This ride up north on Shasta View to Lema Ranch has to be one of the nicest around here for Fall colors this time of year.
And this image comes from Churn Creek Bottom yesterday as the sun set. Nice.
New music piece inspired by a photo
Swaddled by SkipMurphy Somebody plopped this little human in front of me while I was at work in the office. I don’t know who it is. Not thinking much about it, I took a picture with my iPhone. Later, seeing the image inspired me to try and capture the musical feelings I got from looking at the image. Like some art, I’m not sure I got what I wanted. So this remains a musical sketch. But art can be surprising. Perhaps like this baby:
It will grow on me over time.
It may not be finished. Whatever finished means.
A Praying Mantis
Spotted this critter meditating under the porch light this morning.
An eye-catching line from the Wikipedia entry on Mantis behavior: “The reason for sexual cannibalism has been debated.” Really? Apparently, I missed those debates. I wonder how they went, and who argued the pro-cannibalism side?
Bugs meditating. It’s ReallyRedding.
Catch and release
Among the memories of my youth, I very fondly recall catching lizards. Their reptilian stares, their colorful and varied skins of beady armor. Although I no longer wield the hand-eye speed I possessed in those magical days of jars and cigar box terrariums, It seems I can still catch an occasional lizard. And still let it go.
This critter is more serpent like.
He or she fades in among the local colors. Adios.
Catch and release lizards. They’re ReallyRedding.
Redding immortalized on GoogleMap streetview
I was searching Google for Vintner’s Cellar phone number when I saw something unusual on the screen. My car.
Apparently I was parked across the street on Placer when the Google Street View camera vehicle came by. If you search 1510 Placer Street and zoom in to street view, you’ll see it too. It’s a fluke to have been there, and even more of a fluke to have noticed it online. I’m trying to remember why or when I was parked there on a cloudy day, but coming up blank.
Interesting to consider the great human slice of life captured by Google with what must be the enormous streetview file of photos. Scrolling around our town in streetview is interesting for a while, but at least in Redding, I can wander around all I want offline. But for you out-of-towners interested in our fair city, come on in to Google’s Redding and scroll around a bit in zip code 96001. You may like what you see.
A Redding squirrel prepares for Winter
We humans have to learn to save for a rainy day. Meanwhile, local critters just know what to do. This guy (or gal?) was hard at work yesterday, gathering acorns.
Oak acorns have supported life here since prehistory. So good you can smell them.
No rest in this green world.
Preparation. It’s ReallyRedding.
Hummingbird bathing
Increased local thunderstorm activity was predicted
Here’s another massive supercell image from yesterday over Lassen.
It seems to me we’ve had a notable increase in the quantity and size of local thunderstorms. I have no scientific basis for my observation. It just seems to be the case.
Science predicts a measurable increase of water vapor in the atmosphere per every degree of climate warming, and so an increase in thunderstorm activity would naturally follow. Here’s a Science Daily article from 2007 predicting localized thunderstorm increases. Whether or not you choose to believe the science predicting global climate warming, you might want to get ready for more frequent and violent thunderstorms around here. Evidently.
Thirsty Hummingbird examines fountain
Photographing the Perseid Meteor Shower
Notice the title says “photographing,” and not “photographs of” the annual Perseid Meteor shower. Well, I may have gotten one shot of a small one. No matter. It was a beautiful night for stargazing.
I only went into my back yard. I was surprised at how clearly visible the Milky Way was, even in the city.
There were plenty of meteors. But it was like fishing in a boat when fish are jumping all around you, but not biting. Then, I think I got one. Over at the upper right.
I was reminded of a Hawkwind lyric.
Our legends tell we came from a seed
That traveled at a whirlwind speed
‘Till it came to rest upon this land
That once was green
And is now all sand
That buried us up to our eyes
And made us watchers of the skies
‘Till shadow wings
Came for our sight
And left us to conspire with night
It’s Really Redding.
.