Bleah! Snow!

Chipmunks!

This morning I spied my little resident chipmunk for the first time this year. At least I think it’s the same chipmunk I had so much fun watching last summer as he stuffed his cheeks full of the sunflower seeds the birds unwittingly tossed down to him from the birdfeeder. As chipmunks tend to be solitary creatures, except during mating season, it’s a fair assumption. Today he was perched on top of a miniature adirondack chair overturned in my garden, probably wondering what all that white stuff was on the ground. Poor guy. He probably didn’t expect to find snow and below normal temperatures when he finally emerged from his winter home. Time to put that Hawaiian shirt away and go back to sleep.

Chipmunks are actually ground-dwelling squirrels. They spend a good deal of their life in underground burrows. The Donald Trumps of chipmunkville can have quite extensive burrows with a storage chamber for the food gathered all summer, a sleeping room, a dump for those sunflower seed shells, and a latrine. Some even have several concealed chambers. 

Unlike their tree dwelling cousins who do not hibernate, chipmunks can drop their body temperature to within a few degrees of the burrow to conserve energy. While we tend to associate hibernation with bears, chipmunks do not have the ability to store fat the way a bear does. A bear can go all winter without eating, but a chipmunk will raise its body temperature every few days, raid the pantry, use the latrine and then go back to sleep.

Thankfully, chipmunks are plentiful and only one species, the Palmer’s chipmunk which lives in a very small area of Nevada, is on the endangered species list. However, scientists have found that due to our changing climate, chipmunks living in areas where temperatures are getting warmer are less likely to hibernate during the coldest months. While chipmunks that hibernate enjoy a healthy survival rate of 87%, those that choose to remain active during the winter are almost certain to die before spring. This discover doesn't bode well for other hibernating species living in these warming climates.

Kitchen Cluttered

It's snowing in Minnesota, but I've no reason to complain considering how the East Coast is getting buried in that cold white stuff. But being stuck inside the house always seems to be a good time to bake something. I turned to my favorite food blogs for a new recipe to try and was once more struck by the beautiful photos.There's nothing like a beautiful photograph to sell me on a recipe. But really, is anyone's kitchen that neat and organized? They all look like they came from a BHG photo shoot. This is what my counter looks like before I start baking, at the best of times:

This is what it looks like when I'm baking.

Martha Stewart, I'm not.

Stalking Butterflies

The camera is fresh out of the box and I feel as if I have never held a camera in my hand before. It's familiar and yet very different. So I went outside to explore the milkweed, find some caterpillars and take some pictures. What I found instead was a small yellow/orange/brown butterfly that flittered from dandelion to dandelion.  I think it's a silver crescent, but I could be wrong on that. Still, I'm happy with the photos. And the extra 12 megapixels really makes a difference.  Although the neighbors probably thought I was crazy if they saw me jumping around the yard and crawling on the grass.

I still have a long way to go, but it's a good start.

It's the Red One!

I did.  I bought it. And I absolutely love it.  It fits my camera and my 70-300mm lens, with room for another plus all the other junk I keep in my regular purse.

So now I have another decision:  new camera or new lens?  And I have to decide by Saturday because that's when the $100 rebate on the camera ends.  Or maybe there's a rebate on the lens....

Decisions, Decisions

If I could make one New Year's resolution, it would be to learn how to make a quick decision.  I know.  Quick decisions usually get most people into trouble.  For me, it's the opposite.  Indecision is the bane of my existence. I have to weigh each decision. Look at the pros and cons.  Which is usually a good thing.  But I'm also a procrastinator -- yeah, New Year's resolution #2: Stop Procrastinating.

My latest roller coaster ride is over the purchase of a new camera bag. A couple of years ago I thought it would be really great to have a camera bag that didn't look like a camera bag.  Why couldn't a camera bag look like a purse?  Seems I wasn't the only woman out there with that thought and found several websites where enterprising women had designed gorgeous, functional bags at price tags that were way out of my league.  So I settled for a inexpensive Lowepro sling bag, an easy decision as I found it for cheap on eBay.  Getting a good deal often succeeds in breaking the ugly cycle of indecision for me.  It gets me a lot of stuff I could have lived without, but at least I didn't pay full price.

Then one day on a casual visit to National Camera my eyes landed on a Kelly Moore bag.  Now, for a girl who can use the same purse day in and day out for several years, it's saying a lot that I noticed these bags. Maybe it was the fake croc skin that drew me, but I immediately went home and turned to the internet. I knew I had found my bag -- or at least the maker of my bags. Now I had to decide which one of the many styles she offers was the right bag for me. The 2-Sues bag had my name written all over it. But I was in no hurry. This was a want, not a need.  

