HG: Thank you so much, my dear Lenore, for that wonderful kiss. I shall treasure it forever.

Lenore: stOP THAT YOU’RE MAKING ME BLUSH EVEN MOR E

Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/173466078197.

redlipstickresurrected:

Ji Chen aka 陈军 aka Jun Chen (Chinese-Australian, b. 1960, Shanghai, China, based Brisbane, Australia) – Lily Paradise  Paintings: Oil on Canvas

Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/173458025716.

mostlythemarsh:

Horizon

Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/173450773295.

debunkshy:

Olive-sided Flycatcher (Dane County year bird #231), photobombed by a proud Ruby-throated Hummingbird.

Pheasant Branch, WI

#259

One had been reported at Los Alamos County Park, which was sort of on the way for my trip home, so I stopped in to see if I could find it. It was very windy, which had the birds under cover and made it hard to hear vocalizations, but it still was fun (fact: birding is always fun).

I’d given up and was walking back to my car when I saw a bird fly to the top of a tall radio antenna on the hill west of the park. It was pretty far away, but in the binocs I could see the short tail, big head, and white belly contrasting with the dark sides. Yay! The universe rewarding me again!

@quickthreebeers

Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/173439603526.

renatagrieco:

June 21, 2016 – Bell’s Sparrow (Artemisiospiza belli)

Found in sagebrush, chaparral, and other scrubby, open habitats of California and western Arizona, these birds and the Sagebrush Sparrow were previously considered the same species. First known as Bell’s Sparrows, then split into two species, they were lumped again as the Sage Sparrow in the 1950s, before being split once again. They eat seeds, insects, spiders, small fruits, and vegetation in the breeding season and mostly grass and other plant seeds in the non-breeding season, foraging mostly on the ground. Females build open cup nests in or under shrubs, from twigs and grasses, lining them with fine grasses, thin bark, feathers, wool, and hair.

#258

I’d seen their previous conspecific Sagebrush Sparrow on our Mammoth trip, so I knew what to look for. These shy LBJs are hard, though.

Crappy digiscoped documentation photo:

Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/173439430301.

permagrinphoto:

Yellow-headed Blackbird

#257

At the Cuyama Dairy, two females mixed in with the hundreds of Tricolored Blackbirds and assorted Brewer’s and Brown-headed Cowbirds.

Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/173439088926.

crazycritterlife:

Prairie falcons in flight in Arizona. Top photo is a wild bird (we think juvenile, but not positive) and bottom photo is a young bird being trained for falconry. She was trapped a few weeks earlier and this was her first free flight training session.

There were tons of prairie falcons in Arizona during my trip. On the first day we were there, Kai refused to hunt with us because a wild prairie was hunting nearby (we didn’t know this until afterwards). A forest-adapted goshawk out in the open desert is no match for a prairie falcon in their natural habitat, so he took off towards the cover of neighborhoods and led us on a tail chase for 10 minutes. It took a lot of convincing to get him to come down. It was scary, but also so fascinating seeing how different species interact with each other.

#256

This was the bird I was most hoping for when I made the last-minute decision to head to Cuyama yesterday. Since it was a solo trip I couldn’t spare too much attention from driving, but what I could was dedicated to scanning telephone poles and prominent rock piles and anything biggish and flying for the slim figure of a big falcon.

Until mid-morning today it was mostly Common Ravens (Edgar would have liked them), some Red-tails, and a few Swainson’s Hawks. And then, as I was driving along Foothill Road toward the dairy where I planned to look through blackbirds in hopes of a Yellow-headed, I saw it: Trim and fast, pointed wings but clearly way bigger than the kestrel I’d seen earlier. I braked and got the car to the side of the road, jumped out and raised my binoculars, but even without them I knew it was good; the sandy color and black axillaries looked just like the Prairie Falcon I’d seen near Bridgeport on our Mammoth trip last month.

The bird was chasing a raven that had something in its beak. After a few seconds the raven dropped whatever it was and the Prairie Falcon grabbed it in its talons and flew off screeching. I don’t know if the falcon was robbing the raven or just stealing back something the raven had stolen first.

That’s bird-watching: Hours of driving and camping over two days for twenty seconds of awesomeness. Totally worth it. 🙂

Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/173438860801.

suggestivecacti:

“When Van Gogh was a young man in his early twenties, he was in London studying to be a clergyman. He had no thought of being an artist at all. he sat in his cheap little room writing a letter to his younger brother in Holland, whom he loved very much. He looked out his window at a watery twilight, a thin lamppost, a star, and he said in his letter something like this: “it is so beautiful I must show you how it looks.” And then on his cheap ruled note paper, he made the most beautiful, tender, little drawing of it. When I read this letter of Van Gogh’s it comforted me very much and seemed to throw a clear light on the whole road of Art. Before, I thought that to produce a work of painting or literature, you scowled and thought long and ponderously and weighed everything solemnly and learned everything that all artists had ever done aforetime, and what their influences and schools were, and you were extremely careful about *design* and *balance* and getting *interesting planes* into your painting, and avoided, with the most astringent severity, showing the faintest *academical* tendency, and were strictly modern. And so on and so on. But the moment I read Van Gogh’s letter I knew what art was, and the creative impulse. It is a feeling of love and enthusiasm for something, and in a direct, simple, passionate and true way, you try to show this beauty in things to others, by drawing it. And Van Gogh’s little drawing on the cheap note paper was a work of art because he loved the sky and the frail lamppost against it so seriously that he made the drawing with the most exquisite conscientiousness and care.”

