Jack’s Walk

Inukshuk on the Portage River, ©voyager, all rights reserved

This is another section of the Portage River and if you look closely you can see that someone has taken the time to build a few inukshuk on the shoal, probably while waiting for a fish to bite. The water here is very clean and these are bring home to eat fish if you can catch one.

Jack’s Walk

Barachois, Gaspe Peninsula©voyager, all rights reserved

This is one of two public beaches in a small community that sits on the northern edge of the Malbaie Salt Marsh called Barachois, which fittingly means salt marsh in French. We don’t come to this beach very often because it is mostly sand an I find sandy beaches pretty boring. I’d much rather go to a stony beach where you can beach-comb for treasure. I’ve found all sorts of interesting things on the beaches of Gaspe; fossils, agates, seaglass (I have a large collection of this), pretty stones only some of which I can identify, bones and driftwood. I collect and then negotiate with my husband about how much I am allowed to take home. As a result I have collections here and there. At home I’ve made a little beach that grows year by year, but here my treasures mostly live in jars because the real beach is so close by. I say you can keep your groomed white sand beaches. Give me the sticks and stones and bones on a beach full of treasure.

Wednesday Wings

This week’s Wednesday Wings come from avalus, who writes:

Usually I can not take pictures of birds with my cellphone cam due to the lack of good zoom. But last week a friend and I helped this little fellow to escape the architectural nightmare and birdkiller, that is the our chemistry departent building. It is made of lots of glass and with windows in odd places and every so often we find birds that have flown in but could not escape again and died. This one was already pretty exhausted, as I doubt we could have caught it with the box otherwise. It did not put up any resistance.

This story had a happy end, we released the little one a minute or so after taking this picture: We took away the cardboardpane we used to cover the box, the little one looked at us puzzeled, left droppings in the box and flew away.

 

I do have no idea what kind of bird this is.

Young bird sitting in a lab

©avalus

 

I think it’s a juvenile Redstart that got caught in the lab.

Jack’s Walk

Weighty things on his mind today, ©voyager, all rights reserved

Jack did a lot of swimming at the beach today. Usually he’ll go after a stick a few times and after that he prefers to just paddle around close to shore. Today, though, he couldn’t get enough. Again and again he wanted us to throw out a stick for him to bring back. He kept it up for close to half an hour which is a lot of exercise for a 10 year old puppy. By the time we got home he was totally exhausted. He followed me into the bathroom, laid himself down and proceeded to sleep for the next 2 hours just as you see him here.

Itsy Bitsy and Very Lively

I dug out more spider pics, because, why not?

I have made these pictures last year, but I never got round to send them. These were one of the first macro shots I have made, when I still did not know what I am supposed to do (I still do not, but slightly less so).

This spider is slightly translucent and very small – that mesh is just a few mm across, it is the texturing on a sheet of extruded polystyrene that I have used to make thermally isolating covers for my sewage treatment facility.

I love the copper colour of the abdomen contrasting with the translucent green of the thorax and the legs. It looks like made from glass or gemstones and precious metal. Actually it could be a nice inspiration for a jewelery, if it were not a spider. But maybe there is a market for spider shaped jewelry?

I just could not get a good shot at its face. It was running around constantly and in all possible directions, not staying still for a moment. But I noticed that under certain angles its eyes seem to reflect light like cat’s and I managed to catch that on a few shots. Then I have let it scuttle away, taking care to put it in a place where I will not squish it.

©Charly, all rights reserved. Click for full size.

Tree Tuesday

Our tree this week comes to us from down under. It’s an almond tree is glorious bloom sent to us by Lofty, who says,

With our crazy seasons the almond trees think it’s spring already.

The photo was taken several weeks ago which is definitely too early for spring blossoms. I sincerely hope the trees will settle into a good growing season despite the premature start. I’ve never seen an almond tree before and had no idea they were so pretty. Thanks so much for sharing, Lofty.

©Lofty, all rights reserved

©Lofty, all rights reserved

Jack’s Walk

Gargantua Mountain, ©voyager, all rights reserved 

Today we’re sharing Jack’s drive to get to his favourite beach. The road we take winds through Gargantua Mountain and it doesn’t matter how many times I see these cliffs they always take my breath away. It amazes me that trees can grow and thrive in these conditions, rooted in rock and hanging on the edge of a precipice. Everything here seems to grow madly and even the road isn’t safe from the creep of nature. All along it now we see plants biting into the tarmac and steadily moving forward. Every year it gets worse and there’s no effort to halt the growth. At one time there was a thriving campground and restaurant on the mountaintop, but the owner died several years ago and no-one took over. Now the buildings sit empty and the road is just used as a shortcut from here to there.

Roses

Nightjar has sent us some roses today and they’re all so pretty that I just can’t pick a favourite. The white rose looks so delicate and fresh, the yellow rose has that beautiful salmon blush and that last rose is bold and bright in shades of fuschia. Even better, they’re all memory roses from the garden of someone special. Nightjar says,

These are not from my garden, but from my grandma’s garden that since she died is kind of abandoned. I still go there sometimes to deweed a few things, but I don’t have enough time to properly care for it. Somehow, beautiful flowers still grow there every year, including these roses! The house is about to be rented, and from what I heard about the family that will move there, I’m hopeful they will keep the garden alive. But I will make a few cuttings of these roses, just to be sure…

 

©Nightjar, all rights reserved

©Nightjar, all rights reserved

©Nightjar, all rights reserved

Another not so itsy-bitsy spider

It seems to be spider week here at Affinity. Opus has sent us some incredible photos of a bright orange beauty.

I can’t remember if this appeared previously on Affinity, but even if it did it might be worth a second run.  Several years ago I was walking down the driveway when I noticed that an acorn was walking the same direction that I was.  It was actually a spider, probably a Marbled Orb-weaver spider.  I was able to take a number of photos before releasing her to (hopefully) lay her eggs.  It was a rainy day, so reflections were a problem.  No matter, she was absolutely gorgeous! (In case anyone is interested: Nikon D700 and Tokina 100 mm macro lens)

The spider is gorgeous, Opus, and so are your photos. They are definitely worth a look. Thanks for sharing.

©Opus, all rights reserved

©Opus, all rights reserved

©Opus, all rights reserved