Almost like art

I came across this photo last night, when I was trying to find a photo that had some bright colour in it. I cropped it, but found the darkish grey-blue background so unpleasant. Normally, I don't change backgrounds, and with the couple of photos that I have done so, I always say what I have done. Took me forever to remember how to do it, too. Anyway, this image shows two different leaf-tip colourings that were on a Venus Flytrap plant, taken on 29 July 2014. The tips were maybe half to three-quarters of an inch.

"The Venus Flytrap, Dionaea muscipula, is a carnivorous plant that catches and digests animal prey—mostly insects and arachnids. Its trapping structure is formed by the terminal portion of each of the plant's leaves and is triggered by tiny hairs on their inner surfaces. When an insect or spider crawling along the leaves contacts a hair, the trap closes if a different hair is contacted within twenty seconds of the first strike. The requirement of redundant triggering in this mechanism serves as a safeguard against a waste of energy in trapping objects with no nutritional value."

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_Flytrap

David Attenborough looks at how this well known carnivorous plant captures its prey. This short video is from the BBC.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktIGVtKdgwo

Yesterday was sunny with blue sky, which was so welcome after the very damaging summer snowstorm that hit Calgary hard the previous two days. I haven't driven anywhere since before the storm, so still haven't seen "the big picture". Just on my street yesterday, city crews were out on foot, marking the trees that needed branches removed. Now the edge of the street is lined with endless piles of cut branches, waiting for the trucks and equipment to come and deal with them. And that's just a tiny section of my street - makes you realize how many thousands of trees were damaged across the whole city. Not sure what happened to the sun today, as the sky is very overcast. It's supposed to return tomorrow, though. Later: it rained this afternoon, which helped get rid of more of the snow, but I suspect that down in our parks and natural areas there will be still be snow and slush. The weekend is looking good so far : )