Epic Wednesday post part 2: going to the dogs

If you haven't yet checked out part 1, you can do so by clicking here.

This second part is all about the adorable, starting with a shot of Cathi's dog Sam:



Esa was back for another visit:



Sam explaining to Esa how things work around the office:



And some Kaylee action shots for you...

As you can see, she's very, VERY focused on the cookie in Mom's hand:



5... 4... 3... 2... 1...



LIFTOFF:



Nothing like a good old-fashioned stretch 'n yawn:







In this last one, I caught Kaylee just as she'd finished scratching her shoulder with her hind leg—I love her expression:



And now, sleep is most definitely the next order of business for me...

Epic Wednesday post part 1: walking on water

I'm not quite sure how today's photography got so out of control quantity-wise, especially since it's a weekday, but... yeah. It did. So I'll just get right down to brass tacks.

To start with, some shots of a water bug sitting on the surface of the museum's pond:





With this one, I liked how the dimples are bluish while the rest of the water is much more gray:



Some ripple patterns I thought were pretty cool:







A lucky shot I managed to snag of a grackle as it flew by the office building:



This, believe it or not, is a shot of two blossoms from the same plant in Mom's garden—it's a type of echinacea, according to Mom, and as you can see the color shifts from orange to red as the blossom ages:





A male Cardinal sitting in a blue spruce:



Lots of color in this one:



I liked the symmetry of their positions:



A flurry of activity:



My parents noted that they'd seen a lot of grosbeaks around today, a trend that continued during my visit:









A quick Baltimore Oriole break for you:



And a grosbeak encore:





A male Cardinal that had trouble deciding if it wanted to sit and stay for a while:





Finally, a Titmouse that landed on the porch birdbath for a drink:



Yup, there's more—just click here to see it.

Puppy dog eyes

This morning my coworker Kim introduced us to the newest member of her family: Esa MacTavish, named for two of her husband Steve's favorite hockey players—Esa Tikkanen and Craig MacTavish. Esa was a total sweetheart, and I'm not just saying that because his appearance meant I had my photography for the day done before 10 a.m. (although that certainly was a nice bonus). I was thinking that Kim and Sarah should bring their new puppies to work on the same day sometime soon, but I realized that:

A. None of us would get any work done, and
B. So much cuteness in one place might create some sort of wormhole of adorable, which, in order to provide balance and make sure the universe isn't destroyed, might result in the spontaneous creation of another Jocelyn Wildenstein or something. And nobody wants that.

Anyway, on to the star of today's show:







You don't often see a puppy trying to turn someone's shoe into a chew toy while they're still wearing it...





Meeting our colleague Kate:



Stopping to eat smell the flowers:



"Awesome! I love being attached to a tug-of-war toy!"









Such a happy dog:

Wildflowers

After working yesterday I took today off, but ended up in Manchester for a while anyway to have lunch with Sarah and run a couple of errands. On my way home, I noticed some large birds circling overhead and cruised into a nearby pulloff to try and photograph them. I did manage a few shots, but they were too far away by the time I got out of my car—in the resulting images you can tell that they're birds, and that's about it.

However, as I was putting my camera back in its bag I noticed an interesting blue wildflower through my passenger-side window. So I got back out of the car and took another look around. I realized there were at least a couple of other flowers I hadn't photographed before, and decided I should take advantage of unexpected bounty.

To start things off, the flower that first caught my eye—Viper's Bugloss (aka Blue-weed):





I was unable to figure out for certain what flower this is, but I believe it's a type of Lobelia:



Birdsfoot Trefoil, which is actually a type of pea:



And finally, Chicory:



One of my errands today was purchasing my very own bird feeder, which as of this posting hasn't yet been discovered by any birds. But once it has, I'm hoping it'll give me a chance at some fairly close-up shots, either through the screen or by my sneaking around the corner of the building. Could be fun.