horsenettle

This member of the nightshade family (which includes tomatoes, potatoes, and eggplant) packs an arsenal of hair-thin spines that can break off in skin and cause ferocious itching.  This, however, doesn't detract from the papery beauty of the white and purple flowers.

spike

Common mullein, a summer annual with thick, woolly basal leaves.  The flower spike was taller than I was (yes, that's not saying much considering my lowly 4'11").  Used in cough remedies and skin treatments.

aforementioned

Since there was talk of ticks in the previous post, I thought I would show you my tick vial from fieldwork at my summer internship.  These are about 1/3 of the ticks collected on my person...sadly enough I dropped my original, fuller vial in the meadow and couldn't find it in the three-foot-tall grass.   We filled little collecting vials with rubbing alcohol and poked any ticks we found into them--handy for exterminating them when you couldn't find a honey locust tree.

crown of thorns

Honey locust tree.  These have handy thorns for spiking ticks out in the field, since when you catch a tick on your body, it's pretty much understood that you kill it rather than release it back into the wild.  Sometimes, nature bites.

mackerel sunrise

I love mackerel clouds.  Although, since I saw these in the morning, that's technically not good, according to the "mackerel skies at morning, sailor take warning; mackerel skies at night, sailor's delight."

fawns

Mule deer at a golf course in San Jose. 

yuma

Sunset over Mittry Lake in Yuma, Arizona.  I spent a week there visiting a friend, where I snorkeled, fished, and learned to scuba dive.  In fact, all of our activities had something to do with water (including setting up my friend's saltwater fish tank), perhaps because the only bearable thing you can do in the oven-like summer is go swimming.

persephone's bees

Honey bee in a pomegranate blossom.  I caught it brushing its antennae with its right foreleg.

manzanita

Saw these tall shrubs on the mountainsides in San Jose.  They looked like some kind of myrtle at first glance--similar branch structure and leaves, but with striking wine-colored bark.  Definitely gorgeous trees--the whole vacation was full of lovely Californian live oaks, eucalyptus trees, and unfamiliar flowers and vines.  My mom and I like to joke that some people go sightseeing, we look at plants.

california

Power lines and mackerel skies on the foothills near my uncle's house.

Kayaking in Sacramento's Folsom Bay.

toddlers

My recent absence was due to a two-week visit to famiy and friends on the West Coast, where I got to see my cousins, including these two little girls.  Did a little shooting with a 50-prime portrait lens (the first three photos), which filled me with envy and want.  I may have found the next item on my wishlist...