Traditional Iconoclast

Woody

Posted on 21 March 2025 by Isabel Gibson

Big, they’re not. Active, they are.

The downy woodpeckers in Myrtle Beach are much like the ones I see at home, although the second-floor balcony gives me a better vantage point here.

This little guy spent a fair bit of time checking out a hole in the tree trunk so I had lots of time to get photos. Most of them had him in motion faster than my shutter speed . . .

. . . or with his head still, but buried in said hole.

Just one showed him in a rare moment of rest with his head visible. Just one is all I need.

Posted in Appreciating Deeply, Laughing Frequently, Photos of Fauna | Tagged Birds | Leave a comment

Nuts!

Posted on 14 March 2025 by Isabel Gibson

It’s a mystery: rows of trees laid out in neat grids in places that seem ideally unsuited to orchards. Dry places. Grit-instead-of-soil-underfoot places. And yet, rows and rows and rows (and rows) of trees that look a lot like fruit trees. Here’s a tiny sample, caught in passing at 75 mph.

We’ve seen these unmarked fields in southern Arizona and Texas. They can’t be fruit trees, can they? Maybe they’re nuts. Maybe I’m going nuts. This, right here, is exactly why we need more interpretive signs along highways. Enquiring minds want to know.

Continue reading →

Posted in Language and Communication, Laughing Frequently, Photos of Landscapes | Tagged Trees, Word Play | 16 Comments

Neighbourhood Watch

Posted on 14 March 2025 by Isabel Gibson

Not the bad-actor kind, the nature kind. Our rented apartment adjacents (why *isn’t* that a word?) a golf course. Moat-like, a small ditch separates said golf course from an otherwise-adjacent townhouse development.

Water means animals. Not always close, but animals.

Continue reading →

Posted in Appreciating Deeply, Photos of Fauna, Photos of Landscapes | Tagged Birds, Other Animals, Sunrises and Sunsets | 6 Comments

Teacup Face

Posted on 14 March 2025 by Isabel Gibson

Well, tea-residue face, I guess.

It’s clearly a face, but for me it’s the first such face-by-pareidolia not triggered by eyes. I wrote that sentence a few ways to avoid the tricky question of the adjectival form of pareidolia. Pareidolic? Pareidoliac? The former sounds like parabolic, the latter evokes maniac. Neither sounds quite right, although at least the latter would offer an obvious theme song.

Posted in Laughing Frequently, Photos of Faces | Tagged Pareidolia | 8 Comments

Smile

Posted on 08 March 2025 by Isabel Gibson

Have they developed a rinse for plaque yet?

Thus my routine question to my dental hygienist of 23 years’ standing. Hey, I figure I might as well ask, you know? And so I do. Every four months. I mean, I do what I can to keep my teeth clean between scrapings but, as she delicately notes, I am prone to tartar build-up. It’s not exactly a character flaw but it’s annoying anyway, so I’m always looking for a chemical assist. I can’t quite believe that there is still no mouth-swish I can buy to gently dissolve extraneous gunk while leaving my tooth enamel intact. Maybe this time the answer will be different.

No.

Continue reading →

Posted in Appreciating Deeply, New Perspectives, Thinking Broadly | Tagged Attitudes, Technology | 8 Comments

White and Pink Birds, Oh My

Posted on 08 March 2025 by Isabel Gibson

Last week saw another trip to the St. Augustine Alligator Farm. The usual suspects included wood storks, mostly hanging out behind palm fronds at great heights but occasionally speeding across the sky . . .

. . . and roseate spoonbills: completely improbable large, pink birds whether by land, tree, or sky.

Continue reading →

Posted in Appreciating Deeply | Tagged Birds | 14 Comments

As Seen on Screen

Posted on 27 February 2025 by Isabel Gibson

As we get ready to launch for Myrtle Beach on the weekend, I’ve been going through my shots to see if anything inexplicably fell off the publishing schedule. There were, as it turned out, a few intimations of blogs past, both here and elsewhere.

These little cuties graced our backyard again this year from time to time, their occasional nature adding to our appreciation.

Continue reading →

Posted in Another Thing, Appreciating Deeply, Laughing Frequently, Photos of Built Stuff, Photos of Fauna, Photos of Flora | Tagged Birds, Bridges, Flowers, Reflections | 12 Comments

Scritch, scritch

Posted on 27 February 2025 by Isabel Gibson

I had big plans this week: a nature documentary in the BBC tradition, albeit a tad more rudimentary. You know the sort of thing: imagine that mellifluous, refined, British male voice that is never in any hurry at all, no siree.

Ah, the Abert’s towhee: Perhaps not as obviously impressive
to the casual observer as the American Bald Eagle, but the modest towhee has some surprising skills under the hood.

And here we’d have a bald eagle photo that I got the same day, because re-purposing photography and working it into the storyline is key to documentary affordability.

But people make plans and technology laughs. As my previously trusty and currently up-to-date video software crashed, crashed again, crashed again again again again arggh, I decided to simplify.

Continue reading →