— Brenda Ueland, If You Want to Write: A Book about Art, Independence and Spirit (via raggedybearcat)

Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/173433470166.

fallenvictory:

Thor: Ragnarok (2017) dir. Taika Waititi

Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/173425218201.

mostlythemarsh:

I’d like to be…

Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/173417164130.

renatagrieco:

April 18, 2016 – Common Poorwill (Phalaenoptilus nuttallii)

Requested by: @totallysevere​

These small nightjars are found in dry grassy or shrubby areas of western North America. Foraging mostly at dawn, dusk, or on moonlit nights, they catch insects in the air, making short flights from the ground or a low perch. During cold weather, when the insects they feed on aren’t active, they can enter a state of torpor, dropping their body temperature and slowing their metabolism. Females lay their eggs directly on bare ground, gravel, pine needles, or dead leaves without building a structure. Both parents feed the chicks with regurgitated insects and can move either the eggs or chicks to a new nest site if they are disturbed. The down-covered chicks can move around by hopping or somersaulting.

#255

Nightjars are improbably cool. I’d never heard this one until an hour ago. It sounded adorable. 🙂

Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/173405544856.

thescienceturnip:

western screech owl, M. kennicottii, held among pear tree blossoms.

#254

My trip to Cuyama was mostly to spend the night at Aliso Park Campgorund (where I am now; yay cell coverage) because I need a couple of nocturnal birds that have been reported from here recently. First up was this little charmer. (Actually, first up were Great Horned and Barn Owls. But I had them already.)

Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/173405481216.

sunwendyrain:

Blue Grosbeak

Quintana, Tx

#253

I love these guys. A few early migrants had been seen here and there on the south coast, but I hadn’t had any luck so far. Then some birders reported seeing a lot of them at Barka Slough near Lompoc, and today I had a chance to stop by there on my way to an overnight birding trip in Cuyama.

It was quite windy when I pulled up at Barka Slough, but I figured I’d give it a try. I’d taken only a few steps down the road when I heard a metallic call and there he was, in the tall grass 15 feet in front of me.😀

I’m glad it isn’t always this easy. But it sure was nice this time.

Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/173405305911.

Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/173400589491.

lies:

(inspired by flamethrowing-hurdy-gurdy)

Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/173393162115.

Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/173385922125.

a-solitary-sea-rover:

Turn The Tide On Plastic under a double rainbow. 

Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/173373184786.

mugsandpugs:

roguewarboy:

mugsandpugs:

roguewarboy:

a-study-in-warboys:

floatingpuppy:

Love how these repair boys in the background all have this ’????’ look

Did that one war boy use that flip so he could safely land right side up or to look cool? He’s now my favourite. 

OMG I AM SO GLAD THIS IS GIFFED. i just watched this again, and noticed the same damned thing tonight. 
also the Boy doing the somersault over the car. *swooooooon*

Specifically to look cool.

….i can’t stop watching this. 

DID THE FIRST WAR BOY FOLLOWING MAX JUST FALL UNGRACEFULLY TO THE FLOOR

DID HE EVEN GET BACK UP?! 
GUYS I think we found Death Death

It has come to my attention that I haven’t posted Fury Road content in forever. Reblogging myself because someone liked this and reminded me that it existed.

Please note that in this clip all of the following happens:

• Max vaults over the car and barely escapes being caught by War Boy #1 (Death Death).
• Death Death reaches for Max, misses, and falls as a result. He does not get up. Presumably he gets trampled by all subsequent warboys. Small piece of throwaway visual storytelling as to the “live fast/die young/anything for the glory of the Immortan” war boy culture.
• War Boy #2 appears to reach for Death Death but ends up slapping the roof of the car instead, maintaining his balance and propelling him forward.
• War Boy #3 does an artful somersault over the car.
• War Boy #4 does an artful slide across the car.
• War Boy #5 does a clever vault with his legs going over the hood, saving time and energy.
• War Boy #6 is just coming into view; we’ll never know what he did but I bet it was cool.
• War Boy #7 watches from the left.
• War Boy #8 watches from the right, and looks at War Boy #7: “Should we do something?” He appears to be installing a new engine in…
• …the Interceptor, Max’s car, showing how nothing goes to waste in the Wasteland.

Note also how the sense of frenetic energy is enhanced by the camera pushing in and out. All this in a three-second shot. And it’s crystal clear what’s happening thanks to George Miller’s and John Seale’s center-target framing and Margret Sixel’s editing.

Fury Road was nominated for ten Oscars. It won six. It should have won the other four.

Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/173369884943.

HAPPY #KINGSDAY! 🇳🇱

Here’s a royal drone shot from @BrunelSailing OBR @_SamGreenfield_ to celebrate #Koningsdag… 😱 pic.twitter.com/fTvSPj3Dor

— Volvo Ocean Race (@volvooceanrace) April 27, 2018

a-solitary-sea-rover:

Drone shot of Team Brunel underway.

Sam showing off. Here’s the youtube version:

Probably just a me thing, but I kind of wish he’d used the actual audio rather than dubbing in the soothing sound of the sea. I mean, I like this version fine. I just wish I could be right there with the actual whiny drone noise. But I understand why they rarely leave it in.

Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/173365869456.

I think you could do it with the videos from TTToP alone.

Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/173365641276.