Foray

Midwest nature stories and photos. Nerdy cat mom from Missouri. Partial to mushrooms, campfires and streams. Original content with a few fun reblogs.

[lraquel]

sticky post

About LRAQUEL

Instagram: @forayphotos

I mostly write about Midwest nature or my outdoor travels. But I try to spice it up a bit with fluffy personal opinions and fun reblogs. I follow back blogs that promote anything related to my interests. I block hate, exploitation, and illegal stuff. 

Get to know me. My fun Q&As

[lraquel]

A really nice foggy day in the prairie.

[lraquel]

A post. A mushroom post!

A Phlebia incarnata fungus, she's as bright as any flower. One of the last bursts of color I found on Halloween in a graying fall forest.

[lraquel]

A mysterious mystery...at least to me.

Who is the insect (i think?) that did this? Found in a prairie this summer.

[lraquel]

moss snuggled mushroom

...along the lookout tower path in Hot Spring AK. May 2022.

[lraquel]

Oooph...five months of notifications is like...way beyond my attention threshold...

Merlin the Cat agrees.

[lraquel]

Hello? Are you still there? I've been away for months.

But I'm back. I think. Yup..probably.

Enjoy this picture of an okra flower. I had no idea what they looked like until today.

...stumbles around the updated interface and all_these_ads...

[lraquel]

No morels. Just cute snakes.

4.2.22

[lraquel]

Spring has reached my backyard.

[lraquel]

Spending time along the snow swollen river this week. I was inspired to order a chocolate shake on my way home.

Meremac River. 2.20.22

[lraquel]

Hello Friends - I haven't given a lot of time to my posting habit these days, but I'm still here lurking almost daily on your feeds.

This winter has been much different from the last, in terms of things-the-universe-wants-from-me™.

Apparently, I'm supposed to transition back to cubie life 5 days a week, find a snazzy new home, get back in shape from, you know, the last two years, and find time for my addictions to network political dramas, the expanding Star Trek universe, A03, creating more and more tasty Asian flavored home cooked meals, obsessing over my new Vampire RPG character, and making new friends (cause lots of mine just moved away - damn you inevitable career advnacments as we hurdle towards middle age). Oh, and trying to turn my ceramic arts hobby into a thing where I don't bleed money.

In other news, I was able to spend a decent amount of time outdoors after the Missouri storms. I hope to show that to you...Just as soon as I work up the energy to keep moving my body after yesterday's hike. >_<

[elizabethanism]

Crying does not indicate that you are weak. Since birth, it has always been a sign that you are alive.

Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë

[onenicebugperday]

@lraquel submitted: This spider is living on a beach boardwalk on Sanibel Island, Florida. It's adorably creepy... do you know it?

Sure, it's a spinybacked orbweaver, Gasteracantha cancriformis. This obviously is the butt/underside so it looks weirder than usual.

[lraquel]

Its shape was quite intriguing. At one point it made a web high in the trees and looked like a tiny black star in the sunny blue sky.

[lraquel]

It's alive!

Lighthouse Point - Sanibel Island. 12.19.22

[microcosmicobservations]

Can we compile a list of all of the museums that have giant sloth statues? One of my side goals as an adult has been to take a picture with as many giant sloth statues as possible. I've already gotten the Natural History Museum, North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, the La Brea Tar Pits, and a few places in Chile. Clearly I need more, but you can't just google "list of places with giant sloth statues." Thank you for helping me with this important task.

[lraquel]

We have one in Missouri. The last time I visited Mastadon State Historic Site a few years ago, the giant sloth replica still stood.

[lraquel]

calico box crab friend

Hepatus epheliticus. Sanibel Island - 12.18.22

[flowerishness]

Thistles (probably Canada thistle - Cirsium arvense) 

‘Thistle’ is the common name for plants in 16 genera whose flowers conform to this general shape. Farmers world-wide hate them because they invade pastureland and herbivores won’t eat them because of their prickles. A number of species merit condemnation on the Invasive Species Council of British Columbia’s website. Most thistles look very much the same and thereby hangs a tale.

The Scotch thistle (Onopordum acanthium) is the national emblem of Scotland. According to legend, in the eight century a Norse raiding party was approaching a Scottish garrison when a bare-footed Viking stepped on a Scotch thistle and his cry of pain alerted the Scots and saved the day. The Scottish king, Alexander lll (1249 - 1286), declared the Scotch thistle the official emblem and it later acquired the motto, nemo me impune lacessit  (’no one will provoke me with impunity’). 

[lraquel]

I like this, they remind me of sea urchins.