taz_39 | Random Nature

Some random nature from the past few days.

I saw something moving in the grass near my workplace, and when I went to investigate, found this adorable gopher tortoise chomping on some grass!

Of course as soon as I got close he scurried away. I followed and got to see his cute scaly butt blocking the entrance to his burrow.

Finally getting some visitors to my pollinator garden! I think everything is just blooming and growing at different rates this year, so the butterflies have not been around as often. But it's still the same two species frequenting my garden, the pipevine and the spicebush.

This pipevine was stunning. His wings were shining in the morning light. It amazes me how metallic they look, and the beautiful shades of blue and purple that are subtle and prominent in his wings.

Then there was this very old, tattered, faded spicebush. In many ways, this butterfly is even more beautiful. You can see that she has been through a lot, yet she was still energetic, dive-bombing the pipevine to compete for the best nectar. I was so happy to get such good footage of both butterflies, but this particular butterfly seemed very special indeed.

This next one is not nature, but I had wanted to share it and forgot.

Here is a picture of one of the first whole wheat loaves I made.
You can see how it's more dense near the bottom, with larger air bubbles near the top.
It was also kind of dry and crumbly (though perfectly edible).

Now here is the whole wheat that I made last week.
Very similar recipe, the main difference being using the tangzhong method.
You can see how much tighter the crumb is, how much more uniform.

I'm just very happy to have evidence that my loaves are improving! Very cool.