



Posted in Branches, Inspiration, Nature Notes, tagged beauty, flower market, flowers, Inspiration, nature, Photography on August 1, 2018| 2 Comments »
Posted in Branches, Inspiration, Nature Notes, tagged Arnold Arboretum, beauty, clematis, Inspiration, nature, Photography, purple on July 19, 2018| Leave a Comment »
Posted in Branches, Inspiration, Nature Notes, tagged animals, Arnold Arboretum, landscape, nature, Photography, squirrels on July 16, 2018| 1 Comment »
Posted in Inspiration, Nature Notes, tagged Arnold Arboretum, bees, insects, landscape, nature, pollination on July 16, 2018| 1 Comment »
Posted in Branches, Inspiration, Nature Notes, tagged beauty, flowers, Inspiration, nature, Photography on June 25, 2018| Leave a Comment »
Posted in Branches, Inspiration, Nature Notes, Uncategorized, tagged beauty, ferns, green, Inspiration, landscape, nature, Photography on June 21, 2018| Leave a Comment »
Posted in Branches, Inspiration, Nature Notes, On the Road, tagged beauty, birds, hummingbirds, Inspiration, nature, Photography on June 18, 2018| Leave a Comment »
Posted in Inspiration, Nature Notes, On the Road, tagged beauty, botanical garden, cactus, colors, flowers, hope, Inspiration, landscape, musings, nature, Photography, succulents on June 11, 2018| 2 Comments »

I must say it was a bit depressing to read headlines from around the world today. From gang violence across U.S. cities, a new ‘trail of tears” as parents are being separated from children, resources for those most in need increasingly being eroded, and at the same time big business wielding its lobbying might to change policies that would have helped hold them accountable to the many for their actions as they work to increase wealth for a few. And then if I look outside my own borders to the rest of the world … well, goodness gracious. It is an avalanche or perhaps a mudslide of just damn bad news without clear sight of where hope lies on a grand scale. It clearly will not be coming from the White House anytime soon as that’s all that needs to be said for the moment about that sad mess and those sad people who do not represent me as an American. At the same time I know that there is lots of good work being done on the ground but where is the sweeping change to come? Is there a groundswell somewhere out there that I have yet to see? Time will tell … anyway, meanwhile, I choose to share these images of beauty, of prickly cactus crowned by flowers filled with light.







Posted in Inspiration, Nature Notes, On the Road, tagged bees, flowers, insects, Inspiration, nature, Photography, pollination, pollinators, travel on June 10, 2018| 4 Comments »

Sometimes I get so caught up in trying to photograph the flowers, I forget why flowers exist in the first place. Not for my visual pleasure but to attract pollinators. And they were hard at work in the UC Botantical Garden.


Posted in Inspiration, Nature Notes, On the Road, tagged beauty, birds, egrets, Inspiration, nature, Photography, San Pablo Bay National Wildlife Refuge, travel, wildlife on June 10, 2018| 4 Comments »

I kept wanting it to take flight, to see its wings fill with light, but it did not want to fly apparently, no matter how many times it lifted its wings. I chanced upon the egret in my usual way, stepping to the edge of a structure and peering over to see what I might see, and there so still in the grass it stood …

… before taking those high-legged steps into the water …

… and then back out again onto land, feathers ruffled but still not taking flight. An impasse. Finally under the heat of the intense noonday sun I moved on suspecting that with my back now turned the egret’s wings spread and silently beat the air as it rose upward and upward, away.

https://www.fws.gov/refuge/san_pablo_bay/