Live Long and Prosper

I came across this graffiti image a few weeks back applied to construction hoarding on my way to a local East Van micro brewery to get my growler re-filled, and I thought it only fitting to post it today upon the passing of Leonard Nimoy.

Crescent Moon with Mars and Venus

I was walking our dog a couple of nights ago around 6:30 pm heading west when I noticed how thin of a crescent the moon was that night. I remember from a few years back that I took an interesting photograph when a similar moon came into close proximity to Venus. I managed to get a pretty good photo at the time by steadying my camera on the eaves trough of the garage.

I quickened my pace and dropped off our dog at home and grabbed my camera to try for a similar shot. As it turns out this particular combination included not only Venus but Mars too. As I had walked home I noticed a faint almost blinking red speck just above the brighter orb of Venus. It appeared almost as a punctuation mark. Or to use a fishing analogy, it reminded me of a string of fishing tackle being trolled behind a boat, as if a thin invisible line was hooked onto the trailing tip of the crescent moon.

Rufus and Ruby (throated)

It must be Spring. We have a hummingbird nesting right outside our front door. I noticed a hummingbird flying around our front yard on Superbowl Sunday. I don't normally watch the game but I was nursing a pretty bad cold and the couch looked awfully inviting. And plus, Seattle was in it, which added a little bit of Pacific Northwest flavour to the affair.

I managed to get a reasonably good photograph of the male by zooming my point-and-shoot into its electronic zoom zone.

The following week we were leaving the house via the front door, and as we turned around we were face to beak with the female hummingbird sitting on her nest in a tree branch that hangs low, adjacent to our house.

I can't tell if this is the male or female. They seem to swap nest duty.

It's interesting that her markings are so different from the male's. I know that the males are usually more brightly feathered, but the female has a fantastically bright red throat that flashes almost like chrome when the sun hits it.

Hopefully we'll get to see what the chicks look like. Quite an exciting Spring so far!