Old wood

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wood on an old stumpy thing

It’s been a hectic day—out to a house concert last evening so I was up late, up early today to teach a class (one that ran for an extra half hour because of needing to talk with students), dash for a ferry, long time travelling home, and now I’m relaxing with a beer and an old well-read and well-loved mystery and entirely turning my mind off. I’ll answer emails and do work and catch up with most of my bloggy stuff tomorrow, but I did want to take a sliver of time and make sure I uploaded a picture today (I’m trying to post something every day, eek).

So it seemed appropriate to upload a picture of a sliver, more or less.

Okay, a bit bigger than a sliver. But a little flap of wood, sitting above the rest, on an old stump. I really liked the silvery texture of the wood and the way this bit curves and floats above it. It looked… alive.

Tiny black lichen

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closeup of little black lichen "bubbles" on a rock

...on a rock.

Aren’t these cool? I’m not even sure how I spotted them, as they were pretty small. It’s some kind of little black lichen growing on a rock; I’m not anywhere near my field guides at the moment, so I haven’t a clue what it is. What I thought was interesting was the way it’s growing in concentric circles.

And it showed up on a truly gorgeous rock, just covered in a lichen-y rainbow of colours.

lichen-covered rock

Looks like sea urchins have been grazing here....

Walking on clouds

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gull walking on edge of pool of water reflecting clouds

Okay, beside clouds.

I spotted this gull while walking between ferries today. It was very methodically walking back and forth the length of the concrete pool edge, carefully scanning the bottom of the pool for edibles. (I’d first noticed it because it had found something and there was a bit of splashing.) First one direction…

gull walking along pool edge

… and then the other.

It was a good day for watching wildlife. A pod of probably six or eight Pacific White-sided Dolphins came alongside the Big Ferry during the crossing, leaping out of the water, skipping over the waves, which were still big enough after yesterday’s storm to elicit official stay-in-your-seat warnings. I’ve seen dolphins on the crossing before, but never leaping entirely out of the water—this video gives a good idea of what it was like, though without the big waves. The pod suddenly veered toward the ferry and crossed behind; I couldn’t tell whether they were actually crossing or had gone to ride the wake.

Whichever, it was a rare treat.

Sigh.

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Drumbeg sandstone

Home.

It has been end of term, and that means marking. These terms are oddities of a sort, as they end 2 weeks into January, not at the Christmas break. And because different terms in different institutions end at slightly different—well, never mind, it’s not interesting. The point is this: normally I spend part of each week in the Big City and part of each week At Home. I try to schedule work so that At Home consists of at least 2 full days. If I work it right, I might be able to score 3 full days—that’s what I’ve managed the term that’s starting, hurrah! Continue reading »

Snow and rust

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snow and rusted garden sculpture

(And then of course I had to think of something that could cope with being next to orange slime.)

I like my rural(ish) life, and I like taking pictures of nature. When I’m in the city for extended periods I tend to panic: Oh no! What can I take a picture of?

But of course the truth is that there’s just as much to photograph, it’s just a bit different.

This is a bit of snow on a bit of iron garden sculpture. Rust and snow look good together, don’t they?

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