Whatever Weds. Chipmunk

Copyright ©2024 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

PLEASE DO NOT USE MY IMAGES WITHOUT EXPRESSED WRITTEN PERMISSION.

The two expression this Chipmunk made while I was taking its photo had me chuckling.

I got it!

©Deborah M. Zajac | http//:circadianreflections.com Image

Uh, what nut?!

©Deborah M. Zajac | http//:circadianreflections.com Image

Nikon D850| Nikkor 500mm| PS CC

more to come…

Whatever Weds.-This & That

Copyright ©2024 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

PLEASE DO NOT USE MY IMAGES WITHOUT EXPRESSED WRITTEN PERMISSION.

What a week it’s been! It all started on October 10th, 2024.

My neighbor and I rose early to head up to Emerald Bay for sunrise.

The color was earlier than we hoped so, we made a quick stop at Pope Beach to shoot the color and daybreak.

©Deborah M. Zajac | http//circadianreflections.com Image

Then we made our way up to a lookout over Emerald Bay to photograph the lake.

©Deborah M. Zajac | http//circadianreflections.com Image

Then we took our time making stops along the way home to photograph some Autumn Color.

©Deborah M. Zajac | http//circadianreflections.com Image

We saw a beautiful Red-tailed Hawk hunting for breakfast. She caught a Vole but, I won’t gross you out with those images.

©Deborah M. Zajac | http//circadianreflections.com Image

Later that evening I saw the Northern Lights for the first time ever. That post is here. It was glorious.

Friday morning I birded with my usual birding group and we had a great morning seeing 40 species of birds. Along with the birds I noticed some spooky Zombie Pirates lurking by the pond. Here’s one.

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Saturday morning I was up early and met up with two girl friends to do my first Big Day. It’s a 24 hour global birding marathon put on by Cornell Lab of Ornithology. We didn’t sign up as team or register our day but we, birded from 8AM until after 4PM. I saw 45 species. It was pretty fun day. We posted our sightings on ebird.org so they’ll have our record for their counts and information. Unfortunately, the next afternoon I got sick, and shortly afterwards I was hearing from my companions from the day before that they where also sick. We think the deli we stopped at to have lunch is where we picked up food poisoning. I brought home half my sandwich which I shared with He-Man and yep, he got it too. UGH.

Monday still weak, and very tired I was determined to locate and see Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) but, I wasn’t in shape to drive anywhere so I just stepped out on my back patio and photographed it there. It’s so cool and it has a great long tail!

©Deborah M. Zajac | http//circadianreflections.com Image

What a week! What a month it’s been so far! The Aurora, and the Comet really made my month. Everything else has been icing on the cake.

My tummy is still sketchy, but I’m on the mend and so are He-Man and my friends. I plan to be out photographing Halloween things, birding, and maybe the Comet with a better composition soon. I hope your week is going well. Oh, and watch out for the Zombies and Ghoulies! 👻

Nikon D850| Nikkor 500mm, &35mm| PS CC

more to come…

Something for Sunday-Northern Lights

Copyright ©2024 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

PLEASE DO NOT USE MY IMAGES WITHOUT EXPRESSED WRITTEN PERMISSION.

With the all the intense Solar activity in the way of flares, and CME’s there have been Auroras are as low as Northern Nevada! I got an alert telling me the aurora was in my town and the KP rating was 8. Nine is the highest rating so I looked out the back door and I could see it so, I grabbed my camera, tripod, and cellphone, slipped into my shoes without tightening up my laces and dashed out the door. I didn’t grab a jacket, or my headlamp I was so excited. Here’s one of the many images I made.

©Deborah M. Zajac | http//circadianreflections.com Image

I’ve wanted to see the northern lights since I first learned about them as a kid. I always thought I’d have to travel way up north in the winter to have the best chance of seeing them.

Why is it pink? What causes the colors? I had to look it up because the Northern Lights (aurora borealis), here have been bright pink with some blues and purples, and very little green.

They are created when energized particles from the sun slam into Earth’s upper atmosphere at speeds up to 45 million mph (72 million kph). Our planets magnetic field protects us from the onslaught.

Earth’s magnetic field redirects those particles towards the poles transforming that energy into the dazzling display we call the Northern Lights or in the Southern Hemisphere the Southern Lights (aurora australis).

Most Northern Lights are green but when there’s been intense solar activity the color can be red, pink, blue, or purple.

Here’s a linkhttps://sciencenotes.org/aurora-colors-explained-southern-and-northern-lights/ to Science Notes that explains the Aurora colors in more detail.

