dragoness_e: (Default)
Keep in mind we live in the Deep, deep South.


Icicles are forming on all the eaves, the bird feeders, etc.

icicles


The cars are covered with ice from freezing rain.

ice on car


Sleet is coming down.


sleet accumulation on car

They've had to close all the bridges connecting to New Orleans because they are icy.
dragoness_e: Raven on the wing (Raven on the wing)

You said it was a bird feeder--where are my birds?





(And now we know why the birds all fly away and hide from time to time... I believe this is a Cooper's Hawk.)
dragoness_e: (Default)
Back in December, there was a total lunar eclipse. I tried to take pictures of the partially eclipsed moon, using the tripod I inherited from my father to take the pictures.

Blurry moon pics )
dragoness_e: Me in the pink straw cowboy hat (Pink Hat)
Part 1 was the fossils

Part 2, this post, is about the butterfly exhibit. If you are in Houston, it's worth stopping by to see.
flutter-bys! )
dragoness_e: Me in the pink straw cowboy hat (Pink Hat)
As promised, I'm digging out quite a few photos I never got around to posting.

Last November we took a trip to Houston to tour the Houston Science museum. There were two main features of interest: the fossils and the butterfly exhibit. This post is about the fossils.
Pictures of long-dead things )
dragoness_e: Me in the pink straw cowboy hat (Pink Hat)
Hmm, it's been a while since I posted any photo-essays. I've got quite a lot of pictures piled up that I'll get around to posting some time. I hope.
Kitchen herbs )
dragoness_e: Me in the pink straw cowboy hat (Pink Hat)
I didn't take nearly as many pictures Sunday, so there's no need to break Sunday's images down into separate posts. The crowds started to thin out on Sunday, as people went home--though the Con actually goes through Monday, most people have work or school to return to that day. The one-day Con goers mostly came on Saturday, one of the reasons Saturday is so crowded.

I spent an annoying amount of the morning trying to catch Jim Butcher when he didn't have 5000 people waiting in line to sign his books, and just missed him. (Okay, I caught up with him, but he was running late and didn't have time to sign books). I also went to John Ringo's book signing session to get a book signed, and actually did catch up with him.

Finally, Sunday I actually got into the Dealer rooms and was able to shop. I picked up some T-shirts, and phoned Steve several times to see if he was interested in some of the older GURPS books one of the booths had on deep discount--he was, and I bought them. Other than that, I mostly just looked. These days, if I want a lot of the kind of sci-fi/fantasy souvenirs, games and exotica found at a sci-fic convention, I can just order it over the internet, so I don't find myself wanting to buy everything the way I did back in the old days, when a con was the only place you could get some things. Of course, back then, I didn't have the money to buy all the stuff I wanted; now I do, and I don't want much of anything. Go figure.

Pictures )
dragoness_e: Me in the pink straw cowboy hat (Pink Hat)
I saw quite a few nice costumes Saturday, in among the vast throngs of people.

Lots of photos )
dragoness_e: Me in the pink straw cowboy hat (Pink Hat)
As previously mentioned, on Saturday, Sept 4, there was an "Avatar: The Last Airbender" costume photo-shoot, up on the 10th floor of one of the hotels. What that meant was everyone in ATLA costumes was invited to show up and pose to have their pictures taken by all and sundry.

Many, many ATLA costumes, including Becky's )
dragoness_e: Living Dead Girl (Living Dead Girl)
One of the joys of sci-fi/fantasy conventions is admiring the creativity and skill that people put into making cool costumes. Since I have a lot of costume photos, I'll be making a separate post for each day's costume pics. Also, if anyone can help me identify costumes, I'd appreciate it.

Costumes! )
dragoness_e: Living Dead Girl (Living Dead Girl)
Every Dragon*Con, Friday evening is "Evening at Bree", which is a dance and Tolkien-character costume event with live music by Emerald Rose, a Southern Celtic/Pagan folk band from north Georgia. We like their music; it rocks. Becky and I both like to attend the dance, too.

