04/24/25

 We have Collard Lizards in our area and there is a specific place on one of my bike routes that I see one fairly regularly.  I almost forgot to look for it while out on a warm day recently so only got one shot of it playing Peek-A-Boo over the rocks it lives under.  This has been about the third year that I have seen it there.  I looked them up and they can live 5 to 8 years in the wild.  This is, most likely, a female due to the color of it's head blending into the rock.  Males are more blue-green in color.

04/23/25

 It's Wildflower Wednesday here on the Blog!  My wildflower to share for today is Western Yarrow which is in the Sunflower family.  This is from a group that I had transplanted off the road where it would be mowed down all the time.  It has fern like leaves and is very hardy during drought.  It usually blooms June through September.

04/22/25

 It's Earth Day officially but in my opinion Earth Day should be everyday.  I try to but and plant flowers that are native and that butterflies and bees will like.  You can do it for cheap with Zinnia seed.  They grow easily and butterflies love them!  I took this image of a male Tiger Swallowtail on an old established Lilac a little over a week ago.  It was perfect so must have been newly hatched.  My first butterfly capture for the year.

04/21/25

 Happy Monday and happy new week!  My Fern Peony bloomed again this year.  It seems to be an every other year thing lately.  It's beautiful to see.  Very dainty compared to other Peonies.

04/20/25

 It's Steamy Sunday here on the Blog!  Today is about my latest Live Steam project, my raised layout.  I picked this layout up from Florida over my Christmas Break on a whirlwind trip.  We have been working on getting it installed since then and after some snow and bitter cold delays, it is finally usable!  It needs some finishing work like trim but I did a test run with one of my battery locomotives and after that went well did my first Live Steam run which is what the layout was really designed for.  The locomotive I am running is an Accucraft Forney that I purchased along with the track.  It had some pretty bad scale buildup that took several vinegar soaks and some other soaks and rinses to get cleaned out but it seems to be running pretty well.  I need to figure out the best settings for it but other than that it sounded good as it ran.  It, like my other locomotives operates on Butane and water.

You can see a short video of the first run HERE.

04/19/25

 While I was out in PA, my brothers and I went on a bit of a nostalgia drive and visited a couple of places including this small waterfall that is fairly close to where my parents lived.  It's a nice little waterfall and this image is actually one half of a stereo image that I shot.  I have recently gotten back into 3D.  I wish there was an easy way to share it for others to view.  This little falls empties into the Conodoguinet Creek which is pronounced sort of close to: Can a dog go in it.  😄

04/18/25

 It's Friday, TGIF!  We have been having some very warm weather already, 80s and 90s even a couple of times.  Too warm already, summer could be bad.  Anyway, due to the warm weather, things are blooming early including this Magnolia.  I love Magnolias but they usually get frozen out in our area, they will start to open and then it will freeze.  This year that didn't happen which was nice.  I asked the owner of this particular bush if I could photograph it and he graciously let me and told me it had looked even better a couple of days before.  😊  I chose this image for today because of the beautiful bokeh in it because Friday's Are Bokehlicious!