common_nature | A future fossil, and a moment of strange beauty in embotherance.

Content advisory: the following images portray animal decomposition and a messy (though not scatological) plumbing mishap, respectively.

This is the very first photo I took in the process of exploring my new surroundings in Florida. I was recovering from a lengthy illness and a lengthy road trip, and coming to terms with a discombobulating succession of life upheavals; accordingly, I began with a local animal in no condition to evade me.

This roughly crow-sized bird (species and cause of death unknown) lay in an oddly heraldic position suggesting a necromancer’s coat of arms, on the disheveled curb strip of a business that was both recovering from Hurricane Ian and changing hands—likewise in a state of transition. The red spot at heart level is a dried wild fruit of some sort.

Taken on 4 June 2023 at 19:48 U.S. Eastern Daylight Savings Time:

Some while later, I suffered a clog of mysterious blue-gray residue in my bathroom sink (don’t worry; it’s long since been dealt with, although not conclusively explained)—and was fascinated by the delicate poinsettia-like radial pattern created when the water finally receded.

Taken on 20 July 2023 at 14:16 U.S. Eastern Daylight Savings Time:

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minoanmiss

Pareidolia!

Thesea re very evocative photos.

ysabetwordsmith

These are beautiful to me.

gremdark

Definitely the loveliest plumbing mishap I’ve seen recently

full_metal_ox

Thank you (plumbing mishaps would seem to be an odd area of aesthetic connoisseurship, but I was the one who raised the subject.)

I see that your account is newly created; welcome to Dreamwidth!

zenigotchas

Those bones are beautiful... But I also feel for the bird. I hope it was a natural death.

Wildlife deaths don’t tend to be peaceable ones, and my neighborhood is full of noisy inter-avian conflict—but I’m hoping it wasn’t a needless anthropogenic death, from something like a car, pesticide buildup, or some asshole with a pellet gun.

Oh yeah if the bird has to go in a violent way, I'd prefer it be nature on nature violence and not some act of human interference either (ie. people who shoot birds for "fun," outdoor cats, glue traps, whatever)

Domestic cats are allowed to live here, but not to free-range—precisely because of all the protected small wildlife. (I’ve yet to see an outdoor cat in the two years I’ve lived here, possibly in part because my apartment complex forbids pets.)

That sounds wonderful I wish my neighborhood was like that! (I don't think cats shouldn't be pets, I just want them to stay indoors, for the good of wildlife and for their own safety)