cozy soggy sunday

It's raining - a sweet, gentle rain, perfect for the gardens - so here are a few pictures taken in the gardens earlier this week, when it was sunny.

The forecast - constant rain from Saturday night through Monday morning - provided plenty of incentive for me to get more vegetable seeds into the ground on Friday (popcorn!) and Saturday (more cucumbers).

The cucumbers are a variety from India called poona kheera, and the seed is leftover from 2014 when I grew a few plants which struggled to compete and survive. Last night I planted the remaining 36 seeds in a thickly-seeded row to compensate for the anticipated low germination rate, and we'll see what happens. If three plants grow: bonus! If none sprout, there will be plenty of time to plant squash in that spot.

It's a new experience, having enough garden area to plant old seed with a "nothing to lose!" attitude. Partly, this is because a bit more garden space was created this year, but also, I deliberately limited my seed purchases for 2016. Last year there wasn't much blogging about the gardens because, despite working very hard all season, I had sadly little produce to show for my labors. Maybe just a poor gardening year? It happens. But maybe I also spread myself too thin, trying to grow All The Things? So this year I decided to focus: beans, squashes, corn, and greens.

But when my seed order arrived and I added the packets to my "garden box," I was amazed at how many half-empty seed packets have accumulated in the past couple of years! So although most of my effort will go into the beans, squashes, corn and greens, wherever there is time and space, I'll try to germinate some of the older seed.

Nothing to lose :)

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Look who's back!

Not a sharp image...

but at 1/20-second handheld, I'm okay with it.

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Speaking of images...
I refer you to one of my favorite blogs: Romping and Rolling in the Colorado Rockies. KB lives in my old neck of the woods, and often her gorgeous images make me yearn for a return. Often. Yearn hard.

Below are links to a couple of recent posts featuring images and video from some of the trail cams KB maintains and very generously shares with the rest of us.

In my opinion, this is the way to do wildlife photography: non-invasively, and from a distance. When I see vivid images of nesting or nocturnal birds that can only have been taken with a flash - a flash right in the face of a vulnerable creature with incredibly sensitive vision - I want to slap a little awareness into the photographer. Every time I see aerial images of wild horses and foals running ("Look! So wild and free!") I want to shake some consideration into the people responsible...those horses and their easily-exhausted babies are running in terror because they are prey animals being pursued by a freaking aircraft!
(Ahem. Stepping off soapbox now.)

So, I love KB's wildlife photography and videography not just for the quality of the images, but for the informed and respectful approach that goes into getting them. She's using long lenses for images of the critters she sees on her daily mountain-biking adventures with her wonderful companion Shyla, and when it comes to the trail cams, she isn't even there when the image-making happens.

This Spring, KB was exceptionally patient in waiting to retrieve images from one camera in particular, because she was being extra careful to avoid disturbing a den. And just look at the images she has now shared with us:

mamabear and baby bears

And here is a post featuring edited video of a healthy, beautiful, and massive male black bear. I've seen quite a few black bears, but I have never, ever witnessed a bear marking trees. I learn a lot from KB's blog!

By the way, I think the bobcat steals the show :)

bear and bobcat

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Have a lovely Sunday, wherever you are. Maybe I'll see you soon...a rainy Sunday is a good day to catch up on blog-reading :)

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