#rattlesnake mountain

[sunnycowleaf]

I'm still getting the hang of drawing horses after so long of not drawing horses at all because...I dunno why really. But meet Bear, the new Burro of the herd!

[kelpiemomma]

Baby Roo ref!! 3 year old Aruna still has plenty of growing and learning to do! He’ll fill out through the chest and barrel as he gets older, but his back will always be fairly short causing him to have a tendency to clip his front hooves.

Silver Amber Champagne Dun Ee Aa nD nZ nCh

[vandaliatraveler]

Part 1: Early Summer Wildflower Palooza, Cranberry Glade. It's orchid week at Cranberry Glades! Ok - the event may not be quite as exciting as Shark Week on Discovery, but plant nerds such as me experience something approaching tingly nipples at the prospect of getting up close and personal with grass pinks and snakemouths. A sampling of the many orchids now in bloom . . .

From top: greater purple fringed orchid (Platanthera grandiflora), a tall, leafy-stemmed beauty with clustered, intricately-fringed lavender flowers; downy rattlesnake plantain (Goodyera pubescens), a common terrestrial orchid of eastern woods with a striking, reticulated pattern in its leaves (this one is getting ready to bloom); the flamboyantly-beautiful tuberous grass pink (Calopogon tuberosus var. tuberosus), whose nectarless flowers deceptively imitate the magenta color of those of other bog plants, such as meadow phlox (following post), to draw pollinators; a ragged fringed orchid (Platanthera lacera), also known as green fringed orchid, whose fragile, frilly green-white flowers are hard to spot in the bog underbrush; the dainty rose pogonia (Pogonia ophioglossoides), also known as snakemouth orchid, due the tooth-like protuberances on its lower lip (note the sneaky goldenrod crab spider (Misumena vatia) hiding in the flower in the second photo, waiting to pounce on an unsuspecting bee, the orchid's primary pollinator); and northern tubercled orchid (Platanthera flava), another orchid with green-white flowers that can be difficult to spot in the bog underbrush.

[vulpinecircuitry]

too pretty to be digging up bones

[lavender-appalachia]

[yellingart]

This drawing brings me so much peace and calm.

There's so much that traveling together can teach you about your peers. When reaching the top of a small hill, they discovered a green field filled to the brim with poppies and Nina and Brie stopped to look at them.

Simon also stopped, to observe the mares, the shine in their eyes was really something else. As if they never had seen something more beautiful.

Sometimes it was the smaller things, the trip continued without a word, after that small interference, but he would remember that.

[wolverinepng]

4/13/24

[ghostoffuturespast]

11 August 2023 - Friday Field Notes

Saw not one, but two prairie rattlesnakes this week. Despite having the little alarm rattle on the tail, a lot of times the prairie rattlesnake will freeze and hope you just pass on by without noticing them.

Found this Swallowtail Butterfly in the breezeway of my apartment. Something took a bite out of the wings, my guess would be the Barn Swallows that are also nesting in the breezeway. Felt kind of bad for it, but butterflies are also notoriously hard to photograph. Managed to capture the bugger and stick it on my balcony so it could fly off.

And the Barn Swallows hatched! Look at the little frog face babies! Second batch of nestlings in the ice cream tub. Neapolitan flavor.

These Common Checkered Skippers were getting it on when I was trying to set up a game camera. Chain kink, hope they had a safe word.

And this lovely Rocky Mountain Bee Plant. A lot of people say it's kind of smelly, but I didn't notice anything. Very pretty and attracts all sorts of pollinators.

[keymintt]

tongues ii

[quotes-for-the-soul]

Once again, the stars mocked him. Out here you were fully aware of the speckness of your existence in the universe, the majesty of eternal creation compared with the swift and insignificant transit of one such as yourself. Nothing in your life made any difference in the countenance of the heavens bearing down on you, no more than the mountains and the cows and the rattlesnakes.

Mr. Texas by Lawrence Wright

[intriga-hounds]

very different wildlife in my new town than what i’m used to. where i lived most of my life, the wildlife could Fuck You Up or fuck your dogs up, so most wildlife 101 was around how to prevent or survive attacks. now i’m in a city where everything is prey and i don’t know anything about those animals, including common things like squirrels.

[kelpiemomma]

now that art fight is over i’m gonna focus on writing and some rps on dA, one of which i designed a pon for today! Hopefully his design is acceptable. I decided to do a headshot for him (probably prematurely lmao) as a lil practice. Here’s an Aruna!

[truetotradition]

Serpent sheath

[vandaliatraveler]

Orchid Collection from Cranberry Glades.  From May through September, the high elevation sphagnum bogs and spruce-northern hardwood forests of the Allegheny Mountains produce a steady stream of terrestrial orchids. Prime time orchid season around Cranberry Glades is mid-June through early July, when the showiest orchids hit their peak.  As a note, many of these orchids are wetlands-dependent and are endangered or threatened throughout much of their range due to habitat loss.

From top: grass pink (Calopogon tuberosus), unusual among orchids in that its lip is at the top of the flower, making it appear upside down; rose pogonia (Pogonia ophioglossoides), also known as snakemouth orchid due to its elaborate lower lip with pink and yellow-tinged teeth; downy rattlesnake plantain (Goodyera pubescens), a shade-tolerant woodland orchid that was just beginning to send up its flowering stalks; Round-leaved rein orchid (Platanthera orbiculata), or dinner-plate orchid, another terrestrial woodland orchid; large purple-fringed orchid (Platanthera grandiflora), or greater purple-fringed bog orchid, a tall, showy wetlands lover with a special fondness for damp seeps that get full or dappled sunlight; northern tubercled bog orchid (Platanthera flava), or pale green orchid, whose tiny flowers are distinguished by conspicuous bumps (tubercles) on their lower lips; and lily-leaved twayblade (Liparis liliifolia), a very unusual orchid whose flowers mimic the color of carrion to lure flies, which pollinate them.