Carolyn Jewel
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cjewel.bsky.social
Carolyn Jewel
@cjewel.bsky.social
730 followers 1.5K following 1.7K posts
Author, SQL Server Dev, Blue to the bone. Atheist. Hates Nazis. Working to remove invasive and non-native plants in favor of natives. AOC 2028
Mastodon Bridge: @cjewel.sfba.social.ap.brid.gy
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cjewel.bsky.social
California Coast, Live Oak in the mid distance. The sun is directly behind the tree and the shadow of the trunk is in a direct line with the trunk. The grass is green, foggy behind.
December 7, 2025 at 11:29 PM
cjewel.bsky.social
Original post: mas.to/@VeryBadLlam...
September 21, 2025 at 10:57 PM
cjewel.bsky.social
Cooper’s Hawk seen on my walk today with the dogs. I believe it’s a juvenile bird.
A Cooper’s Hawk facing the camera with its head turned to the left of the photo on a 3in diameter branch slanted mid-left toward the upper right branch surrounded by the branches of a huge oak tree. Its feet and legs are yellow. Its chest is speckled brown, head slightly darker. I believe this is a juvenile bird. I wasn’t very far away, and I was afraid if I moved closer, it would leave before I got a picture.
August 23, 2025 at 11:32 PM
cjewel.bsky.social
Badger cam. PS I worked hard on the alt text
A shot of the back of the "badger cam" which is a slender metal pole about 1.5 ft tall with prongs stuck in the ground with a trail cam attached to it. The cam is in a field of brown grass. Directly in front of the cam about 2 feet away are two badger holes roughly the size of a person's head. They are side by side about 6-8 inches apart. Between the holes and the cam is all the dirt thrown up when the holes were dug. Past the holes (top of half of photo) is brown grass which is trampled down, fallen over, or upright but not super tall because I cleared the bits of grass that were tall enough to wave around in a breeze and take boring pictures with no badgers. To the upper left of the photo is another badger hole. FYI, the cam is attached to the pole with some string from the band of my hat because I had luckily put a pair of scissors in the bag with dog treats and balls and was able to Macgyver a field repair when it was previously moved and the connector broke.
June 29, 2025 at 12:52 AM
cjewel.bsky.social
Here is a picture of the upper slope where I contemplate morning.
An old wooden bench with a back surrounded by California poppies in bloom amid mostly brown grasses. There are some purple mission bell poppies near the bench. Part of a flagstone path leading to the bench is visible to the left but mostly out of sight because the poppies are tall and bushy. To the right are more poppies and monkeyflowers (mimulus) in full bloom. The maroonmonkey flowers ones are taller and more visible some some are yellow or white. Behind the bench is a young golden sequoia, about 4 feet tall. The sapling is golden yellow with faint undertones of green. Behind that is the rest of the field that is not a garden. There are oak trees and redwoods and really tall field grass. It's a "garden" of Californias natives and it's shaggy and not manicured.
June 11, 2025 at 2:27 PM
cjewel.bsky.social
There’s lupine blooming in the field across the creek. A small one so far, not the bigger ones. I hope there will be more.
A so so picture of 7 to 8 stalks of Lupin with a bonus yellow plant could be mustard. The cone shaped Lupin is at most 3 inches tall and shades of blue, white and purple. It is blooming in a field of grasses.
May 14, 2025 at 11:42 PM
cjewel.bsky.social
In the lower field, there is some Clarkia blooming. The picture is not great because it’s windy and everything’s moving
In a background of plant stems and leaves a magenta Clarkia elegans flower: five petals that start narrow get wide then narrow to a point again.
May 11, 2025 at 11:47 PM
cjewel.bsky.social
My sidewalk sign came. The pens it comes with are crap so it was tedious and physically painful to write on this. But I will get better markers. Will loads of people see this? No. But some will.
2-sided sidewalk sign on the side of a narrow driveway. It's sitting in the grass. Hand-lettered in blue on this side is "Elon Musk is a Nazi" 2-sided sidewalk sign on the side of a narrow driveway. It's sitting in the grass. Hand-lettered in pink on this side is "POTUS is a felon and hires Nazis"
April 2, 2025 at 2:01 PM
cjewel.bsky.social
Looks like more material to me, but then she’s a small cat.
A close-up shot of a cardboard box with a side lid up that says “this box now made with less material.” There is a tortoise shell tabby cat sitting in the box looking pensive.
March 6, 2025 at 12:29 AM
cjewel.bsky.social
Spring is coming. Baby Blue Eyes starting to bloom in one of my wildflower planting areas.
Amid intensely green wildflower seedlings and grass are two Baby blue eyes. They are tiny pinky fingernail sized flowers with 3 to 4 oblong light blue petals with a white circle at the base of the petals.
March 2, 2025 at 11:23 PM
cjewel.bsky.social
Top corner of what I call the sink pond. That is a single native Californian strawberry. I think it’s happy here. This is a small pond. I built using an old sink.
At the bottom of the picture is a triangle representing the right corner of a square pond. There are some big rocks at the corner and above and spreading out behind that is a dark green native California strawberry plant taking up a couple of square feet by now.
March 1, 2025 at 12:08 AM
cjewel.bsky.social
Took this picture just now. A gray fox right outside the house.