Way too many people in hobbit costumes )
dragoness_e: Living Dead Girl (Living Dead Girl)
Okay, now that I'm half-recovered from Dragon*Con, I can start posting pictures. I may be a bit slow about this, since I still haven't installed PSP9 on my new laptop, so I'm making do with GIMP. Unfortunately, the GIMP doesn't have all my presets and scripts that I normally use to speed up image processing. It's been very tedious doing it all one picture at a time. Bleh.

Way too many pictures for your dial-up; take a supper break )
dragoness_e: Me in the pink straw cowboy hat (Pink Hat)
Left out of the bird pictures from last spring was this mystery bird:



I finally dug around in my bird books and identified it. It's a Yellow-rumped Warbler.



dragoness_e: Me in the pink straw cowboy hat (Pink Hat)
While on vacation at my in-laws place in Tennessee this month, I watched lots of ruby-throated humming birds come to the feeder and flowers on her back porch. The males would chase each other and all the females away from the feeder; it was a wonder they got any chance to feed themselves because they seemed to spend all their time chasing. The females would swoop in and feed while the males were off chasing someone; it was entertaining to watch.

Hummingbird and Not Hummingbird photos )
dragoness_e: (Default)
Wednesday, I finally went out and got fish. I got 3 White Clouds, some fish food, some plant food and took the whole lot home. The fish and plant food went on the tray where I keep the aquarium supplies. The fish went in the aquarium.

Fish pics )
dragoness_e: Me in the pink straw cowboy hat (Pink Hat)
Sunday, I went shopping for some plants for my new aquarium. Delta Pets, the pet store I went to earlier in the week, was closed, so I checked out the other place in this end of town. Pets Plus also had fairly healthy-looking fish and they had a small selection of plants. I was too impatient to wait another day, so I picked up some sprigs of Anacharis, a potted little red sword plant of some kind, and a pot of "microswords".

I can't say I liked the potted bit; my gravel was too shallow for the pots, so I cut off the little plastic pots and removed most of the foam so I could plant the plants in the gravel. I decided that Monday, I would go back to Delta Pets and get another pack of gravel. I also wanted a few sprigs of Vallisneria to add to the tank.

More pictures & text )
dragoness_e: Me in the pink straw cowboy hat (Pink Hat)
After leak-testing the aquarium (and discovering that the house's foundation has settled somewhat crookedly and the north end of the aquarium is about 1/2" higher than the south end), we emptied the tank again in preparation for the actual set-up.

I put in the undergravel filter plates first, then washed the gravel I'd bought for the aquarium and put it in, covering the undergravel filter to about 2 inches deep, then emplaced the fake plastic rock shelf. It's actually a multi-piece jigsaw puzzle of fake rock shelves that you can assemble in many amusing way. I assembled it. Then I considered the fake plastic log, but decided that (a) it looked like a fake plastic log, and (b) there was already enough clutter with the fake plastic rock shelf, considering I still plan to add plants; conclusion: no fake plastic log need go in.

I poured water in, using the plastic rocks to buffer the flow, and filled the tank most of the way up. Somewhere along the way I put in the plastic tubes, hung the filter, inserted air stones, etc. After the water was all in there, I hooked up the air pump.

Photos and text )
dragoness_e: Me in the pink straw cowboy hat (Pink Hat)
Like I mentioned before, the first thing to do with an old aquarium is to leak test it. This involves filling it up about a quarter tank per day and checking for leaks after each step. Doing it in stages makes it easier to spot any slow leaks as well as the kind that flood all over your floor. I'm pretty sure this tank doesn't leak, so I'm being brave and testing it on the kitchen counter.

LJ Cut to avoid annoying too many people at once )
dragoness_e: Me in the pink straw cowboy hat (Pink Hat)
The weekend of March 13 was just about the first nice weekend of the spring, so we went to the zoo. The animals all thought it was spring, too.

flamingos and piglets and otters, oh my! )

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