Zinnia petals unfurl in little scrolls

[concretekiss]

Peonies burst open like crumbled balls of paper


Rescued barn owls live in the Austin Nature and Science Center like a sweet elderly couple


One could lose herself in the black, mirrored and abysmal eyes of a barred owl


There is a quiet, dry creek bed behind the raptor exhibit,
with maidenhair fern along a vacant water line


Calcite is found in many stalactites, stalagmites, and marine animal shells


Turtle spines are like ship hulls


My city within a park


Mission impossible


Sometimes we get siamese gerbera daisies at the shop, which no one likes but me


Big Mama - Daigremontiana, grows babies on the edges of her leaves, which
parachute down into the soil nearby and take root


A copious tulip


Bordered Patch, Chlosyne lacinia, loves coreopsis flowers.


Spatz, the resident bum at my work, loves napping all day in the beaded animal display

Comments

[asphalteden.livejournal.com]

OH MY GOD BARN OWLS

You know my mom actually rehabilitates raptors at a local clinic as a volunteer now that she's retired. If you guys ever come to visit, I'll take you there. My family's been a big benefactor over the years, so I could probably arrange a special "behind the scenes" tour.

[flightviolation.livejournal.com]

you have no IDEA HOW STOKED I WOULD BE TO DO SUCH A THING.
i never met a bird of prey i did not love. condors and vultures even.

the beads are his little friends

[vogdoid.livejournal.com]

gaaaaa so many adorable things! I OMGed out loud at the owls too

they have adventures together at night when the shop is closed

[flightviolation.livejournal.com]

i am in love with the place. i didn't realize it was so closeby. there are great horned owls, an screech owls too! they will stare you right down.

Re: they have adventures together at night when the shop is closed

[vogdoid.livejournal.com]

there is a raptor rescue center right near where I grew up. They had all kinds of amazing birds. I went out to watch the releases sometimes.

that turtle spine is kind of haunting. All of these things make me wonder about why nature is so amazing.

Re: they have adventures together at night when the shop is closed

[flightviolation.livejournal.com]

how cool to watch them be released. i've never seen
i took the kids to a preservation society demonstration once and was obsessed from then on. the trainer did all these amazing tricks and played with them. a bay wing hawk flew in low over the crowd and his tail feathers brushed my forehead!

i am often wondering why nature is so amazing, and feeling grateful i have the senses to appreciate it.

[mr-quackenbush.livejournal.com]

you are so beautiful. i'm glad yr my friend. you make my world more magical.

[flightviolation.livejournal.com]

thank you, mr. i am happy to know and share with you!

[twitchywrote.livejournal.com]

Blondie.

And barn/barred owls. What good times.

[flightviolation.livejournal.com]

also don't forget i have a david bowie magnet!

[browniegirl322.livejournal.com]

ak! where can i get one!?!

[chocolatebark.livejournal.com]

We should all be so lucky so as to have the spines of turtles

[flightviolation.livejournal.com]

ah, but what doesn't bend...

[chocolatebark.livejournal.com]

As long as there's some Electric Boogalooing in there, I'm okay with breakin'.

[simpletwice.livejournal.com]

The siamese daisy looks like an angry cartoon mouth. Grrr. Angry flowers!

[flightviolation.livejournal.com]

ha! i thought it looked like goggle eyes, and so i made a flower face out of it. uh, it was a slow day.

[stefan11.livejournal.com]

bravo!

Ideally, if I wrote a book it would have pictures, too.

[flightviolation.livejournal.com]

thanky!

you should write a book! at least to put your lovely pictures in. :)

[stefan11.livejournal.com]

I am writing a book.

A working title --
"Waking the Dogs:
or how I found balance
and lost 100 pounds on the way"

[flightviolation.livejournal.com]

i like waking the dogs. it's intriguing.
one day i will think about writing a book. i am painting more lately b/c i want an exhibition one day. my to do list is for 3 lifetimes.

[crashing-buses.livejournal.com]

the beaded animals probably act like some kind of awesome back scratcher?

[flightviolation.livejournal.com]

i think he also enjoys laying around sparkly things because he thinks he's some kind of king.

