A sure sign

Each year there is a point in late January when I leave the office to go home and realize it’s 6 PM and there is still light in the sky. It’s the moment I know I’ll mentally make it through the rest of winter because the days are tangibly getting longer.

This year, Indiana was having a reasonably mild winter but then February brought weeks of a polar vortex and with it single digit highs. Because it stayed so cold, whenever it would snow, the snow didn’t melt, which is unusual for us. Then, over the course of two days, between 10 and 12 inches of new snow fell and stuck around for over a week. It got pretty old, pretty quick.

I kept the bird feeders and heated bird bath clean and full, creating and then following the same path through the snowdrifts that were deeper than my boots were high. But my birds were happy. They fluff themselves up to hold in their body heat when it gets really cold and as the winter storm approached, there were lots of puffballs perching on the feeders and branches. I especially loved the bluebirds, who also were oblivious of the air temperature and frolicked in the birdbath like it was 80 degrees.

The polar vortex finally left and we were gifted with a few 60 degree days and I’ve been wearing sandals to work ever since, willing the warm weather to stay. I also took the opportunity to reposition and fortify the bases of the feeder poles, power wash everything, and put it all back together. As I was working, out of the corner of my eye I glimpsed something purple and looked over to see the crocus in bloom all over the front yard. They are the light at the end of the long winter tunnel.

Soon it will be warm and humid, and I will be back to hunting slime molds and fungi, wishing for cooler weather to kill off the mosquitoes. But for now, I will take all the signs of spring I can get, including losing an hour of sleep when the clocks “spring forward” in a week and a half.

Determination

I put up a peanut wreath in a failed attempt to keep the blue jays out of the tray feeder by distracting them. Instead, I’ve attracted every blue jay within a five mile radius. Similar to the lesson I learned many years ago when trying to eliminate Japanese beetles from my garden - put out a beetle trap and instead of just having a few, you've attracted all of the beetles into your yard. Your neighbors love you, though, because they no longer have a beetle problem.

You would think I’d have remembered that.

One silver lining is that nuthatches and tufted titmice also love the peanut wreath. Except they can't pull the peanut out whole like the jays can. They peck away at the shell until they extract the peanut, which is still too big for them to eat. I have no clue what they do with it after they free it from the shell but they're pretty proud of themselves and they don’t give up until they've retrieved their prize. I love watching their determination, even if there are already shelled peanuts in three of the other feeders O_o

Chihuly at Cheekwood

One of my favorite things to do is travel to Chihuly exhibits at whichever botanical garden they happen to be. The latest exhibit is in Nashville, Tennessee at the Cheekwood Estate and Botanical Garden. I love exploring all of the angles to photograph the glass, looking for the best one depending on the time of day. This piece is titled Summer Sun and every angle was beautiful regardless of what time it was. In this photo, I happened to catch the sun setting right behind it and the glow at that moment was perfect. Of all of the Chihuly photos I’ve taken to date, this is one of my very favorites.

Until next year

Hopefully 2021 will bring some much needed relief to the lives we are living in 2020 and we will be back to enjoying the many events that were canceled this year. The last of only three fireworks shows was a huge success and I feel fortunate to have been able to capture far more “keepers” than usual. These are a few of my favorites. There are a few more on the fireworks page.

Cribraria purpurea

I’ve never seen anything this purple in Indiana and I did not see these when I initially picked up this little piece of wood. There were some tiny white spots on the wood that I was curious about and was photographing when the purple caught my eye. I’m not sure I’ve ever been so excited to see little fruiting bodies of a slime mold as much as I was to see these. They are barely visible to the naked eye, which is why I missed them until I was looking through an extreme macro lens.

There are spectacularly iridescently purple slime molds in more temperate states and countries but not in Indiana and some day I will hunt them down. For now, I’m thrilled with this find.

Myxomycetes Monday

These are the fruiting bodies of an Arcyria species but I am not sure which one. They’re about a 16th of an inch high and I love the color and cotton candy look of them <3

The most wonderful time of the year...

which, for me, is not Christmas. It’s fireworks season because I have such a short window of time to practice the focus pulling photography technique that transforms fireworks into sea creatures and pop art flowers. There are five shows each year that I put on my calendar, setting reminders to go off a week ahead of each show so I don’t forget. Like I ever would :)

With 2020 being the year of the great pandemic, two shows were canceled so I will only have three chances at it this year. The last show is next week and I’m already beginning to obsess about the weather.

Of the two shows so far, one was a total success and one was barely a success. Here’s to hoping the third and final show brings something new and unexpected.

Mycena Subcaerulea

Life’s complications and a bit of the blues have kept me from getting into the woods to mushroom/slime mold hunt as much as my heart would like. My brain sometimes tells me otherwise. But I have finally gotten back out there and am always tickled when I find these little mushrooms in the blue form. Most of the ones I find lean towards teal-ish or even green, but this tiny little guy was very blue and it made my day to find and photograph it.