year. However... my big desktop monitor isn't working and I don't know about the CleverTouch which is a huge screen that allows me to share anything from my computer to the class as a whole. It's replaced the old projectors. When operating right, I can share videos with the class or slide shows of artwork or art references. My major concern now is that I haven't gotten a schedule yet or a class roster. I need these to plan lessons based on the grades I'll be getting Monday as well as make seating charts so that I can rapidly learn all the student's names. As the art teacher, I get every student in the building which usually means over 350 kids. I've had worse. In my first year of teaching the school had over 1400 students... although I didn't get all of them... maybe 750 or so (we had 2 art teachers).

 

[Artyczar]

Wow Kay. Those pics are something else!

St. Luke, I don't envy you. Even though I have always wanted to teach, I forget about all the "other" stuff I never really think about. It's not just about the kids and connecting with them, the rewards, and all the good stuff, etc. One has to endure all the little details, red tape, paperwork, meetings, bureaucracy, and the rest. Not to mention the time it takes you away from your own artwork.

 

[Triduana]

Beautiful flower pics. The image of the bridge over the river is gorgeous! Hope you enjoyed it!

Wow Kay. Those pics are something else!

Thank you I love taking photos of plants and I need to keep more detailed records of what I see. I also have a sketchbook specifically for botanical sketches, which hasn't seen the light of day for many months! I also need to revisit the bridge. There's a nice quiet spot where I took the pic so I may go back on Monday for some sketching. Even painting, if I'm feeling brave.

 

[Terri]

Terri, I've got the laptop up and running and can access the school email. That was especially good news as I had to digitally sign my contract for this year. However... my big desktop monitor isn't working and I don't know about the CleverTouch which is a huge screen that allows me to share anything from my computer to the class as a whole. It's replaced the old projectors. When operating right, I can share videos with the class or slide shows of artwork or art references. My major concern now is that I haven't gotten a schedule yet or a class roster. I need these to plan lessons based on the grades I'll be getting Monday as well as make seating charts so that I can rapidly learn all the student's names. As the art teacher, I get every student in the building which usually means over 350 kids. I've had worse. In my first year of teaching the school had over 1400 students... although I didn't get all of them... maybe 750 or so (we had 2 art teachers).

That's a lot on your plate! Hope things are settling down a bit.

Kay, I hope you can get some time to revisit that bridge! Would love to see some sketches and a painting, too.

 

[brianvds]

Visited my local nature area again, and apart from the usual suspects, saw something I have actually only once seen before: a greater honeyguide (which was uncooperative, so no really clear photos!):

Somewhat nondescript, but they are famous for their habit of leading humans, and possibly some animals such as baboons and badgers, to the nests of honey bees. They then feed on leftovers after the honey hunters have had their fill; their diet consists to a large extent of bees, bee larvae and beeswax. I seem to recall reading somewhere that they have been known to fly into churches to feast on candles made of beeswax too - one must assume they're agnostic and not scared that they'll get smitten. They're also brood parasites, i.e. the females lay their eggs in the nests of other birds, rather than raising their own chicks.

So, a thoroughly disreputable member of the animal kingdom: guilty of sacrilege, parasitizes others, and shamelessly cooperates with humans, the greatest enemy of all.

 

[Triduana]

That's fascinating Brian! Thanks for sharing.

 

[ZenDruid]

Please feel free to use any photos I post in here

Those are great photos, I love that bridge shot...

 

[brianvds]

Signs of spring in the neighborhood...

And you know spring is really coming when the Clivias begin to bloom...

 

[JStarr]

Lovely signs of your Spring!

 

[Triduana]

Beautiful! My iris didn't flower this year, though it spread quite a bit and I now have 3 of them.

 

[OliveOyl]

Kay, I love that bridge picture and want to walk across it. Where is it??? And I like your flowers, too. Purdy.