I’m hearing and reading that it’s been seen all over the country. That’s so exciting!

Nikon D850| Nikkor 35mm f/1.8g| PS CC 2024

Thursday Doors- Quaker Steak & Lube

Copyright ©2024 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

PLEASE DO NOT USE MY IMAGES WITHOUT EXPRESSED WRITTEN PERMISSION.

After several hours of birding my birding partner and I were hungry so went looking for a place fairly close by to have some lunch. We found Quaker Steak & Lube.

This is the only one in FL going by their website. We both had salads and I failed to take a photo of either of them. It was just a Caesar Salad w/grilled chicken. Instead of croutons they served it with Cheese Curds. Now, I thought that sounded gross and would probably just pick them out, but after trying one I gobbled them up! They were warm and slightly gooy and tender on the inside yummy. Mary had the Biker Chick salad. It sounded delicious too, but it was on the sweet side and I was hot and wasn’t in the mood for sweet.

The inside of the restaurant is car themed. Each wing of the interior has a small sports racing car hanging from the ceiling, and lots of car memorabilia like a dividing wall full of MAC tools for fixing cars. I went back a second time for that salad and this time He-Man was with me he said he has some of those tools. Who knew?!

Anyway, I did get photos of the exterior and the doors.

©Deborah M. Zajac | http//circadianreflections.com
©Deborah M. Zajac | http//circadianreflections.com
©Deborah M. Zajac | http//circadianreflections.com
©Deborah M. Zajac | http//circadianreflections.com

Look at the door pulls. I thought they were neat.

©Deborah M. Zajac | http//circadianreflections.com

Most of their restaurants seem to be in OH. Do you have one in your city/state? Have you been there?

This post is part of the weekly challenge Thursday Doors hosted by Dan Antion over at https://nofacilities.com/2024/09/26/back-at-osv/

Head on over there to see more doors from around the world or join the craze and add a door or two of your own. 😊

more to come…

Something for Sunday-The Cosmos from Rural Nevada

Copyright ©2024 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

PLEASE DO NOT USE MY IMAGES WITHOUT EXPRESSED WRITTEN PERMISSION.

©Deborah M. Zajac | http//circadianreflections.com Image

11 frames stacked. Nikon D850| Nikkor 20mm f/1.8g@f2

more to come…

Thursday Doors-Guest Doors

Copyright ©2024 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

PLEASE DO NOT USE MY IMAGES WITHOUT EXPRESSED WRITTEN PERMISSION.

These aren’t Guest in the sense your mind probably went to when thinking about Guest doors, no. These doors were sent to me from a friend who lives in CT but, wishes to be anonymous for the time being.

She moved to CT oh, 4-5 years ago…time flies! Anyway a couple of weeks back she sent me an email saying,

“I visited Gillette Castle in Connecticut over the weekend and they had the most beautiful interior doors, all hand carved and I thought of you 🙂 Here are just a few but there were many! There were three stories’ worth and each one was unique. The castle was fascinating!”

She didn’t include the stories or details but, we have her images of three of the doors.

The door knobs are interesting. They’re wood!

Image used with permission from photographer
Image used with permission from photographer
Image used with permission from photographer

She included a close up the door knob as the third image. Those door knobs are different! The doors remind me of quilts with their square patterned designs.

I looked up the castle and it does look beautiful and interesting.

Here’s something about those door knobs.

“Gillette designed 47 one of kind doors made from Southern White Oak found on the property. They were all hand carved. Each door has a unique, elaborate latch intricately carved of wood.”

Here’s a little intro about the castle from the website:

” Atop the most southerly hill of a chain of hills known as the Seven Sisters sits the retirement estate of noted actor, director, and playwright William Hooker Gillette. Named the Seventh Sister by Gillette, the property’s focal point is a 24-room stone mansion reminiscent of a medieval castle”. There’s a photo of the castle at the link and lots more information about the man and more photos.

https://www.gillettecastlefriends.org/history-of-the-castle

The doors are lovely. Don’t you love our door enabling friends!

Here’s a BIG SHOUT OUT to my friend in CT for sending me these beautiful and interesting doors.🥰 May she continue to send me doors to share with you!

This post is part of the weekly challenge Thursday Doors hosted by Dan Antion over at https://nofacilities.com/2024/08/22/still-more-from-iowa/

Head on over there to see more doors from around the world or join the craze and add a door or two of your own. 😊

more to come…