Butterfly Take Off

It's hard to auto focus with the long lens. This pic from yesterday. Next time I'll try manual. This one took off just as I clicked the shutter.

Creek Side Butterfly

I found a good spot for buttefly pics by the creek. They're tough to "catch"!

Fighting Stance

Pic from two days ago...hiking yesterday, sleepy today! When I took the pic I didn't see the other squirrel, outside the frame, that this one is glaring at.

They're a lot like cats.

No post today.

I'm too tired from hiking to post today...until tomorrow.

DavidDavid

Orange Song Bird

It's not robins I hear just before sunrise, it's these orange birds. They sing and sing, and it's enchanting in the Springtime, espcecially when I get up to go hiking before sunrise.

Robin Red Breast

Took video of a Blue Jay bedeviling a Raven, they do that like the mocking birds at home with the crows. Too long to post tonight.

Made a deal to purchase a car. Dont think I'll use it much, but to get to town will be easier, and safer. I get carsick on the bus, and uneasy at the driving of my friends when I'm their passenger!!

Grey Squirrel Snacking

Didn't get out much.

Grey Squirrel on Rock

Out front is a row of boulder rocks along the road's curb. One night in the dark, coming from work, and the snack machines!, and lost in thought...I tumbled right over them...fell flat on my face. I've fallen on the trails: loose gravel, a wet and tilted slab of granite, loose scree, and nearly fallen many many times...teetering with a full pack crossing a stream at Donahue Pass...I had leaned forward to balance, and the pack wanted to flop over my head! But the fall over the rock was the most sudden and scary. Providence had it that I could just stand up with a couple skinned and bloody knees.

Think I'll call the Grey Squirrels, Francis.

Backyard Woods in the Morning

Taking pics around and about Tree in the Door reminded me of my home's backyard. Growing up I realize now I was fortunate to have one. It had orange trees and plum trees, and I remember them all well, and every shrub and blade of grass!...toy soldiers and battleships, mowing the lawn and weeding, will do that.

Orange Bird

Caught a cold, no hikes, just cabin loafing. At dusk saw swallows and this orange bird.

Blue Jay with Nesting

Went to town today and got a haircut and when I came home I walked about and saw the two blue jays busy gathering nesting material. I dont know where there nest is, have to keep an eye out for it.

If I were Sherlock Holmes...

Today's pic is a bit blurry, and I think it's a chipmonk, though it seemed a bit bigger than the ones I usually see. I'll see 'm again, and there's usually more than one.

Next door the room is empty (Tree in the Door is somewhat unique in layout being a converted public shower and bathroom!) and I kept hearing a "beep" like the sound the Grey Squirrels make when they are calling. They sit and do this, their tail going up each time they beep. Some territorial call I imagine. So I hear this "beep" in the moring and think maybe a squirrel is trapped next door, and when I come home late at night I hear it again. "Beep!" I thought to call security to open the room and let the squirrel out, but I remembered the window was open to air it out, and I took the screen out to look inside. No squirrel, but I heard the 'beeep". A mystery. Than I looked at the cieling and saw the smoke alarm...that's it, what's making the beep. They do that when they're battery is low. Oh, if I where Sherlock Holmes I would have figured this out, as there was alway a single beep than a long silence, which isn't characteristic of the squirrels, as they just beep all day long.

I wish I could do that, you know, think through things from smidgen of evidence, the tiniest of clue, and figure a mystery out.

DavidDavid
Tree in the Door
May 20, 2007

Grey Squirrel and Black Oak

Got out and about a little....peddeled to the Post Office and Stoneman Bridge to see the artists....a horned owl is where I saw one before I learned....try tomorrow to find it and take some pics.

Einstien finds a snack.

Got out to the post office...did that much anyway. This one from yesterday.

Blue Jay

I woke up to the sound of two squirrels mating on the roof...didn't know that until I got outside with the camera...thought all the ruckus was a raccoon. Wont post the pic in respect of their privacy! Blue Jays have found a nesting spot in the shed's eaves, and are busy scouring about for nesting material. It's Spring!

Another Dogwood Pic

One more Dogwood pic from the backyard. They'll soon be gone.

My phone bill was cheaper this month's billing, and I'm wondering if I've been bumped into a lower speed...web is just really slow tonight!

Blue Paint on Cedar Bark

Blue paint on cedar bark. It's how loggers mark a tree to be cut down.

Mushroom

Well, that's it for today, there was an upside down mushroom in the 'backyard'. I hiked up to the falls, I'm exhausted.

