[PixelsBy.Me] - Photoblog of Mark Johnson

A Day's Harvest

Sun, 21 Aug 2011 12:00:55 GMT

Pictured here are tomatoes, tomatillas, peppers, cucumbers, beans, garlic, onions, zucchini, and dill.
Several of the tomatoes in the picture are well over a pound (the things that look like potatoes and peaches are all tomatoes; I grew several different heirloom varieties).

The lower picture is a single flower of a tomatillo.

This will be the final posting to this website as a photoblog; as soon as I have the time I will convert the site into a photo gallery and drop the photoblog. ]]>

Arctic summer

Sat, 30 Jul 2011 15:36:50 GMT

Tom A. Tillo

Sat, 23 Jul 2011 10:32:49 GMT

Third tomato out from the stem

Sat, 16 Jul 2011 10:21:03 GMT

Lovely day for a hike

Sun, 10 Jul 2011 07:47:48 GMT

This picture was taken in April, when we were having a bad drought. Typically spring is fairly rainy, but not this spring. We even had a fire that came close enough to our house that we were under mandatory evacuation (pictures of the fire are here).

Finally our rains started in June, and now we are actually getting more rain than the ground can hold so localized flooding is frequent. ]]>

Three Generations

Sat, 25 Jun 2011 08:20:54 GMT

I was hiding behind a tree so as not to alarm the fawn. I was looking at the fawn and didn't notice in the viewfinder the tree branch partially obscuring the other two.

The adult deer get used to having people around so aren't very scared of humans where I live, but the young fawns have a lot less trust in anything but their families.

A mule deer doe doesn't get as big as a buck, but the bucks often get up to the 300 pound range and some even get upwards of 500 pounds.

Young mule deer will eat just about anything; as they mature they learn to avoid the things that taste bad or upset their tummies. As an example a neighbor of ours tried growing rhubarb out in the open this year, and sure enough the deer munched them right to the ground.

A mule deer doe usually gives birth to one fawn in her first year of breeding, and two or more fawns in later years. This doe only had the one fawn, so she was most likely 2 years old when she became pregnant in November, and celebrated her 3rd birthbay about the time this fawn was born. The fawn will lose its spots by the time it is 1 month old. ]]>

Looking for Lunch for a Lady

Sun, 19 Jun 2011 12:05:31 GMT

These are a couple of ladybug larvae on the edge of a wooden table on our back patio, on the search for bugs to eat. The dark oval beneath them is a small knot in the wood. These guys were extremely active, and I didn't do a very good job of getting them in focus.
I tried to get a decent picture of one of them catching a bug and eating it, but that happens so fast I never was able to catch the moment. At least there are so many of them around I'm sure to get another chance.

As an example of how many of these we have this time of year, there were at least a dozen on the surface of this small table (they are everywhere).

There are several species of ladybugs around, but I believe I have identified the correct one for these larvae below. ]]>

Hobbies of a President

Tue, 14 Jun 2011 18:24:18 GMT

The Tree at the Center of the Universe

Sat, 04 Jun 2011 09:03:02 GMT

I think it is probably a Douglas Fir, because that is what most of the other trees in the area are.
This natural bonsai will probably never be any bigger than the few feet tall it already is, but I look at it and wonder how many years it has already seen pass by from its lofty perch, looking down on its 100-foot tall relatives. ]]>

Snow in the Adirondacks

Wed, 18 May 2011 15:46:30 GMT

It all melted by the 14th.
I already had 20 tomato plants in the ground before this storm hit, but they all made it through the weather with no problem at all due to protection like this. ]]>