[tericol.livejournal.com]

Turtle spines, siamese gerber daisies and big mama. What a gorgeous picture post!

[flightviolation.livejournal.com]

thank you hot mama.

[clsisold.livejournal.com]

These photos are beautiful.

When I was a young child (as opposed to the old one I am now) I used to wish to be so small that I could live inside a flower, play all day in the maze of petals. There were times when I'd fall asleep thinking that this surely would be the night it happened but I'd wake the next morning full-size. Though this seems to have carried over into adulthood I don't think it's for the same reasons I wish I'd awake somewhat smaller.

mmm like thumbelina

[flightviolation.livejournal.com]

[penguingod.livejournal.com]

What Jason said.

[flightviolation.livejournal.com]

you are too kind. <3

[phoenixsinking.livejournal.com]

The peony looks like something bloodstained and feminine. I want to wrap myself in it like a cocoon.


I miss you.

[flightviolation.livejournal.com]

there are so many kinds, but this one has a red center like a heart. it smells divine as well.

miss you back, beautiful.

owls

[disorganization.livejournal.com]

OWLS

http://hungoverowls.tumblr.com/

Re: owls

[flightviolation.livejournal.com]

HA! these are great! i have looked all those ways!

subtitle: How The Macro Setting on My Camera Was So Awesome You Guys

[theazureman.livejournal.com]

I enjoy your clever captions as much as I do your photographs as much as I do their subjects. So there.

Also, The turtle spine reminds me of what would happen if you laid on a pew on shot the roof of a cathedral.

Also also, siamese gerberas look like colorful angry tiki gods.


Go Angry Tiki Gods!!

the majority of life on earth is smaller than a fingertip

[flightviolation.livejournal.com]

aaah, you are so right. but the tiki god mouth looks less angry and more like a wince to me, like he found a rock in his salad.

i love the idea of turtles as little traveling cathedrals.

[browniegirl322.livejournal.com]

how does no one like the daisies? They are so purty!

is the Daigremontiana a succulent?



and also, i love turtles.

[flightviolation.livejournal.com]

yes, daigremontia is a succulent. related to kalanchoe that we all know n luv!

there is one other girl who likes the mutated daisies. the rest are like ewwwwww. go figure.

[browniegirl322.livejournal.com]

they're nuts, that daisy is AWESOME

i have actually never seen a kalanchoe.
it reminded me of a jade plants :)

One could loose herself in those eyes

[crooksandlucy.livejournal.com]

I learned when I was very young that a turtle's spine is fused to its carapace. The first time I saw a cartoon turtle remove its shell for bed I. lost. my. mind.

wolves in tuxedos

[flightviolation.livejournal.com]

ha! i can imagine how confounding to your toddler brain. and then when they wear glasses stereotypically like turtles are natural nerds?

one of my earliest mind blowing moments was seeing the b/w king kong, and the confused feeling of fear and sympathy all at once.

Why would you acquire a giant gorilla and chain him up? Why not ride him around and scare girls?

[crooksandlucy.livejournal.com]

Yeah, what was that about? Are literary folk supposed to be just a bunch of shy-shells? Why, then, not softcover snails or novel nautili? Were they only trying to push reading on the especially reclusive? 'Cause they certainly didn't have to.

i would scare teachers but to each his own!

[flightviolation.livejournal.com]

the cephalopod is more calculated and hidey, but then lots of animals hide from us. hmm, and why do spectacles indicate literary interest?! i remember my mother complaining my nose was always in a book. once she grounded me frm fiction!

Banned from books---NO WAY.

[crooksandlucy.livejournal.com]

I recall a bookmark with an octopus page-turning through eight different books*. The odds that he could read that many at once are as low as those that suggest he would be finishing the page in all eight simultaneously.
LAUGHABLY LOW.

Also, I hope your kids are in constant danger of novelanches.

*It didn't say, but should have said, "Books are Tentacool!" or "Reading is Octopodiforme(ē)!"

or "don't be a sucker, read some damn books"

[flightviolation.livejournal.com]

a chameleon could read at least two books at once i bet!

i just realized that owls are considered very smart yet have badass peepers. all this science i don't understand.