While I was waiting for this to upload and getting into the shower I thought I heard some sounds and ignored it. Few minutes later I’m out and drying off and hear more
Sounds and so I throw on some shorts and luckily it was my work pair with the belt still in because when I open up my back door there are two guys trying to sawzall off my catalytic converter from my old truck and they already had my kayak and was carrying it towards a truck. I just grabbed my pitchfork and stood by their heads , they were both under the truck on their backs and told them climb out now and leave or I’ll jab you. Dude apologized and left. Before then though I took a picture of their tag and vehicle vin number and pointed out my cameras to them. He asked me to not call the cops because he promised his three kids they would go kayaking on Saturday and that’s why he was taking the other one so his wife could go with them as well.
Huge puffball, which was unfortunately already broken when I found it. You can see the size compared to my shoe, though. It is not as big as @SkovandOfMitaze found, though. I think it had been the size of a volleyball.
Yesterday morning I was invited to dig up some huge African bulbs from the garden of a friend since she had sold her small farm to a developer and is moving to Oregon. She used to teach plant propagation at a local junior college as well as raise plants for the nursery trade. I felt selfish taking more than two but she was keen that they go to good homes and everyone I asked was happy to get one.
These Brunsvigia josephinae bulbs which can take 15 years from seed to bloom are among largest to be found. (There probably are larger bulbs but I don’t know of any.) Suffice to say these are of a size to bloom already and many have. They will likely need a couple seasons to settle in but I will try to remember to post a photo when they bloom.
I’ve read that the globe of flowers can span a meter, though I’ve never seen one that big. Apparently in South Africa they bloom during their long dry summer so that the seeds can mature before the rains come. That makes our coastal California climate a pretty good match. In nature the flowering heads would break off in high winds and roll across the plains scattering the seed. Here are couple of photos from flickr from people like myself who don’t put any restrictions one their photos use.
Detail of a bloom.
Wow, Liam that is a magnificent sky! Reminds me so much of visiting Cornwall in 2008. Hope to be able to return some day.
Tough to get a good pic, but neat to seethe moon with Verus to the right and Jupiter to the left with Saturn between Jupiter and the moon
Not nearly as nice as Phil’s, but a horse in the woods across from our house at sunrise, and the moon over the sun rise with a storm cloud looming over a dairy farm on the way into work
It is that time of year when all the insects and spiders are starting to vanish from the UK for the winter, so I turn my attention to mushrooms. Here are a couple of pictures from recent outings.
First up Amanita muscaria (Fly Agaric):
And now, Laccaria amethystina (Amethyst Deceiver), which despite its rather ominous name is actually edible apparently.
Paging @SkovandOfMitaze
Oooh, thanks for sharing… I don’t think I’ve seen fly agaric in my part of the county, but that’s totally what I picture when I think of fairy stories and British folklore in general. 
Absolutely! It is like the mushroom, right? Always expect to find fairies hiding under it… or maybe a smurf! 
It’s similar here. Though it’s not really until January that you’ll basically not see any more insects or spiders. At least not without breaking by apart old logs which I typically reserve for doing later on in mid spring.
Mushrooms are also going to start getting more common here as well.
If you like trees though it’s a good time to start studying the bark , form , buds and leaf cuts on them. In America it’s also a good time to find slumbering snakes that curl up in log hollows and so on. Many of the snakes are shedding right now too. You may also be able to find spider exoskeletons.
It is but rather than insects I’d like to see a jolly hedgehog sitting on it. I’ve always thought buying a bag of baby hedgehogs instead of ladybugs or mantids would be so much fun.
The Pleiades. One of my favorite. Always thought it looked like a lollipop even as a kid.
Maybe a Luna moth. Not sure what all green species we have.
Same general location. Various stages of sunset on the Gulf of Mexico. The sand dunes are lovely during this time of the year.
A fairly decent size snake skin. Most likely a black racer.
The incredible and beautiful, at least to me, “winged bark” of the sweet gum tree.
Slender glass lizard. About 18 inches long. Hard bite but not venomous.
Just emerging fruiting head of some kind of mushroom. I’m not sure what kind. Felt like marshmallows. I’m hoping it’s fruited by now or close to it and still there for me to check for.
Was trying to get it to crawl on to my hand. It was not having it. It’s little feet could tell this is not what I was walking on lol.
All of these was from within the last week.
Snow this morning. It was a bit slippery to run with the dog. However, we made it.
Hail yesterday at 5 am. I saved some in a cup in the freezer to show the kids. I prefer the warmth, but seasons are fun, too.
Then you had super good eyesight! To me it always looked like God had spilled some stars there.
Even divine accidents are always perfect?
That’s like using ‘luck’ in the strictly theological sense of thd word.
Now it looks like a blur of light that disappears when I look directly at it.