Jack’s Walk

It’s an overcast and dreary day and cold enough that I wore my winter coat this morning. I’ve been struggling a bit in the colder weather so today I took Jack to the forest. It isn’t any warmer there, but the leaf swooshing makes me happy and so does watching Jack romp off-leash. He loves to chase the chipmunks and squirrels and because he’s slow I never worry about him actually catching something. Wait, he did catch something once. A rabbit, but Jack was laying down on his own front lawn just looking in wonder at the baby bunny when the poor thing bolted and ran straight into Jack’s mouth. Jack spat it out and the two of them sat there for a moment looking at each other before I shooed the bunny away. I swear that’s a true story.

Wednesday Wings

More images from the birds of prey at Amnéville. I must say they got the optics down to a T, puuting the black guy on the white horse and the blond white woman on the black one.

Jack’s Walk

This is a little pond that Jack and I found in the springtime. Then, it was covered in lily pads as far as the eye could see. I took a bunch of photos, but there were so many mosquitoes that I made a pretty quick get-away. It was also the middle of the day and the light was harsh so when I got home I filed the photos away under ‘go back and try again.’ I did try once a few weeks later and, if anything, there were even more mosquitoes. Then we went to the east coast and I forgot all about the place until today. The pond looks totally different at this time of year. There are only a few tattered remnants of lily pads left and the center of the pond is mostly open water which was reflecting the pretty autumn trees across the way. The sun came out long enough to light up the view and make the water blue and there was not a single mosquito to be seen or felt. I call that a successful field trip.

Jack’s Wallk

The sunshine has returned and it’s a lovely autumn day. Jack and I decided that it was a perfect kind of day to go for a walk in the woods and instead of our usual little forest path, Trillium Woods, we went to a place called Vansittart Woods. It’s just out of town to the west and it belongs to our local school board who use it to educate kids about nature and camping. There’s an easy trail that winds through mixed hardwood and fir trees and eventually it connects to another trail that goes through open meadowland. Doing both trails is a bit much for Bubba (Jack’s nickname) and me so we stick to the short manageable forest path. Today the ground was covered with a blanket of newly fallen leaves and I found myself swishing my feet and kicking them up to make the leaves dance and to hear that wonderful crinkling, crackling, whooshing sound.

Monday Mercurial: Patagonian Sealions

Sealions, much like penguins, look comical and clumsy while on land, but in water, they’re nothing but sleek grace.

© Giliell, all rights reserved Sealion, jumping

Jack’s Walk

Well, the sun did try to shine earlier this morning, but by the time Jack and I got ourselves outdoors it had clouded over. We went to the woods anyway and had a pleasant autumn walk in the autumn air. It wasn’t the bright colours that caught my eye today, though. It was a bit of fluffy white fungus that looked just like wet teddy bear fur. Hmmm…maybe it was wet teddy bear fur. Maybe today was the day the teddy bears had their picnic.

Friday Feathers

I think we’ve had these images before, but since naturalcynic expressed dismay at the lack of close ups of the condor, here’s the next smaller bird I have to offer: Norbert, a European griffin vulture. According to one of the falconers he takes a much more direct approach to food than “waiting until you drop dead”.

©Giliell, all rights reserved
I personally think his feather collar is just so posh.

Macedonia 2 – A Glorious Three-fer

I present a triune of lizards for your eyes. For some of you, a lizard may be no big deal, but I come from a land where lizards are rare, and the only ones we have are tiny and brown (but very cute!).

Lizard number 1 was hiding out in bright sunlight on some flat rocks, when I nearly stepped on it.

See if you can spot it:

I am invisible…

The dramatic reveal below the fold…

[Read more…]

Jack’s Walk

Jack and I haven’t really wandered too far from home this week because fibromyalgia and damp weather don’t get along, but that just gives us a chance to check out the changes in our own neighbourhood. These mushrooms for example weren’t here earlier this week. Must be all the rain we’ve had. I’m not familiar with this variety of fungus, but they look to me like more fun than fungus.

Wednesday Wings

A wee birdie.

At Amnéville they built a “Medieval Arena” to show their birds of prey, which has the advantage of high ramparts that allow them to fly even larger birds.

There’s going to be more pics, but the first bord was my absolute favourite because how can you top a South American Condor?

[Read more…]

Jack’s Walk

Most of the cornfields around us have been cut down and readied for spring, but there are always a few farms that leave the stalks insitu over winter. I’m not a farmer and have no idea why, but today I was grateful to find something/anything that wasn’t a dirt bare, wet brown field.

Jack’s Walk

October roses are always a welcome sight, but this bright pink beauty is the last one left in my garden. There are no new buds left and the plant is getting ready to go to sleep for the winter. Sometimes I think it would be nice if I could sleep through winter. I have enough of a fat pad to survive hibernation for a few months and it might be nice to avoid the days upon days of darkness and cold. On the other hand, I would also miss Jack pouncing like a cat into snowbanks and making happy faces full of frost. Winter is Jack’s favourite season. He loves the cold and would stay outside for hours if only someone stayed with him. He has been known to crawl into the creek when it’s full of floating ice and drift downstream with a look close to ecstasy on his face. Jack’s fur is very seal-like. Only the outside hairs get wet and even when he’s been in the water for an hour the downy hairs below stay dry. He also has a bit of a fat pad and a big buoyant chest and, like all labs, his feet are webbed. The boy is built for swimming in the cold and he loves it.

Ah…that’s better. See what I did there? I just gave myself a reason to look forward to winter. I promise I’ll share pictures so you can have a reason to look forward to winter too.

Jack’s Walk

It’s damp and drizzly again and while I might not like the weather there are certainly things that thrive when it’s moist outside. Fungus for example. Jack and I haven’t been to the forest in a few days and I was surprised to see this big bright piece of flaming fungus grown so large in 3 days. I swear it wasn’t there on Friday. It fits right in with the October colours all around it, but I didn’t expect to see fungus in a frilly orange party dress.

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Jack’s Walk

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Wednesday Wings

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Jack’s Wallk

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Monday Mercurial: Patagonian Sealions

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Friday Feathers

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Macedonia 2 – A Glorious Three-fer

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Wednesday Wings

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