Pet or pest

A wild pig snoozes in the shade in Hawaii

This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘National Kids and Pets Day.’ See more responses here. Wild pigs are as close as I get to having a pet these days, though an extra ’s’ might make a better description.

Yellow-fronted Canaries

This flock of Yellow-fronted Canaries feasted on grass seeds in a local pasture.

Getting to the root of it

Tree roots exposed in a road cutting.

What’s wrong with this picture?

A waiting room, with a wet bag depository across the room from the door

My favorite scene from my time spent in a waiting room a week or so ago. I hadn’t seen these wet bags before, but one would think that, to keep the floor dry, the bags would be better by the door. As it is, people have to walk across the dry floor, getting it wet, to access a wet bag to keep it dry!

Spot the flounder

A flowery flounder on sand in the waters off Hawaii

Yes, there’s a fish in this photo. I admit it’s not easy to see because flounders are very good at blending in. But after I took this photo, the flounder did a little shimmy, stirring up the sand. I thought it had zipped away, but realized it couldn’t have. Looking hard, I spotted two little bumps, its eyes, protruding above the smooth layer of sand. I didn’t bother taking a photo because they wouldn’t have shown up.

It’s the first time I’ve seen a flounder doing that sand shimmy. It was certainly effective.

Update: To help in spotting the flounder, in the bottom third of the photo on the right side, there’s an ear-shaped rocky bit that sticks into the sand. The sand shows mostly as lines and dots, but just to the left of the rocky bit, in the center of the photo, there’s an area of little circles. That’s the fish. After the sand shimmy, those circles were all covered with sand with only the eye bumps protruding. You can see why I didn’t bother to photograph that.

The Numbers Game #69

Clouds fill the saddle between Mauna Kea and Hualalai.

The idea of The Numbers Game is to enter a number into the search bar of your computer and then post a selection of the photos that turn up. This week’s number is 190. Captions are on the photos. You can see more responses here.

King Kamehameha's statue in Kapaau, is draped in leis on Kamehameha Day. — A wasp working on a nest.

A pair of Threadfin Jack juveniles swim in the waters off the Big Island of Hawaii — A pair of juvenile Threadfin Jacks.

Evey day is Earth Day

Plants growing at a farm in North Kohala, Hawaii — A crop growing against a backdrop of wind turbines and the ocean. And, yes, that’s a monarch butterfly happy about the arrangement.

Papaya flowers and fruits growing in Hawaii — Flowers and fruits on a Papaya.

This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Earth Day.’ See more responses here.

I’m never quite sure what’s appropriate for Earth Day, but I figure nature, farming and renewable energy fit the bill, so here are some photos from a recent walk in the neighborhood.