This is a tree that grew from seed in the back yard over the course of 2-3 years.

Flowering Plants Flowering Plants Flowering Plants

This is a tree that grew from seed in the back yard over the course of 2-3 years. I don’t remember why we decided not to pull it out as a weed when it started. I think we were just curious to see what it was. I never did find that out, but it took over the entire corner.

On iNaturalist

Other iNaturalist users have suggested it’s a silk oak.

Interesting: a Twitter bot using live and historical data from a bunch of sensors hooked up to an oak tree…

Interesting: a Twitter bot using live and historical data from a bunch of sensors hooked up to an oak tree, to describe the impact of weather and climate from the tree’s point of view.

@awitnesstree@twitter.com

#trees #nature #climate #bots

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/tweeting-tree-climate-change

On Wandering.shop
On Twitter

I managed to get out to the local botanical gardens again for a mild hike …

I managed to get out to the local botanical gardens again for a mild hike / photo walk. Large parts of the grounds are designed to look wild, though the plants are all grouped by category and labeled. Other parts are obviously manicured. I also have photos of a snail hidden in a rosemary bush and a lizard that…wasn’t very hidden!

Flickr Album: South Coast Botanic Garden

#Photography #nature #flowers #garden #lizard #snail #trees #spring

On Photog.Social

A deserted Parisian street on a gloomy November day, years ago.

A deserted Parisian street on a gloomy November day, years ago. I stumbled on it again while looking for my photos of Notre Dame from the same trip, and I actually like this shot better than any of the ones I took of the cathedral. The lack of scaffolding probably helped!

Caption from Instagram
Photo on Photog.Social

Lemons after the rain (digital). And the same lemons ~2 months earlier (film).

Lemons after the rain (digital). And the same lemons ~2 months earlier (film).

The potted lemon tree is still small, but it’s mature enough to produce lemons. Of course, at two feet tall, it’s only producing a crop of maybe five lemons a year.

One of the photos I took when we dragged out the old film camera was of this tree, so I keep coming back to it. It’s joined the moon and the distant LA skyline as a standard test subject!

#photography #lemons #tree

On Photog.Social

Sun Halos: Always Look Up

palm-tree-halo

Have you ever seen a ring around the sun? Or a pair of bright spots flanking it? Or a rainbow-colored cloud? Just as sunlight reflecting and refracting inside raindrops can create a rainbow, sunlight reflecting off of ice crystals can form fascinating and beautiful halos. It doesn’t even have to be cold at ground level: if the ice crystals are high up in the atmosphere, spread in a thin layer of cirrus cloud, you can still see them… even in places known for warm weather like Los Angeles. I have a whole gallery of halo photos I’ve taken in southern California. You’ll see them more often than you expect. You just have to look up.

Seasonal Wetlands: Summer vs Spring

Seasonal Wetlands: Summer vs Spring by Kelson Vibber

It finally occurred to me to put together a side-by-side image of the one spot I managed to take photos of on both hikes!

On the right: May in Madrona Marsh, after winter and spring rains filled up the low-lying areas of the preserve.

On the left: Late August in the same spot, after summer had dried up the pools. Despite the drought, and helped along by a couple of freak summer storms, the ground is still holding onto enough moisture that the floor of the vernal pool is covered with low greenery instead of dry grass.

I know, it’s always better to put “before” on the left, and I tried it with that layout, but it ended up looking better this way.

Green Reflection

Green Reflection by Kelson Vibber

I thought this shot of a vernal pool at Madrona Marsh would be a good fit for the “Catchy Colors: Emerald” theme. This is the same marsh I visited a couple of weeks ago, but back in spring, before most of the wetlands had dried out for the summer.

On Tumblr