Wild Strawberry (Fragaria virginiana)
Coltsfoot (Tussilago farfara)
Wordless Wednesday
This is a turkey vulture in flight over my head last week. Bird walks with Mr. T — in the past and hopefully long into the future — are some of my fondest memories. While he was not present when I captured this vulture (see close-up photos here of this stunning bird that only a mother could love), he is the inspiration for my bird photos and he has given me the gift of his love of birds and birding. Lately, we saw the first eastern bluebird reported in Barton Town this season. Special moments with a special person are memories to cherish.
Heads or Tails or Heads or Tails
Towards the end of winter, I captured Buddy as he intimidated Charlie who was hiding under the bookcase off camera. The fights are fewer now that they are getting outside.
Here they go again. The fights are fewer now because Buddy's territory is the house and Charlie's territory is the barn. Buddy can't enter the barn and Charlie carefully avoids Buddy in the house at night. Don't feel too bad for Charlie. He gives it as good as he gets!
Thank you for visiting.
Cats on Tuesday
It has been a long time since I participated in Blog Your Blessings. It has been difficult for me to find a blessing during this long winter. But we all know that nearly all of us can find one blessing to be thankful for. I finally realized that the chickadees blessed me all winter.
Blog Your Blessings
I finally got photographs of one of the beaver in the bog. As daylight increases, I should be able to get more. Beaver are visible at dawn and dusk.
Below: one of the beaver lodges.
| XXXI. Nature rarer uses yellow Than another hue; Saves she all of that for sunsets, -- Prodigal of blue, Spending scarlet like a woman, Yellow she affords Only scantly and selectly, Like a lover's words. |
The Hebard State Office Building in Newport is relatively new. It is on the waterfront of Lake Memphremagog and houses the Department of Motor Vehicles, a lawyer office, meeting space and the Community College of Vermont (where I teach). Howard Dean, former governor of Vermont, 2004 presidential candidate and now Chairman of the National Democratic Committee, dedicated this building in 1999. Below is a panorama photo of the building that I made this past week. The lake is on the right so that our classrooms all have views of the lake and the Canadian mountains. Please click on it to view it full size.
Sixth Sunday of Easter
Get ready now cuz the wild weekend is coming!
Here are three images of Cat Mask in three colors. I think this is my best flame yet and I can't decide which color I like best. I made 12 differently colored versions of this flame.
I have updated my Oxidizer Tutorial to include directions for changing colors of your flame creation. I have added a footnote and explanation as to why you might want to render jpeg or png files and directions for both. I hope you check the changes out.
Click the tag below to view creations of other participants!
Welcome to the Earth Day Edition of the Teacher Potluck Carnival! First, let me apologize for this being two days late. Blog Carnival was down, I had classes to teach and appointments to keep. I have made sure that the next carnival will be close to a weekend.
Finally, Leena Helttula presents Mathematics and Baking posted at Conceptis addict. I have enjoyed Leena's blog for quite awhile. She is a puzzler and introduces me to great puzzles. And now? She found a recipe for Sierpinski cookies! Can you believe it? Check out her blog! The photo of the cookies is from her site. She includes complete recipes for how to create them.
Wordless Wednesday
I went out to the barn Saturday morning to see if any damage had occurred over the winte when I heard a tiny tiny meow. I recognized Charlie's voice in the rafters of the barn. He had been sleeping and I had awoken him. 
He was so happy sleeping in the spring sun and warmth under the sky lights in the rafters of the barn. In fact, I have seldom seen Charlie with such a relaxed and gentle expression on his face. 
Then I remembered: he had been born and spent his kittenhood in a barn in central Vermont. Barns feel like home. Warm barns and sunshine must be heaven for him.
I have an interest in fractals (shapes that are self-similar). I have moved on to making fractal flames, which you see here. Several bloggers have asked me how to make these flames, so I spent Saturday writing a tutorial for using Oxidizer, the Macintosh fractal flame software. You can see the tutorial here if you are interested. I already need to update the tutorial because I learned more about using the software Sunday when I created these images.
Heads or Tails or Heads or Tails
Camera Critters
PhotoHunt
Friday Fractal
Teacher Potluck Carnival
