This old stump in the middle of the woods made me stop…

I was walking Zoe through Palmetto Island County Park the other day when this pixie patch of glowing grass caught my eye. Seems like the kind of place a smurf would like. 

The boys and I have been spending our late-afternoon grungy time on Wild Horse Island, the uninhabited plot of land just behind our house on Foster Creek. We’ve been busy mapping the terrain, blasting battle droids, cleaning up trash, and generally having a romping good time. With attractions like the Temple of Vines, Lonely Palm Trail, and the uncharted wild interior, I’m wagering our adventures our only beginning. 

Today I had my camera slung over my shoulder, so while the boys were taking on an entire division of droids, I  captured some of the textures on the island. The diversity was amazing for such a small area, yet the palette was noticeably consistent. Here are a few slices from the survey:

We often bring home pieces of bamboo from the large, wild stand near the Sullivan’s Island playground. I recently was able to get a large, fresh, green piece that looked rather interesting next to a dried piece that had split down the middle. Original resolution on Flickr.

I took this shot during a family game of hopscotch in the driveway. 

During Peter Thum‘s keynote address at the 2008 Conference for Nonprofits, I snuck a few shots from under the North Charleston Performing Arts Center‘s giant red curtain.

This shot came from a set taken about 2 months ago, but I never posted it here. Not totally in focus, but still showing off some of the features that make mantises so sci-fi.

The boys and I were wandering around Daniel Island today and bumped into this extremely tame red-shouldered hawk. It looked as big as a red-tailed hawk on-site (around 50 cm), but when I saw the photos I knew otherwise. His long yellow legs were the real giveaway, as well as the rusty breast. It is always a pleasure to see a critter like this up close, especially with my kids…

There was a cool, low-hanging sun hitting these grasses at Palmetto Islands County Park, so we stopped to check them out. I know my son enjoyed the tall crunchy plants as much as I did…you gotta love Fall in the Lowcountry.

Color, color everywhere, so here’s a bradford pear…

Home of the daily, and sometimes nightly, grind.

Here’s something from a few snaps I took of Citadel cadets registering to vote.

These Oak Leaf Hydrangeas have been a great addition to the yard, and produce leaves that are amazing all year. I’ve blogged about the blooms before, but there’s even something cool about these leaves as they fall off. The fact that the leaves are bigger than my head make it all the better.

A tag on a mailbox. Portland, 2008.

We caught this male (I  think) praying mantis sunning itself on our deck.

This brilliant blue fly was buzzing all around us the other day, and I couldn’t resist trying to capture it. I had no tripod, nor was I prepared to shoot a fast moving nervous fly, but I got this shot out of the 10 I fired off. You gotta love blue critters.

I bent down into one of the beds the other day, and came up with a spattering of chigger bits. I also ended up with this weird shot, where the wide open 1.2 aperature delivered some unexpected goodies. This is a like some kind of bizarro bokeh.

Hey, have a look at this dead, ant-filled grasshopper. Spiky legs!

Running in for dinner, he stopped for one last squirt skyward.

I love these hardy, succulent perennials a neighbor have us years ago. I just keep dividing, and they just keep blooming. If you know what they are, lemme know in the comments.

We found something amazing in our yard the other day, and it turned out to be an automeris io, or Io moth. This green spiked caterpillar eventually turns into a beautiful moth with giant circles on its wings that look like eyes. It’s common throughout the continent, but I’ve never seen one in all my years of nature gawking. Which is weird, because this thing was florescent green and the size of my thumb.

Enjoy the pics.

I just got back from the fireworks store where I found this “Twitter Glitter” fountain by TNT fireworks. I couldn’t pass up this explosive which shares a name with the popular microblogging service. What are the odds it goes Fail Whale on me tonight and ends up a dud?

Waiting on the B train at 81st, personal transportation, Graham on the block, and the Hudson.

We just got back from spending a few days in NYC, one of our favorite places in the world. We took along our two boys to introduce them to the city, and they certainly loved it as much as we did.

I’ll be posting a few photos this week, but I wanted to use this chance to play around with the free video software at animoto.com. Still in beta, this web service allows you to upload or retrieve (Flickr, Facebook, etc) a group of photos, set them to any song, and render a shareable video – pretty slick. You can even remix the video if you are unhappy with the results…everything is just a couple clicks.

Anyway, enjoy…

While I knew there was no tornado, tonight’s hail storm still impressed me. The white wall coming in off the marsh was cinematic, but the real star came seconds later when the hail arrived.

I could tell right away that the chunks were big, and they looked like broken snowballs bouncing into the windows. It made me think about density, and how if this hail was made from rock, every window in my house would be broken.

It lasted a good 10 minutes, so we waited, listened, and suddenly it stopped. Out I went with a bucket for the kids, which is now in our freezer. Cooper ate some, and said it tasted like water.

This was big hail…maybe the biggest I’d seen since I was a kid. It was easy to spot actual golfball-sized hail, but it was melting fast.

Most of the big pieces had a distinct cloudy ball in the middle, about the size of a raisin, which was surrounded by thick, clear ice. This pattern was enhanced as they melted, and they began to look like sliced kiwi.

Here are some pics of the aftermath…