These are swallow babies in a nest located under the roof of the front porch at the Caspar Community Center taken during CasparFest in August of 2011. I had watched them being fed by the parents for several weeks before this shot. During the weekend of CasparFest I observed what seemed like odd behavior of the parent birds. They would fly near the nest like they were bringing food and the babies would perk up noisily with mouths stretched wide but the parent would veer off after coming very close. The babies would reach out and it looked as if they were close to falling out of the nest. Someone standing nearby said that it might be a strategy by the parents trying to get the babies to leave the nest. That seemd to be true and it seemed to succeed as they were gone from the nest a couple of days later.

 We took a nice walk at the ocean today, along the haul road north of Ft. Bragg and down to the water for a while. These are two local inhabitants there, posing for portraits. We didn't see them today but whales have been active just off the coast here in recent days.

I was teaching a workshop at the Mendocino Art Center and was on lunch break, it was late spring and I was walking around town taking pictures of flowers and other things. I was walking down Lansing St., there were tourists and locals all around on the streets and suddenly here was this little guy, sticking his head out of the rosemary plant by the sidewalk. A number of people had just walked by him when my eyes spotted him. He stayed still for several minutes while I shot a dozen pictures or so and then turned and slithered back into the foliage and under the building that was adjacent. It felt like a visual gift from the universe at the time.

The never ending variety of life forms that I share the earth with never ceases to fascinate me. The Monterey Aquarium stirs this fascination with vigor. The tentacles on this little creature were swaying rhythmically as I observed it. Click on the picture to see a larger image.

This is an image I captured a couple of years ago of my friend Kevin Milligan as he was painting a scene in downtown Mendocino. He has a gallery in Danville, California now but did a book of Mendocino scenes a few years ago. He also teaches
plein air painting workshops at the Mendocino Art Center.
His webpage is
http://kevinmilligangallery.com/

I love taking pictures of flowers and especially roses in all their great variety of color, mood and form. This one was in an arrangement in my bathroom with other plant leaves from my yard and the rose was hanging downward but the overall composition really attracted me.

Walking in my yard today I noticed a new colony of mushrooms making a home on a stump. This image features only about 1/4 of the colony. As I walk around the neighborhood here I see new mushrooms just about every day. Below is a fawn that was near the mushrooms. It and its mother have been sleeping in the yard for the last few days.
I used to try and chase deer away for they eat many things in the yard that I wish they wouldn't. An exercise in futility however. I'm trying to plant more things that they rarely eat, rosemary, lavendar, comphrey, some flowers ornamental grasses etc. Vegetables are behind a fence. It's more relaxing for me not to chase them and they are becoming fairly tame.
They amble away softly when I approach instead of racing madly through the brush and trees of the forest.