Another visit to National Camera for a new tripod (another struggle with indecisiveness) and they have more Kelly Moore bags. I immediately fall in love with the B-hobo bag.  I want one.  I have to have one.  And I have to have it by next Friday. But which color? There are at least 8 colors shown on line.  The store only has three of them: a black (I have way too much black), mustard (yuk) and red (will red go with any of my purple outfits?).  I think I want a teal.   So we drive to another store and they have one in teal.  Only it's the same color teal of my computer screen.  Not sure.  Maybe I should go with the red?  The next day I drive to another camera store which my GPS assures me is sitting in the middle of an intersection.  After driving around for thirty minutes I call, and find they're closed for the holidays.

I get advice. I stare at pictures. I really want hot pink, but that would have to be ordered off the internet and to get it by Friday I'd have to pay an extra $20 and......see what I mean?  If I had been able to make the decision when I first found these beautiful bags, I'd have exactly what I wanted and wouldn't be running around at the last minute trying to find what I wanted, knowing I'm going to have to settle in the end or just give it up. And this is not an isolated incident. This is how my brain works. I can hear my friends laughing; they've seen me in action.

So, New Years Resolution #1.  Learn to make a quick decision.

Maybe I'll just get the black one.

A Day at Como Park

I attended my first photography meet-up today.  It was held at the Como Park Conservatory bright and early, allowing us an opportunity to use our tripods and pose for photos.  The big draw was the Holiday Flower Show - an area filled with poinsettias. Those photos I won't share.  I've never been a fan of the big red blooms and I think my photos show it.  In fact, looking at all the photos I took (245 of them), I think its evident that what I really enjoy is macro photography.  So right now I'm regretting the 75-300 mm lens I just bought and am wishing I had gone for a macro lens instead.

I loved the big fans and the patterns that they make.  I took a lot of photos of them and then had some fun seeing what they looked like in black and white.

I like the patterns and the way the light shines through them.  

Best of all is just pretending there's no snow on the ground and that it really is summer.  It's a beautiful building and a great place to go in the summer.

Photography Bug

I have another bug.  Photography. While I come from the old school of film cameras that only advanced the film when you moved a lever with your thumb, I've really wholeheartedly accepted digital photography.  It wasn't an easy transition.  I still clung to the view that nothing compared to Kodachrome 64. But then I started exploring other photographer's websites and attending our local nature photography meetings. The colors were so vibrant that they seemed surreal.

Those vivid colors had me questioning my camera equipment. Should I get a new lens? A new camera? Did I need more megapixels?  Of course, all of that might help, but I'm discovering that post-production has a lot to do with it, too.  I've been having fun with a free trial of Adobe Lightroom and here are my results.

I was in Duluth in October and forgot to change the white balance on my camera.  This is what I got:

Then I played around with Adobe Lightroom and this is what I got:

Imagine what I could do if I really knew how to use the program.

More Than Butterflies

I'm not ready for winter. So, I spend my time looking back at the photos I took over those warm summer months. While you might not realize it from my blogs, there were more than butterflies in my garden.  I also found these beautiful beetles I'd never seen before. They're milkweed beetles.  And each one seems to have a different pattern on its back.

Then there were the grasshoppers.

What big teeth you have, my dear.

And the green tomatoes.  It was the first year I'd ever tried growing tomatoes and not all of them turned red. So there was another first -- green fried tomatoes.

Watch a Monarch Caterpillar's Heart Beat

This is really an amazing video.  You can see the pulsing heart beat of the caterpillar.  I'm having trouble getting my links to show up, but if you hover your cursor next to the colon, you should find it: A Monarch's Heartbeat.

Meanwhile, I only have one caterpillar in the chrysalis stage right now.  When this little guy emerges he or she will fly off, mate and produce the eggs of the generation destined to migrate all the way to Mexico or California for the winter.

A monarch lives 6-8 weeks, from egg to butterfly.  Each year there are four generations of monarchs. The migrating butterflies head north and lay their eggs in March/April, giving life to that year's 1st generation.  When they become butterflies, they will begin the cycle again in May and June for the second generation.  The third generation is born in July and August and the fourth in September/October. This last generation is unique.  They do not die.  Instead, they migrate south to Mexico and California, where they will hibernate until February or March and they start their long flight back north where the cycle will begin again.

The flowering milkweed smells like honesuckle

But to continue this miraculous cycle, monarchs need milkweed.  It is the only plant they lay their eggs on and the only plant the growing caterpillars feed on.  Without it, they cannot exist.  Unfortunately, the fields and pastures where these plants once flourished have been uprooted by shopping malls and houses.  So, I urge you to set aside a small corner in your garden and plant some milkweed.  Don't like to garden?  Plant some anyway. It will grow in spite of you.  And next summer you can enjoy watching this cycle of life play out in your own backyard. It's worth it.

It's A Boy!

Getting up to work out at 5:30 in the a.m. more often than not ends up with me hitting the snooze button on the alarm a couple of times.  Then I remembered there was a butterfly about to birth.  Nothing like the right motivation.

My timing was perfect.  Here is the sequence of events.

You can barely see it, but if you look at the lower left wing, you can see a spot in the vein. This indicates it's a male.

Monarch Butterflies

Monarch Butterflies, a set on Flickr.

Photostream of the butterlies