A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife
Project Noah Nature School
**blushes** Well, I'll tell ya, Emma, when I started out with a neighbor's old Windows 95 computer (that they were going to throw away) about 14 years ago, I made all the mistakes that anyone could make (and then some!) but, I was fortunate enough to find some really nice, helpful and friendly people in the old MSN communities that were so patient with this "newbie" and they taught me a lot of things that I use every day now... Computers and the Net are an ever emerging learning process that never ends and you've just got to keep up with the changes as they happen... Remain as curious, flexible and open as you are right now and you'll be "tech savvy" in NO time! :^D
When my kitty does this, I say he's being "very 'cajsh' ".
I never realized this before but, in American English, there's not really a phonetic spelling for that "g"/"j"/"sh" sound as in the first part of the word "casual" -- the "cas" part... It's like a soft "g" but with a "hum" in the throat at the same time... Strange, huh?
What a pretty one he ("she"?? LOL!) is! Very striking!
I've heard some of the opuntias referred to as "Mickey Mouse". There's a type I've heard called "5-finger", too. The only reason I know anything about the opuntias is because of my lifelong study of Luther Burbank (plant breeder 1850s-1920s) who was a contemporary of Edison and Henry Ford. He, of course, introduced over 60 varieties of thornless opuntia.
Absolutely! I took some photos last year of a small flock of red-winged blackbirds that were hanging outside the cafeteria at the VA hospital at Ft. Miley in San Fran. I'd never noticed before how fluffy that patch of yellow and red is!
Looks like some sort of "convolvulus" (morning glory or buttercup type of plant). That's where I'd start for ID. :o)
What a marvelous shot! Your friend was in the right place at the right time!
Doesn't really have "squash-type" flowers, P.Y. -- what variety are you saying it is?
Ya got me... The leaves kind of look some type of Hoya but -- it's hard to tell from the photos... Are you taking these with your phone, Emma? I might suggest resizing these photos in a graphics program before you try posting them. You could keep the "resolution" the same but make the outside dimensions considerably smaller (something like 550 pixels x 3-hundred something pixels) and I think the whole image would "sharpen up" quite a bit. I think you can even do it in "Paint" if you don't have any other graphics program. (I have PaintShop Pro 9, Picture It! and Adobe Illustrator -- although -- I really like PaintShop Pro the best).
Sorry, Emma... I never heard of it. But, then, we don't have any "desert type" plants here in Sonoma County at all. Too wet. Too foggy. Also hard to tell size from photo. :o)
