Theme day: My favorite thing

 The theme this month is my favorite thing.  That would be walking in a green forest.  What you can't see in the picture are the swarms of mosquitoes.  Nothing's perfect...

even more mushrooms

What can I say?  It's hard to pass up a good mushroom picture.

 

more fungi

These mushrooms look like classic fairy houses.

I expect a leprechaun peeking out. 

 

Or at least a little elf.

Mushroom walk

 

Each walk seems to have its own theme.  Sometimes all I see are insects, this time it was all about the fungi.

The tall...

And the small.

Teen

 

This young cardinal had an attitude.

Old barbed wire

 

This old fence has become part of the forest. 

Cloudy day

 

The roof over the swimming pool at Optimist Park matched the rain clouds moving in.

City in the grass

 

This is a small piece of a sculpture by Leonardo Drew called "City in the Grass".  

Here's a bigger piece,

And here's the whole thing.  

It's a cityscape on a flying carpet, designed to make the viewer feel like Gulliver discovering Lilliput.

Fungus

 

A frilly little fungus.  

Take up any new hobbies?

 

Everyone is trying new hobbies these days.  Baking, jigsaw puzzles and...whatever this is.

Another visitor

 

They do love zinnias!

(me too)

Children at Play...NOT

 

The playgrounds are still closed, causing a lot of tears in the younger crowd.

They've even padlocked the swings so no one cheats.

Mushroom

 

After some big rains, the mushrooms are popping up all over.

Catch of the Day

 

He caught himself a big stick fish.

Copperhead

It's not so fun to see this guy sunning on a culvert.  We walked much more carefully after seeing him.

Gone fishing

It takes a lot of patience and a bit of luck to fill the cooler.

Building storm

 A dramatic sky before the rains.

Welcome visitor

A tiger swallowtail came to visit the garden.

A walk in the park

The parks are one of our only escapes these days.  They are filled with bikers and walkers.  Some walk faster than others.

Stick Fighting

They were practicing the Filipino martial art of stick fighting (see here)  It looks very effective.

Busy Bees

These bees were busy in the sunflower.

Zinnia

We can get close to flowers, even if we can't get close to people.

Ruby crowned kinglet

This tiny little ruby crowned kinglet is about a month too early for North Carolina according to the Merlin Bird App.  Guess he doesn't have a cell phone.

Mr Heron poses

He waited for me to take his picture, and then flew away.

Lonely art-wolf

The wolf statue stares into the windows of the Sertoma Art Center.  These days all he can see is his own reflection.  

slimy swamp

The algae is growing in the swampy wetlands.  

What is it?

A squid hanging from a tree?  A lost birthday party favor?

A fishing bobber someone abandoned in a tree.

Good bye Isaias

Hurricane Isaias visited Raleigh for one night.  We had 3 inches of rain, and in the morning, the clouds blew away.

Isaias

The very first outskirts of Isaias rolled in yesterday.  We had a short visit to the  NC museum of Art sculpture park before the rain.  

Spider

This is Cleome, or Spider flower.  It looks very exotic, and it's leaves look like marijuana plants.  Not a native, it spreads and reseeds itself prolifically.

Happy

How can you not be happy when you look at a sunflower?

As I stare at this picture I just keep following the patterns around.  

Theme day: City People

This month's theme is "City People".  

There's not much going on in the city right now, but there is a lot of dog walking.