Wet Flowerworks

July the 4th threatened and delivered rain until just before sunset. This wet, gone-to-seed, dandelion might have been the only fireworks we saw that day.

Macaroni

It's the fourth of July, so here's a plume moth. It's late in the evening, so here's the map through the wetlands of conscience: the moths are named for the feather-like, that is, plume wings. Yankee Doodle stuck a feather in his cap and called it Macaroni. I think it's a quite dandy moth actually. Many in the Roxborough park that day. Neat-o. :)

Waterfall Monochrome

This is part of a playground set that's been installed in the middle of our recreation center's indoor swimming pool. There are a few water features that the kids can turn on and off, aim or dump onto fellow swimmers.

I like photos that look as if they are from black and white film.

A Fruit Loop Miracle

The boys' shout made me stop inhaling my two-thirds Cheerios, one-third Fruit Loops breakfast. "LOOK LOOK LOOK!" Stopping, I followed the direction of their gaze and I looked at my cereal. Then I looked back at them. "MO-O-O-OM! IT'S Standing UP!" Oh, I see. Hm.

I took a picture in acknowledgment of the amazing phenomenon. Then, unceremoniously, I ate the miraculous Fruit Loop. The boys thought that was very funny because I wasn't acknowledging the gravitas of the situation.

Jasmine announced, "I like the Cheerios."

Neighbor Flowers

I haven't been much of a gardener of late ... that is, the past few years. But my neightbors are. These are our right-hand neightbors' flowers. These folks are quite the home improvement gardening pair; we've known them for about nine years now, so I don't think they'll mind me snapping a few shots.

We saw these flowers as we passed their house. We were walking in the rain, so the rainwater in the gutter was more interesting than the flowers for Jasmine. Ordinarily she'd have stopped; Jasmine really likes the color yellow. It's easy to see and pleasantly common. I'll admit, I've always liked blue. I wonder what causes us to have a favorite color and what that choice says about us.

Purple Umbrella

It was about to rain at Roxborough State Park. Many of the Harebell's sheltered bees. The flowers face toward the ground; perfect shelter for a bee. The bees hid early, a full hour before the rain actually hit. I can't say I blame them. We had our rain coats and ponchos out about then too. Mountain rain is like a water balloon. We had a nice downpour for a little bit, the middle third of our mini-hike, and by the end we'd returned to partially blue skies and some sunshine.

Shooting into the Sun

The past few walks with the kids have been a bit frustrating. Partially, this is due to Jasmine's improved eyesight. Since she got her contacts she has been far more aware of the dangers around her and far more interested in things she otherwise would have missed. So, as a result we go very, very slowly. The lack of progress annoys the boys. I'm torn between wanting to eat up some miles and wanting to show Jasmine all the things she can now see -- that all happen to be within three feet of her. Jasmine's new visual abilities have made things a bit less exciting because she now knows when she's heading off a cliff, most of the time.

A place like this one, Castlewood Canyon Dam State Park, also has a creek that's perfect for wading in. Water is almost impossible to resist for any of the kids. I keep bring them home soaking wet, wrapped in towels, or in a completely different outfit than the one we set out with. Even so, we've done a good job protecting ourselves from the sun, but quite poorly when it comes to the mosquitoes. We're all sporting a few nasty bites and various self-inflicted scratching wounds. These flying vampires are biting through our long-sleeves shirts and pants as well as deeply inhaling the apparently attractive odor of our insect repellent sprays.

Of my landscape photographs, this is one of the few that I like.

White Pelican

It's not quite the opposite of a macro, but fairly close... I mean far.

Birds are cool, but these are the ones that make me flashback to the natural history museum pterosaur exhibits.

Flower for Mom

Jasmine graduated from Anchor Center's pre-school this past Friday. It was very emotional for all the parents. All the kids are now moving on to new schools, most to the traditional classrooms. Jasmine loves to go to Anchor and will miss it a lot come Fall. We will too.

At Anchor we never had to explain in agonizing detail the strengths and limitations of Jasmine's vision, how albinism affects the eyes, how to modify regular learning materials or classroom set up so that she could get the same information as the others. It seems to take months to get everyone on board with all the various adaptations necessary to allow her to participate.

Jasmine presented me with this flower during her graduation. Afterward we drove to Cherry Creek Dam for a bit of a walk.

Flax Wench

I just found out what a "flax wench" is: a woman who spins flax. I just take lotsa pictures of it. I love flax.

One Mushroom Built a House of Wood

Wood's actually a great choice of housing materials for a mushroom. But then again, I don't think the Big Bad Woof would be trying to eat them. It might make for a very psychadelic story though.

The Gaping Maw of the Echinoderm

I think it's pretty lacy looking for a "maw". This starfish lives at the Butterfly Pavilion.

Beardtongue

The name "beardtongue" makes me think of someone who needs to brush their teeth after a bender. Pretty flower, though. We went to the Audubon society/Martin Marietta Nature preserve and caught tadpoles this weekend.

Talk to the Tail

This is Rowan's betta fish Rainbow, trying to avoid the camera.

Dancing Paper Dolls

It's a deviation of usual paper dolls. This origami model is one of Jeremy Shafer's. I think it's the first photograph of a model that I've folded. I felt the need to focus on the correct angle since many people don't recognize the forms without some direction.

It's Spring!

Rowan did an end-of-the-year Interest Project about fire-bellied toads. They're cute little critters, very communal and fairly vocal -- especially this time of the year. The males have an adorable "ooop - ooop - ooop" sort of bark. (When we first heard him, we thought some mechanical aquarium part had broken or needed oiling.) I'm sure if the toads were longer than two inches it would be more impressive. Apparently the lady toads find it impressive enough. We made recordings for everyone at school to listen to.

I took this photo for Rowan's display poster board. I think his new favorite biology term is "nuptial pads".

The male here is encouraging his lady to lay eggs in the water so he can then go and inseminate them. I consider it rated-G since there is no... well, since he's not ... um... never mind, I have young readers whose parents haven't signed waivers.

Continuing on, I think of this embrace as trying to squeeze the eggs out of her. It's actually one of the least risque of the nature's methods for making more nature. I wasn't too worried about the rest of the parental population at the elementary school being overly offended. You never know though.

Home Hairy Home

All the creatures in the Fish Room, have just gotten housing upgrades. We call it "The Fish Room" because of the mondo 120 gallon aquarium, but currently we have just as many non-fish creatures as fish creatures in the room right now.

Hairiette Curly the tarantula wasn't so sure about leaving her familiar, cozy digs for this new place. The reality was that she could barely turn around in the old plastic critter container that she's lived in since she was a spiderling. Now that she's about the size of my hand, we moved her into a 2.5 gallon aquarium with a subterranean den that we can see into. Since she's nocturnal, it's the only way we can get a look at her without staying up into the wee hours. She also likes humidity and heat, both of which are easier to control in the more air-tight glass aquarium.

Moon and Venus

I don't actually have the set up for good astronomical pictures, but I'm certainly thinking of working something up. These pictures were from February 28, 2009. I actually like the mistake a lot. The first I like because I can see Venus' crescent a bit. The last, I have some moon details and a nice star pattern from Venus.

Tyrone and Job Seeking

We're doing the fish thing again, slowly but surely. This is Tyrone, Jasmine's goldfish. For some reason I was having a very difficult time photographing the fish. Granted, I only took a few.

By the by, if you know anyone in Biotech in the Metro Denver area, drop me a line. Like everyone else, I'm ah job hunting. Bonus for any employers out there: MS applied math, bioinformatics graduate school certificate, BS in math with a minor in physics, MATLAB, and UNIX systems administration, and an analyst brain. I also photograph, tesselate the plane in fabric (quilt), do origami, and the occassional balloon animal.

Painterly

I wanted to take a picture of the over-the-top rhinestone mouse I gave to my step-mother for the holidays. Then I saw the wine and tomatoes. Then I noticed some of the still life paintings hung on the walls. A few arrangements later and voila! Just call it my addition to the otherwise tasteful art in my parents' home.