Andrew Trundlewagon's photos

Erythronium americanum , trout lily, Erythrome d'Amérique. A spring ephemeral common in Eastern Canada and United States, the trout lily grows on the floor of woods, where it flowers very early in Spring before the trees open their leaves and cast the forest into shade. It takes 4-7 years to flower and is found in colonies that, it is said, can be hundreds of years old. Its seeds are dispersed by ants. They find the seed coat irresistible and carry the seeds back to their nests. After eating the outer waxy seed coat they discard the kernel, which then grows safely underground inside the ant nest, In addition, the mature bulb or corm sends out shoots called droppers that rise to the surface and then grow back into the soil where they form new bulbs allowing the plant to spread asexually. The only member of this family Europe is Erythronium dens-canis , the dog's-tooth-violet, but, although the flower shape is very similar, the colours are different witht he European flower being lilac or pink. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erythronium

A small piece of polished Brazilian agate, photographed with a cell phone and magnifying lens. Curves and circles, a fractal-like swirls frozen in stone.

Man, bear, beer, no further comment. (From a restaurant, Montreal).

Dancing fossils. This is a bird fossil (cast);130 million years old from China. It is roughly the size of a sparrow ("Liaoxiornis delicates, Royal Ontario Museum. Toronto).

A pair of fossil birds, Confuciusorni dui, from China, 130 million years old, united in death. Probably a female and male. In the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto.

An Ichthyosaur fossil in the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto; from Germany, Baden-Wurttemberg: Holzmaden; A kind of reptilian dolphin.

Fading roses,

Sculpture, Toronto. "Tembo, mother elephant and calves". This was taken using a cellphone and then converted into "Drawing" mode in the phone.

Snow and sleds, Toronto, December

Winter games, December, Toronto

A blue jay in autumn.

Sea-doo, Thousand Islands, Ontario

A squirrel waits in the cold hoping for peanuts.

The last roses

A mural in an alley Montreal. I don't know if the melting watch on the mans wrist is a comment on the nature of time or reference to some of Dali's painting like "persistence of memory" which are strewn with melting clock faces.

Earlier in the year in mid-autumn.

A mother deer feeds her youngster. It is not the clearest shot as they were quite deep in the woods, and it does not show in a still image but the young fawn was so excited, waving its tail vigorously.

I don’t expect too many people to care for this one. First, it’s a beetle, second, it’s a black beetle. It is an oil beetle, (Genus Meloe, there are several species and they all look the same to me). When threatened they pump out a fluid from between their leg joints that contains cantharidin, a compound that is more than a little nasty. In small doses it is reputedly an aphrodisiac, the famous Spanish fly is based on cantharidin, but consume too much, (and by all accounts, a little is too much), and a grim, writhing, agonizing, death ensues. Their reproductive habits also tend toward the macabre. The female lays eggs in burrows. The first generation of larvae hatch, crawl up plant stalks to settle in flowers. Here they are picked up by bees. In fact, some oil beetles emit pheromones that attract male wild bees. The larvae climb aboard the bee. The male bee mates with a female bee, and the larval oil beetles are transferred to the female. One web-site referred to this transfer as 'six-legged venereal disease', which is a troubling comparison but apt. The female bee lays her eggs and stuffs the nest with pollen. Meanwhile, the oil beetle larvae having dropped off the mummy bee, set about to eat the pollen. Then they eat the larval bees. Then they make themselves scarce without so much as a thank you note.