An unusually mild and wet winter so far: though January has come, there are still flowers blooming here and there, as these pot marigolds (Calendula officinalis) in Bellevue. That will probably change as cold weather moves in over the next few days.

A late-autumn scene in Mount Lebanon: a babbling brook and thousands of yellow leaves from sugar maples.

The Gathering Storm from Father Pitt on Vimeo.

Yesterday’s storm clouds as they gathered over Mount Lebanon. This video has no sound, and nothing happens in it except clouds moving. If, like old Pa Pitt, you find clouds fascinating, you might like it. The rest of you will be completely bored for just three seconds shy of a minute.

Storm clouds are moving across the area, bringing welcome relief from the heat, but also lightning, strong winds, and power outages.

A Black Swallowtail (Papilio polyxenes) visits the flowers of a Butterfly Bush (Buddleia davidii) in Beechview. If you like butterflies, a butterfly garden is easy to put together and beautiful in its own right. The Butterfly Bush is a good start; milkweeds (Asclepias spp.) and coneflowers (Echinacea spp.) will also bring crowds of butterflies.

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A moment of serenity by a babbling brook in Fox Chapel, swollen with spring rains.

A stream tumbles down into a hollow in the woods in Fox Chapel. Spring rains have swollen all the streams and made delightful waterfalls everywhere,

…and that, of course, means new flowers appearing over at Flora Pittsburghensis,  such as this tiny but cheerful Hairy Bittercress (Cardamine hirsuta).