Molluscs

It was a rainy night so this morning I planned on taking some pictures of droplets but as I was wandering around, Steve told me he'd found my subject for the day. I followed him and he pointed...A SNAIL!! Hooray!!! I've been hoping to find one for ages, and this one certainly didn't disappoint! :D Ray Douglas Bradbury (August 22, 1920 – June 5, 2012) was an American fantasy, science fiction, horror and mystery fiction writer. Best known for his dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 (1953) and for the science fiction and horror stories gathered together as The Martian Chronicles (1950) and The Illustrated Man (1951), Bradbury was one of the most celebrated 20th-century American writers. Many of Bradbury's works have been adapted into comic books, television shows and films. Wikipedia: Ray Bradbury

The snail that Steve found for me was a lot of fun to photograph, and this image makes me laugh!

Today I went up to our stand of teasel, intent on finding an interesting shot of the other plants growing there. However, just like finding the mushrooms under the teasel the other day, today I found a snail shell, glistening with morning dew! What a wonderful surprise! Joseph Leonard Gordon-Levitt (born February 17, 1981) is an American actor, director, producer, and writer. Wikipedia: Joseph Gordon-Levitt

I found this beautiful little snail shell when I was out on a walk with the dogs. I popped it into my pocket and brought it home, hoping it might look nice when photographed on our counter! This shell measures about 1/2" in diameter and sadly, nobody was home! :( If you would like to know more about snails, Wiki has a great source of information here Wiki: Snail

I discovered this snail while taking pictures on my hike to the upper fork of the Applegate River

[best appreciated at full size against black] Little, tiny, itty bitty, eensy, weensy slug! I have Steve to thank for pointing this adorable little guy out to me, and he was hard to spot, measuring only about 1/2 an inch long! Here you can see him motoring along through the foliose lichen and moss forest, with a Pixie lichen towering over him. For another size reference, in the upper left is the "flower" of a moss plant, called a sporophyte...that's SMALL! Finally, you should take a look at where this guy is heading! Why...it's a mushroom! And that is probably what he'll be munching when he arrives, as it's a favorite food for mollusks! (In this image, you can see something on the mushroom...it's a BUG! I wonder if they will share?!) This image was taken in February, 2012.

I found this snail shell on the way back to the house today, laying at the base of a dead tree. Like the fern, I felt this image could use some dressing up, so I added texture and a quote! Thanks to Brenda Starr for the texture! Norman Cousins (June 24, 1915 – November 30, 1990) was an American political journalist, author, professor, and world peace advocate. Wikipedia: Norman Cousins

2 more pictures and one text note above ! :) A couple of days ago I was walking the dogs through our lower forest and I noticed a mushroom peeking through some leaves. I didn't have my camera with me, so today I went down with my camera to take pictures. However, along the way I looked under logs and kept my eyes open for mushrooms. When you're hunting, be aware of strange lumps that seem to be pushing up through leaves. If you brush the leaves aside, you may just find a mushroom! And that's what happened this morning! The next picture tonight is the mushroom I found! As I was cleaning off the last specks of leaves and dirt on the cap, I saw that one speck looked so perfectly round...why...IT WAS A BABY SNAIL!!! So small that I could barely see it, I would measure its shell to be about 1mm in diameter! INCREDIBLE!! I took many pictures, doubtful that any of them would come out well, but I was delighted to find that many turned out quite nicely! This is my favorite, showing the baby moving along on top of the mushroom! :D So cute and tiny!! Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev (November 9 [O.S. October 28] 1818 – September 3, 1883) was a Russian novelist, short story writer, and playwright. His first major publication, a short story collection entitled A Sportsman's Sketches (1852), was a milestone of Russian Realism, and his novel Fathers and Sons (1862) is regarded as one of the major works of 19th-century fiction. Wkipedia: Ivan Turgenev Explored on November 5, 2013. Highest placement, page 5.

You can also find me on Facebook ! Well, it's taken me longer to get my gusto back, but as February has changed into March, the world around me is waking up and with it, so is my passion to capture what I find. I've been out to take pictures just twice now since the beginning of the year. The first was about 4 days ago, but I wasn't happy with my pictures, though they were not horrible. A couple of days ago I went out again, and there were many things for me to find on my little walk. At one point I was staring intently at the underside of a piece of bark and noticed an incredibly tiny snail shell, about 1 mm in size! I wanted to see if I could get it in focus, and while I was taking pictures, I realized that that shell had an owner, and it was slowly turning away from me! I couldn't even SEE the antennae! I got some other nice pictures too, including some cool mushrooms and other neat things. It was a lot of fun to discover that after two months without a single picture, I have been able to pick up where I left off! Hooray! :) I thought that the best way to get me back into uploading pictures on a regular basis again would be to start a new project, so I'm doing an A-Z project! It isn't going to be daily, but it will be fun to keep my eyes open for potential subjects!! :) Explored on March 2, 2014. Highest placement, #2.