No lengthy travels for this photo. This was taken at the end of our driveway in Woodinville. The vibrant colors that the local trees have in the fall are really lovely. While our time in Washington is coming to an end, I will have great memories of the rich red foliage to take with me on our next journey.
By the time this hits the blog, it will be the best part of year since I took these shots. We have a variety of plants in the backyard at home and March was the time when blossoms started to make their appearance. Our plum tree had some blossoms, but the other plants also had some cute little flowers too. I dragged out the macro lens to get some images of them. Get up close with these and you can’t easily tell just how big (or small) they actually are.
Having struggled to keep rabbits out of the backyard to help the grass grow without weeds (and lost that battle), things took a far worse turn this year. Moles moved in and they managed to destroy things far more effectively than any weed could manage. I tried pushing down the ground where they had been but they soon came back and made things worse. One afternoon, I had barely finished treading down the ground when I saw it moving again. I decided to film the motion of this mole under the lawn since it had clearly won the war.
The run up to Christmas brings with it the annual Woodinville Cruisers Car Club Christmas Light Parade in our town. This might be an annual event but it isn’t something we had been to before. The evening was looking dry so we decided to pay it a visit. We didn’t have any idea what to expect but, as we drove down towards the town center, one of the cars for the parade was ahead of us. It wasn’t hard to know where it was going given how many lights were on the outside of the car. (We did spot it in the parade later.)
We went in plenty of time because we didn’t know how crowded it was going to be. This proved to be unnecessarily cautious as the town was still pretty quiet when we arrived – a Sunday night is not hopping in Woodinville – particularly when there is a Seahawks game on TV. We killed a bit of time but as it got close to the 6pm start time for the parade, plenty of people started to show up and, once the cars started rolling, lots of spectators were out.
A firetruck from the local fire department started things off. Then the cars came rolling through. We had no idea how many there would be so we were curious as to whether we would soon be back at home. We needn’t have worried. There were loads of vehicles coming through. Some were vintage vehicles that were interesting in their own rights. Others were modern cars but adorned with tons of lights. Some looked like they had barely bothered to prepare! I was surprised how willing some of the owners were to tape a ton of lights to their paintwork!
I would say that the parade took about half an hour to roll through. There was plenty of pausing as things backed up but there were definitely a ton of different vehicles. Local businesses also took part with their trucks decorated or, in the case of the local balloon pleasure flight business, they had a basket on a trailer with the burners providing a blast of heat and light on a regular basis. A local Facebook group had someone questioning whether there was a fire downtown!
The whole thing was a fun time and we were really pleased to have made the trip out. It far exceeded what we had anticipated and everyone seemed to be having a good time – particularly the kids grabbing the candy thrown from a bunch of the vehicles. There didn’t seem to be any left where we were. Thanks to everyone that took part for making it such an enjoyable event and congratulations to the organizers.
The rabbits in our back yard are a regular thing during the summer when the grass must be tasty. We’ve had plenty of smaller ones show up and they seem to have less of a fear of us for some reason. Not sure that is a healthy approach for a small rabbit, but I was able to get quite close with the camera to some of them. It did involve keeping myself out of sight or at least a little away with no sudden movements but here are some of the small buns we had visiting.
Retro styling combined with modern tech seems to be a big deal these days. The old Land Rover Defender series has been around forever in various forms but recently got a total makeover to a new look. I guess some people don’t want a knew look and the Ineos Grenadier has been created with a look that can best be described as a copy while with a whole bunch of modern tech. It seems like the perfect vehicle for someone with an excess of cash.
I have seen a few around our area recently so I guess the tech types must like them. One was parked up near a favorite haunt of ours and I couldn’t resist getting a shot of it as I walked back to my car. I hope they find it is worth it. Will it be tested off road???
I have written in previous posts about how skittish the local flicker population can be. These woodpeckers are interesting looking birds but hard to get shots of because they fly off whenever they see you. Nancy and I were sitting on our deck when we saw some movement under the eaves of the house behind us. At first, we couldn’t work out what it was. Then we realized it was a flicker. It was moving around under the eaves looking for bugs
A little while later it popped out and then started to move along the rooftop poking under the joints to see what bugs might be there. A progressive examination of the roof followed and then, once it had checked out all that seemed of use there, it moved to the next house to repeat the process. Strangely, it never seemed bothered by my presence watching it. Maybe the food was just so good, it was worth the risk of me being around. Video tells the story better than stills se take a look at some footage I shot below.
With the arrival of fall, we get rain showing up here in the Pacific Northwest. However, we can also get some sun breaking through at the end of the day – a bit of a feature of Seattle weather. When you combine rain and sun, it’s time for a rainbow. Twice in recent weeks, I looked outside the house late in the afternoon and saw impressive rainbows. The first time, I just grabbed some shots with my phone and stitched them together afterwards. The second time, I grabbed the main camera and took some better shots although the rainbow might not be quite so impressive.
There is something really cool about a rainbow. I may have seen loads of them over the years but they are still a little exciting!
Another post that will creep out a bunch of my family. Look away now if you don’t like spiders! I was spending more time in the garden trying to get good shot so the bees that were all over our flowers. I saw something small move on one of the plants and it turned out to be a tiny spider. I am not sure whether it was trying to catch the pollinators that were coming to the flowers or it was doing something different. Fortunately, the autofocus seemed to do a really good job of identifying the spider and focusing on it. Since eyes are the things that the autofocus hunts for, it had plenty to work with. The little creature is probably not the most endearing thing around but it is pretty interesting.
In my quest for more bee photographs, I was set up in our back garden by some plants that were proving to be very popular with the bees. My hope had been to get different types of bee to compare their colors but I was actually getting mainly the same type. Still, it was a chance to get more images of these amazing little insects. As I was going through the images afterwards, I was aiming to weed out the ones that weren’t in focus or were focused on the wrong thing.
As I was working through them, I came to some images where the head of the bee was not so sharp but the feet were very clear. I had imagined that bee feet were just a single extension of the leg but apparently that isn’t the case. They seem to be more of a claw type of foot. I guess this makes grabbing on to things a lot easier. I had no idea their feet were this complex. Hope you find it interesting too.