DavidDavid
Tree in the Door
May 14, 2007

Oak Leaves

Again, I didn't get out today. Early breakfast then a snooze 'till work. This pic from two days ago. I have a dogwood pic too...let me go get that.

Grey Squirrel on Oak

I tried to do a video yesterday of this squirrel, but he wouldn't move, but I got this still. Didn't get out today, just had breakfast, and then went back to sleep until work. Swing shift is like that.

Grey Squirrel Snacking

Behind the cabin there's some open space, then the forest thickens, and just a little way further is Yosemite Creek. This area used to have cabins and housing, but the flood of '97 took them away. Looking for camera subjects got me exploring a bit closer to home.

DavidDavid
Tree in the Door
May 11, 2007

Deer in the Morning

A routine day! I stayed up late after coming back from the Giant's game, making the posts actually, and slept in till work time, so, no pics! One from the archive will have to do...there were deer all over one morning, but by the time I got the camera and chased them down I just got a glimpse!

DavidDavid

Tree in the Door

May 10, 2007

Morning Bird Song

Got up early to go to the ball game, Giants against Mets, and took this video. This time of year one bird has a distinctive song, chirp chirp chirp, and I'm guessing it's the robins. Beautiful day from here to there and back. I so seldom leave the Valley that I see the big city a bit through the eyes of a country boy.

DavidDavid
Tree in the Door
May 9, 2007

Caterpillar

Doing a video everyday is too time consuming, and the resolution is not that great, so I've changed the title from Tree in the Door Video Log to Tree in the Door's Fauna and Flora. I'll still take video, but won't limit myself to that, I'll include pics and some art too. I'll stick with the limit of just the creatures near the cabin.

Today I wanted to video an insect walking across the top of the mirror while I was shaving. It looked like a flying termite ant, it had those kind of wings, but it had a long neck and small head. Its walk was peculiar, it would walk a little, then stop, then walk some more, then stop. It reminded me of the way the Robins and Marmots move about. They're trying to travel safely I think, trying to be kindof invisible when they stand still.

After I got my camera to film it, it was gone, but I did get a wasp flying about, but too blurry. So, today's pic is a caterpillar in the doorway. After I learn the names of these critters I'll add them.

DavidDavid

Tree in the Door

May 8, 2007

Robin Searching

Very warm today.

Squirrel on the Roof

They had a quiz on TV, how many hours a night did Einstein sleep. The answer was ten. Einstien snoozing on the roof.

Yosemite Falls

Well. I actually took that video last week, Monday I think. The wind was really playing with the Falls. The idea here has a discipline attached: to take a new little video each day, a kindof diary. I'm going to miss some days...but I have an archive and a day I miss I'll fill in from that. Today was very much like last Monday, clear and blue after a rainy day.

The 12x camera came bundled with a video editing program, which is where I got the type. I'll make notes of how I'm doing at making these, as I'm new at it, except for the Aftereffects class I took. I tried to open this in Aftereffects to edit it, but couldn't get it open. My program is old, a demo given out at a computer show.

Unfortunately, but understandably, YouTube downgrades the video resolution in all likelyhood to keep things manageble memory wise. The videos are pixilated. They're fairly clear in their original form from the 12x. I'll paddle up to the Falls Monday and take video. This one today can serve as the title scene. A sore foot might scotch this, but sometimes hiking works out the aches and pains from walking around at work.

YouTube is getting into so much trouble with copyrights that I hope it dont go belly up in middle of this effort!!

Oh, along with running smack dab into the Cedar Tree when I open my cabin door, I can turn to my right and see this view of the Falls. The Falls remind me of a tree in shape, especially in winter when the ice forms on the wall from the spray, and the snow cone at the base...looks like a big xmas tree then--a second Tree in the Door!

I'm not going to post too many postcard views, one has to see this place for themselves!!

DavidDavid

Tree in the Door

May 5. 2007

Deer and Dogwood in the Rain

I signed up for YouTube yesterday and their template isn't as nice as this one, so I started a second blog here for a video log of Tree in the Door. Tree in the Door, Fauna and Flora, might should be the title.

I have a new 12x optical digital camera, and my old 3x which I used today, It was raining and I was hesitant to use the new one. The old one has been through everything the last couple years. I'll be using them to make the videos. I have some aftereffects experience, and maybe I'll make some animations, special effects things, too.

So, I upload to YouTube, and then paste the html code they provide to embed the video here. That, that's just really neat. I dont know how much memory I get to use. All this while watching the original The Fly! Andre just realizes made in japan is backwards...

Here's yesterdays video, Robin Gets a Worm.