Lupine – Circadianreflections Blog

Whatever Weds. This and That…

August 14, 2024August 13, 2024Posted in Astro Photography, Bird Photography, Hummingbirds, Photography, Rufous Hummingbirds, Whatever WednesdayTagged Corn Flower Leaves, Crimson Columbine, Delphinium, Lupine, Perseid Meteors, Rufous Hummingbird, Watercolor Painting, Whatever Wednesday, Wildflowers40 Comments

PLEASE DO NOT USE MY IMAGES WITHOUT EXPRESSED WRITTEN PERMISSION.

Here’s some of what I’ve been up to lately starting at the beginning of the month with a birding walk up in the mountains above Lake Tahoe. The wildflowers were in bloom. Here are a couple of favorites I saw.

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

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

A beautiful view from the trail with Lupine, and Cornflower leaves in the foreground.

©Deborah M. Zajac | http//circadianreflections.com
*View from the hike*

There were all sorts of juvenile birds being taught how to forage that morning. I saw Young Cassin’s Finches begging their parents for food, and the parents trying to encourage them to forage on their own, and young White-crown Sparrows foraging with their parents, but the highlight for me was the juvenile Rufous Hummingbird perched on a branch. That was a first for me.

©Deborah M. Zajac | http//circadianreflections.com
*Rufous Hummingbird-immature*

On Monday I got up at 2:45AM to go on my back patio to see if I could spot and photograph any Perseid Meteors. I very nearly went back to bed as there were still clouds from the day before in the sky.

I saw 3 great fireballs streaking across the morning sky, but one was completely out of my frame. One just looks like a streak with no fire ball that was disappointing, but it has a green tail, and one was just partially in my frame. The others I photographed are pink and green. Which I think are from the Aurora Borealis that was visible here. I missed the peak of that. I slept through it.

Here are two images of Perseid Meteors I photographed.

Look how close that fireball came to being in my frame! See it left side bottom edge? There’s another meteor below center as well.

©Deborah M. Zajac | http//circadianreflections.com
*Fireball just out of my frame plus another meteor*.

©Deborah M. Zajac | http//circadianreflections.com
*Perseid Meteor Streaking over No. Nevada…pink and green too.*

And, I’m still painting. I just finished a big painting for me at 9×12 inches of the Le Moulin de L’Abbye in France. I used a photo from a book called Hotels de Reve en France that I picked up years ago from a Little Free Library. I’ve been sketching from this book for years, but have been afraid to actually add paint out of fear of messing it up. I drew it freehand which took me hours, because drawing is so hard for me, but I am improving! Practice really helps. Anyway, I transferred the drawing to drawing paper so if I did mess it up I could half the drawing time by tracing it. This time I was determined to add paint!

Here’s that painting.

watercolor painting

The reference photo from the book Hotels de Reve en France.

I also made the boys some little handmade sketchbooks. I hope they fill those pages up!

The weather is cooler and the smoke from the Calif. fires has cleared so I’ll be out birding later this week and getting my morning walks in outside.

This is getting long so I’ll close with I hope your week is going well.

Nikon D850\ iPhone 14Plus

more to come…

Whatever Weds. Spring in Stanislaus Co.

April 10, 2019April 10, 2019Posted in California, Landscape Photography, Landscapes, Nikon, Photography, Whatever WednesdayTagged grass, Hills, Knight's Ferry, landscape, Lupine, Nikon, Photography, Rocks, Spring, Stanislaus County, Stanislaus River36 Comments

I’m waist deep into packing paper, boxes, and all my stuff.

I spent almost my entire adult life amassing stuff, and now I just want to get rid of most of it! I’m not really into the Komari (sp) thing, but I’m all for me having less stuff to worry about and pack! But, I have this nagging feeling I’m getting rid of things I’ll regret, and keeping things I should let go! It’s agony!

I spent the morning packing up most of the kitchen and getting our homeowners, and car insurance set up for NV. Next up will be getting our mail set up over there, and the list goes on and on, but we’re making progress. Fifteen days and the movers come to get all our stuff and really it’s mostly my stuff and take it to the new house! Well, they’ll be there the next day so, we will be sleeping on the air mattress, and have the stuff we’ve already taken over to get us through a few days should it snow or something and the truck can’t get over. Winter is hanging on. The major Interstate they’ll probably take over the mountains has closed a few times recently because there have been two. Two avalanches in the last two weeks on that Interstate.

This is how I remember winters being when I was a girl and a young adult. I’ve always felt the weather is cyclical and has a pattern here in CA. Really good skiing winters, followed by long dry, thirsty spells. We’re in the great skiing season now, but my head is saying, Drought is coming prepare! I’m saying that with the Game of Thrones tone of Winter is Coming. 😃 I’m staying in the west so drought is probably going to be in my planning for the rest of my life.

Ah, but I digress. Since I’ve been preoccupied with the packing and moving and feeling the need to share some images and stay connected to you cause I’ve missed you I dug into my earlier images from just about a month ago when Big Baby Boy and I took a ride out to Knight’s Ferry.

The hills are still this green.

