That's Gneiss! #157 ~ A few moments of distraction as the dark days set in...
Plus: bugs and other tiny things
Hello friends!
We are late out of the gate today because it was a beautiful sunny day and I didn’t want to spend it sitting inside all day. The whole weekend has been lovely and I don’t know about you but I sure need some distraction from the news right now.
We’re entering the season of tree silhouettes, which I love. The shape of each tree has a personality (treeonality?) of its own, and we get to enjoy them for the next few months.
We saw people out and about for Halloween last night, including one house that looked to be having a party. A couple was arriving in costume - no masks! Not even creepy clown masks. The number of cases in our county has jumped to between 70-100 per day, so the sight of this reckless behavior was disappointing. Not surprising though. On the other hand, we saw this sign discouraging trick or treaters:
We took a similar approach, though in the Halloween spirit. I used out biohazard warning tape from last year to tie off the gate. NO ENTRY!
It was a very peaceful evening. I spent some time working on a lesson from my art class. I realize it seems that all I do these days is paint or draw on little 2” squares, which is mostly true. There is some method to this madness, and as I progress it will start to come together. The next lesson brings some realism into the mix. But for now - BRIGHT COLORS!!! These are just a few of the squares I painted.
This morning I woke up way too early but that’s okay! I got Rowland out early for his walk and we enjoyed the crisp fall morning. One of our favorite walks is over to the east side of I-5, where we hit the edge of the neighborhood that overlooks the Snohomish River valley. This view is looking through the gap the truck drove through while trying to outrun the cops. He landed on the far side of the tracks. Yikes.
I love that fog in the valley, and the view of the Cascades. There’s an osprey nest just to the left of this view and sometimes we see them flying over our house.
Rain is heading our way in a couple of days, so I put away the Halloween decorations. Goodbye dollies! See you next year…
I had one small doll head in a planter that has disappeared! I suspect one of the busy squirrels stole it and may have buried it. They’re quite active in our yard and it probably resembled a chunk of apple. The yard is full of little holes where they’ve dug holes to bury their treasures. Dolly head, where are you?
Jenny asked recently if I’m still keeping track of the daily weather highs and lows. That is a big YES! It’s part of my daily morning routine while drinking my coffee. I’m finally collecting enough information to make some comparisons between years. My weather station is plugging along, though I do have the occasional blip when we move, batteries die, or I need a firmware update. Here’s the most recent two months from my station compared to the official Seattle station (at Sea-Tac airport).
October was a bit warmer this year than last year…
The lows hit the 30’s (blue) much earlier last year. I’ll have to work some photo collage magic when I get to the end of the year for some side by side comparisons.
Well friends, that’s all for this week. Please take care of yourselves the next few days and if you haven’t already, remember to vote.
~Anne
Tidbits
Just a few things today.
Email is a problem - it’s not your imagination
The story of Dover Books - who doesn’t love them? (via Austin Kleon)
Drawing Links - people submitted drawings of their Halloween decorations (I’m miffed at myself for not doing it)
Current obsession: tracking the progress of my new iPad, which is currently in Japan.
Making: crochet blanket progress!
Art Zone
I’m not sure this name will stick for the spot where I like to highlight the work of artists, but “creativity cul-de-sac” didn’t really grab me…
I’ve always been fascinated by tiny things, and recent roundups of “best of” photography do not disappoint!
Luminar Bug Photography Awards 2020
Over 800 entries were submitted to the first ever Luminar bug photography contest. It was hard to choose which photos to highlight here, but I decided on two that are decidedly non-creepy. Pop over to the link above to see all of the winners and runners up - there are some amazing photos of our diminutive neighbors in the world. The contest was hosted on Photocrowd, a site where one can enter and/or vote on a wide variety of photo contests should they be inclined.
Here’s the first place winner in the Butterflies and Moths category:
Look at this cute little snail! Its portrait nabbed third place in the Snails and Slugs category, which also includes Nudibranchs.
NIKON 2020 PHOTOMICROGRAPHY COMPETITION
Now - on to even tinier things! Photography through microscopes of various types.
The Nikon Small World Competition first began in 1975 as a means to recognize and applaud the efforts of those involved with photography through the light microscope. Since then, Small World has become a leading showcase for photomicrographers from the widest array of scientific disciplines.
Here we have a single human hair with a knot in it magnified 20X, twelfth place in this year’s competition.
And in 18th place, the wing of an Atlas moth, magnified 10X. This is a very familiar and favorite color palette to me.
If you enjoy these photos as much as I do, you can peruse past winners in this gallery. I think I may find some interesting Zoom backgrounds there…
Video of the Week
The last Halloween laugh…
Current Temperature: 43.9F (6.6 C)
Current Humidity: 93%
Wind (max gust): 8.1 mph
Precipitation: 0.0 in
Air Quality Index: 90