Taken at the edge of a nearby park where I've seen deer before. The digital-zoom grain in the image shows I wasn't very close to them, but seconds later, they disappeared into the trees.
Before I forget...
Begun in 2020 as Pandemic Quarantine Diary, and now it's whatever strikes my fancy.
Sunday, August 16, 2026
A distant encounter
Thursday, August 6, 2026
Field report
From my walking app: "1.22 mi walk / Thursday, August 6 at 9:51 a.m.
"Getting out in the morning instead of evening due to coming heat and humidity. Three rabbits, two goldfinches, several barn swallows, and a few chicory flowers along the road in the nearby park. Possibly a killdeer cry from a stony area in the park.
"A house along the way has a for-sale sign in its front yard. The yard also has little yellow flowers all over it. I'm a fan of wildflowers, so I like the way it looks. It's unique in the development. I do wonder, considering the elevated price tag, how a potential buyer might view a house with a front yard full of what they consider to be weeds. Considered taking a picture, but decided that standing in front of someone's house taking pictures might be seen as suspicious, even if it is for sale.
"A couple of houses down, a butterfly bush more than a foot tall has sprouted from a crack along the curb. Pretty purple flowers, though."
Wednesday, August 5, 2026
Looking back
Thursday, July 16, 2026
In the back yard this afternoon
Sunday, July 12, 2026
A new volunteer
Here's a recent addition to our back yard. Google Lens says this is Moth Mullein (Verbascum blattaria), an introduced biennial weed. The Missoula County Department of Ecology and Extension has it on their Noxious Weed Watch List, which doesn't surprise me in the least.
The same, only different
It's another recent blossom of the same kind of flower shown in the previous post, except this time the image was taken late in the afternoon, and with a camera instead of a phone. Definite improvement.
Saturday, July 4, 2026
Another newcomer, and another
In early spring this year, I picked up a packet of flower seeds and planted them in our back yard. Most of the flowers that have come up are cornflower, although a few other types have shown up as well. This one just appeared yesterday, and the name Google identified it by is listed on the seed packet.
Much the same with this one, which I photographed on Monday. Google says it's Clarkia amoena, and Clarkia amoena appears on the seed packet. Maybe more of them will appear later, but for now we've only seen one of each.