Brian...the photo with the orange flower and the light streaming over it, is just fantastic. And I've been meaning to ask you how you manage to get so close to your wildlife. Do you have fancy camera with a lens, or are you just a quiet stalker?

 

[OliveOyl]

What I’ve been “up to” is a very high place. Oh haha. We’ve taken the 15-minute ride on the (very touristy) aerial tramway up to the top of Sandia Peak before, which we can see from our house. But on Friday, for the first time, we drove the 13 mile “scenic byway” through the Cibola National Forest and up to the ridgeline crest which is 10,679 feet high. To be exact.

I thought this was the best view…looking south toward Texas. Yeehaw.

Observations: Thankfully, the road up with all the switchbacks and hairpins wasn’t as scary as I imagined. I’ve certainly been on worse. The forest up there is mostly spruce, fir and pine so there was a slight whiff of Christmas. The temp was 65 at high noon (felt good!) while down below, back at the olde homestead, it was in the high 90’s. Supposedly there are bears, mountain lions and bobcats around, but the only wildlife we encountered were two mule deer by the side of the road.

In human wildlife: we met a guy who had just hiked up one of the many mountain trails and it had taken him 4 hours. I prefer a soft and cushy air-conditioned vehicle, but he’s a youth, so there you go. And the beautiful soaring eagle I insisted I saw, turned out to be a hang-gliding human. Can you see him, the tiny speck in the sky, way above the mountain top? Wonder what that experience is like, soaring up in the stratosphere, all by your lonesome self? (Probably…pretty great).

It’s still amazing to me that this city is the most populated in the entire state and while there’s a lot of crazy energy on the ground, there’s still…this stuff…INSIDE a city limit area. So much space and land. Maybe it’s just unique to the southwest and maybe so in the midwest? All I know is that on the East Coast, we were mostly crammed in like sardines, hearing all the human sounds, smelling their dinners (and cigars), and looking straight into their windows in houses that blocked out most of the sky. But we did have the sounds, smells, and sights of the Atlantic Ocean a block away, so that’s not nothing. Just different.

 

[Triduana]

Kay, I love that bridge picture and want to walk across it. Where is it??? And I like your flowers, too. Purdy.

Thank you

The bridge is just outside Beauly, which is a small place just to the west of Inverness, in the Scottish Highlands. It carries a busy-ish road over the river Beauly. I haven't walked over it, but I have been under it. All the plant photos were taken from beside the river.

Lovely photos Olive, you can see for miles! You have described a thing I like about cities, you don't really have to go very far to be out in the open and into nature.

 

[brianvds]

Kay, I love that bridge picture and want to walk across it. Where is it??? And I like your flowers, too. Purdy.

Brian...the photo with the orange flower and the light streaming over it, is just fantastic. And I've been meaning to ask you how you manage to get so close to your wildlife. Do you have fancy camera with a lens, or are you just a quiet stalker?

I was gifted a decent camera a few years ago - one of the greatest toys ever. But for closeups of flowers and such, I often just use a cell phone camera.

Love your national forest photos.

 

[Artyczar]

Olive, those images are absolutely fabulouso! How amazing. I'd love to experience that in da flesh!

 

[Terri]

Whew, we had a wicked storm roll through our area last night! Tons of rain, lightning, thunder and high winds. We had a lake in the backyard and are slowly pumping out the water (tiny yard!).
I'm amazed we didn't lose power, widespread outages everywhere.

@stlukesguild : I think the system gained strength as it rolled across Lake Erie and slammed into Cleveland. Hope you all made it through without problems!

 

[Terri]

On a lighter note, about 2 days ago, I saw this under my little chrysalis netting:

A beautiful Eastern black swallowtail. He stayed there next to his chrysalis for a couple hours, then started flapping around. He wanted out!

We could barely get the netting high enough before he busted loose.

He was last seen flying over the garage into my neighbor's backyard, where they still have tons of flowers growing for nectar.

There are a couple chrysalises left. I pulled out the small pots of parsley since all the caterpillars are gone.