Andrew Trundlewagon's photos

The pure white flower of the Ghost Pipe (Monotropa uniflora). It is a true flower, despite its colourless appearance, and grows in woods often associated with beech trees. It has no chlorophyl - which accounts for its lack of colour and obtains nutrients by parasitizing certain soil fungi, a trick which allows it to grow in the very darkest shade of the woodland floor.

A peacock butterfly. Although common in Europe this is very unusual in Canada. They arrived in the Montreal area in 1997, probably carried across the Atlantic on a container ship, and have slowly gained a foothold. The caterpillars eat nettles, another immigrant species that has flourished in its new home, and clearly the species can survive the harsh winters.

Head of a bald-faced hornet (Dolichovespula maculata). Despite the name it is really a wasp not a hornet.

Road side fruit stall, Centre Street and Des Voeux West, Hong Kong. The lady on the right is the vendor and is selling off her stock at cut price before she shuts the shop for the night.

A late summer bumblebee

Summer sky. An installation on the grounds of the McGill University Health Centre Hospital, Montreal

A detail from a gold covered sliding-screen in Nijo Castle, Kyoto, the Shogun's residence. The palace displays copies of the sliding screens to preserve the originals, however, the castle art gallery shows a few of the originals on a rotating basis. This is a detail from one of them. It is part of the Akikusa Senmenchirashi-zu, or “Folding Fans Falling on Fall Flowers” series from the Fourth Room of the Kuroshoin (Inner Audience Chamber) of Ninomaru-goten Palace. The full work features 46 fan-shaped paintings, each with a different design including landscapes, hibiscus blossoms, willow trees, and poetic themes. The screens are 400 years old, having been completed in 1626.

Place Ville Marie, Montreal, after the rain.

A green frog resting in a pond.

Flowers of roadside agrimony (Agrimonia striata).

This is the same image I loaded a few days ago of two ambush bugs, but just out of curiosity I wanted to see what it would look like if the two ambush bugs were isolated from the background. This image has been digitally modified using AI (Google Nano Banana) to remove the flower, the insects are unchanged. I prefer the original, but this, I think, gives a very clear sense of the intricate structure and natural engineering of the two insects. The Original image: www.ipernity.com/doc/319515/53413032

This is from an Exhibition of Escher's work in Montreal, and is a photo of a video installation that animated some of his etchings.

These are Jagged Ambush Bugs. Despite appearances they are not mating; this is the "mate guarding" position with the male riding on top of the female to prevent other suitors gaining her attention. When (if?) they mate, the male will slide off the female's back and consummate the relationship holding on to her from the side. As the name suggests they ambush prey insects feeding on the flower. In the Southern Quebec region there are two species that are hard to tell apart, but by far the most common is Phymata americana.

(part two): The "Old Man of Otricoli", from the mid-1st century BCE or the late Roman Republican period. (Wikipedia disputes this date and suggests it is a copy of an older bust and is from the reign of Tiberius, 14-37AD). It was displayed in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Montréal, as part of the recent "Torlonia Collection: Masterpieces of Roman Sculpture" exhibition that included 57 pieces of Roman sculpture selected from the Torlonia Collection in Italy. No one knows who the “Old Man” was, but it is an example of verism, an artistic style with the scars of old age and life carved unflinchingly into the marble. Only the head is original, the torso is a modern addition. There is something rather moving to encounter such a lifelike face two thousand years old as he really was, a complex individual, marked with the burdens and joys of a long life.

(part one): The "Old Man of Otricoli", from the mid-1st century BCE or the late Roman Republican period. (Wikipedia disputes this date and suggests it is a copy of an older bust and is from the reign of Tiberius, 14-37AD). It was displayed in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Montréal, as part of the recent "Torlonia Collection: Masterpieces of Roman Sculpture" exhibition that included 57 pieces of Roman sculpture selected from the Torlonia Collection in Italy. No one knows who the “Old Man” was, but it is an example of verism, an artistic style with the scars of old age and life carved unflinchingly into the marble. Only the head is original, the torso is a modern addition. There is something rather moving to encounter such a lifelike face two thousand years old as he really was, a complex individual, marked with the burdens and joys of a long life.

A young deer, feeding in the woods.

The Italian Navy training ship, Amerigo Vespucci docked in the Old Port, Montreal. The masts are approx. 50 metres tall, carry 26 sails with an area of 2,824 m2 (30,400 sq ft) and 30 kilometres (19 miles) of ropes. It was launched in 1931.

Seen several months ago at a local commuter station. Make Tea not War!