A California gray fox. It is on a paved driveway right next to a grassy border. It is facing left. Its tail is down. Its head is partially up and is looking me in the back doorway. The gray fox has short legs and a long body. The tip of its tail is very dark. It was eating leftover squirrel food. Mostly shelled nuts. It’s just light enough to see that the grass is green, but the picture mostly looks black-and-white because it’s dusk
February 28, 2025 at 2:52 AM
cjewel.bsky.social
Sunrise
A picture taken early in the morning at sunrise. Most everything is in silhouette. Cypress trees in the middle tall and without many branches to either side pine trees toward the bottom the ground the sky at the horizon is shades of orange fading to a very pale blue
February 8, 2025 at 2:50 PM
cjewel.bsky.social
Here is a trail cam photo of the actual badger
A black-and-white photo the bottom third is white ground above that is black sky to the left of the photo. There is a badger on its back one paw in the air with its claws spread its nose is facing away. It was obviously rolling around on the ground. It’s a cute photo of an animal you don’t wanna mess with
January 31, 2025 at 2:23 PM
cjewel.bsky.social
I believe this is Omphalotus olivascens (western jack o’lantern) which supposedly glows in the dark. I think if I’m correct about this mushroom they’re a bit too young to be glowing. Not sure! I’ll have to go down to look in the dark again. #mushtodon
Several deep orange mushrooms growing from the bottom of an old eucalyptus stump. One of them is flat topped and about 6 inches across the rest are much smaller and slightly capped to the left. You can just see the guild which are a darker orangey brown. It is surrounded by eucalyptus stuff and a few wispy grasses
January 8, 2025 at 2:23 AM
cjewel.bsky.social
The view from the bench in the field.
Intensely green fields with a gentle down slope. In the mid upper fourth of the picture, you can see the neighbors fence and the eucalyptus and cypress trees. The sky is blue with some wispy clouds
January 6, 2025 at 12:03 AM
cjewel.bsky.social
A small shaggy parasol mushroom. Low to the ground very domed top with specs of light brown against cream. There’s some wispy green grass, but mostly it’s cypress tree debris.
January 3, 2025 at 12:47 AM
cjewel.bsky.social
Happy Holidays from Visting Cat!
A fluffy black cat with gold eyes sitting sideways on a table but looking at the camera. A Christmas tree and presents are on the table behind her.
December 25, 2024 at 2:43 PM
cjewel.bsky.social
In the current issue of the Baker Creek heirloom seed catalog. I would go get this catalogue just for this picture.
Full page color photograph featuring a plant called Bells of Ireland. There is a man seated on a wooden box surrounded by this leafy green plant. He is wearing a crazy array of green clothing, including a green beanie, plastic green boots, green pants, green patterned shirt, a green crocheted sleeveless sweater in various colors of green, green glasses, a green beanie. He is holding a small glass with a green liquid inside. He is squinting, his hair is a bit messy. He has a beard. He is obviously a very large leprechaun. It’s the funniest picture I’ve ever seen.
December 9, 2024 at 3:04 PM
cjewel.bsky.social
Last night at the wildlife cam. If you don’t see two animals in the picture, click or you won’t see why this is such a tense photo
Wildlife cam picture taken at night. The upper 3/4 of the photo is mostly black background. At the bottom middle is a basin of water. To the right is a fairly young buck facing left with its left front leg lifted. You can see all of the deer except part of its tail. To the right is a coyote. About half its body is out of the shot They are staring at each other Intently. I look at this photo and wonder if they’re both thinking “oops. How do I get out of this without getting hurt?”
December 8, 2024 at 2:11 AM
cjewel.bsky.social
Sunrise.
A picture of the sunrise with a dark horizon at the bottom fourth and the silhouette of tall trees in the distance. The sky is brilliant orange at the horizon. The clouds are lit up with shades of orange and gray. The mood is serene and peaceful.
December 5, 2024 at 2:53 PM
cjewel.bsky.social
The sun is rising.
A morning sunrise with the dark outlines of trees at the very bottom just above the trees, orange and above the orange, grayish orange clouds, and then more fluffy small clouds rising to the top. The feeling is very peaceful.
November 9, 2024 at 2:16 PM
cjewel.bsky.social
How I know the season has changed in Sonoma County. There are various places in the fields or green grass is coming up. Of course, everything is predominantly brown.
A dozen or so slim blades of bright green grass coming up through dead brown field grass that was mowed down in July
October 26, 2024 at 10:45 PM
cjewel.bsky.social
Picture of badger being adorable. #badgers. #wildlife.
Nighttime wildlife cam photo of a badger. It’s clearly been enjoying a role in the dirt. The badger is mostly on its back facing away and slightly to the right. Its left front leg is extended and you can see 4 very sharp claws. Its right paw is in the dirt. Its back legs and tail are visible to the far left.
August 18, 2024 at 7:29 PM
cjewel.bsky.social
Badger paw prints
In gray dirt too close together, badger paw prints. In the places of greatest pressure, the soil is dampish the darker gray. The print is facing slightly to the right. The bottom pad is a wide arch. You can see the five toe prints above.
August 17, 2024 at 10:38 PM