Early Spring on the Stanislaus River

and the Lupine was just beginning to bloom. I had the wrong lens for this shot, but I like the way you can see the environment that these were blooming in. These Lupine were huge bushes. I bet they’re gorgeous now.

Spring Lupine Stanislaus County

We’re reflecting a lot about all the things we’ve experienced while living in this house 37 years. Big Baby Boy came home for 5 days to help us move some stuff over to the new house, and say Good-bye to the house he’s always called home. We treasure the memories here but we’re taking them with us. We are looking forward to new beginnings, new memories to be made, and to blooming in our new home.

Happy Wednesday!

Nikon D810| Nikkor 20mm f/1.8G| Hoodman Digital Film| CS PP 2019

more to come…

Happy Easter!

March 25, 2016March 25, 2016Posted in California, California Wildflowers, Easter, Holidays, Holidays and Observances, Lupine, Northern California Wildflowers, Photography, Wildflowers, Wildflowers of Northern CaliforniaTagged Blue Sky, California, Easter, Field of Lupine, Holidays in the USA, Lupine, Nikon, Oak Tree, People on a branch, Photography, Purple, Spring flowers, Wildflowers24 Comments

I’m posting this a bit early because He-Man and I are celebrating our 35th Wedding Anniversary this week-end. No one is more surprised than us that we’ve been married this many years. Time has just flown by!

Table Mt. Spring Lupine in Full Bloom

Regarding this image- I made it last March about this same time when the Lupine was in full bloom up on the mesa.

Our plans for this week-end? He-Man and I are going to celebrate us, and wrap ourselves up in each other, and nature over a long week-end. I’ll be offline until Monday. 🙂

May your Easter Basket be filled to the brim with goodies and love. Happy Easter!

If you don’t celebrate Easter I hope you enjoy the week-end with those you love.

Nikon Df| Nikkor 24mm f/2.8af-d| Hoodman STEEL Ultra High Speed Digital Film| PS CS5 and PS CC 2015

More to come…

Sunset Lake Helen, Lassen National Park, CA. USA.

August 2, 2015August 2, 2015Posted in Lake Helen, Lakes, Lassen National Park, Sunsets, USA National ParksTagged Clouds, Drought, Humid, Lake Helen, Lassen National Park, Lupine, Reflections, Rocks, Spring in the High Country, Sunset9 Comments

I went up North to Lassen National Park with a side trip to a Lavender Farm, and a fabulous waterfall with good friends. We were hoping to shoot the Full Moon, and later shoot the Night Sky since we’d be in up in the mountains and away from light pollution. Unfortunately, Mother Nature had a different idea. As the afternoon wore on the clouds got thicker, and darker.

On the bright side… It was Spring up in the high country: the Lupine was in full bloom, and the sunset was gorgeous.

This is Lake Helen…very low, but it’s still gorgeous. I said they miss named this Lake because what you really can’t see here is the water is a lovely inky blue.

Shortly after this image was made there was lightning to the southeast! We rarely see it here so we chased it. It was fun!

I’ll be catching up with all you did this past week, and sharing more from my week-end in upcoming posts.

To get an early look of what we did visit my Instagram site here My Instagram Site

Nikon Df| AF-S Nikkor 17-35mm| Hoodman STEEL Ultra High Speed Digital Film|

More to come…

P52 12/52: Hum

March 22, 2015March 22, 2015Posted in Bees, Butte County, California, Mary Oliver Poems, Poetry, WildflowersTagged Bees, California Poppies, Hum, Lupine, Mary Oliver Poetry, Spring, Wildflowers10 Comments

It’s officially Spring! The Wildflowers are popping up all over, and the bees are busy at work.
I made this image yesterday while on a Wildflower Hike on Table Mountain in Butte County, CA.

Here’s one of my favorite poems about Bees by Mary Oliver. My favorite Nature Poet.

Hum
What is this dark hum among the roses?
The bees have gone simple, sipping,
that’s all. What did you expect? Sophistication?
They’re small creatures and they are
filling their bodies with sweetness, how could they not
moan in happiness? The little
worker bee lives, I have read, about three weeks.
Is that long? Long enough, I suppose, to understand
that life is a blessing. I have found them — haven’t you? —
stopped in the very cups of the flowers, their wings
a little tattered — so much flying about, to the hive,
then out into the world, then back, and perhaps dancing,
should the task be to be a scout-sweet, dancing bee.
I think there isn’t anything in this world I don’t
admire. If there is, I don’t know what it is. I
haven’t met it yet. Nor expect to. The bee is small,
and since I wear glasses, so I can see the traffic and
read books, I have to
take them off and bend close to study and
understand what is happening. It’s not hard, it’s in fact
as instructive as anything I have ever studied. Plus, too,
it’s love almost too fierce to endure, the bee
nuzzling like that into the blouse
of the rose. And the fragrance, and the honey, and of course
the sun, the purely pure sun, shining, all the while, over
all of us.~Mary Oliver, Sacred Poems

Nikon Df| AF-D Nikkor 105mm f2.8 Micro lens| Hand-held| Hoodman STEEL Ultra High Speed Digital Film

More to come…

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: