A Silvery Checkerspot butterfly (Chlosyne nycteis) rests on a leaf of Lemon Balm (Melissa officinalis) in Beechview.

Moss grows luxuriantly on a fallen tree trunk on a hill above the Squaw Run in Fox Chapel.

Destructive storms swept through Pittsburgh all day, causing millions of dollars’ worth of damage in floods. But after the storms came a reminder that, after all, things could have been worse.

A tiny green caterpillar climbs a mushroom in Frick Park.

Our most common toad, the American Toad (Anaxyrus americanus), sitting on a rock ledge in Frick Park.

So the astrologers and newspapers call it: a full moon at perigee, so that it looks especially large and bright. These images were taken with a pocket digital camera, which is incapable of dealing with unusual light conditions. But it was what old Pa Pitt had to work with.

Acres and acres of Lesser Celandine (Ranunculus ficaria) carpet the forest floor near the Squaw Run in Fox Chapel. These and many other local flowers may be found at our sister site Flora Pittsburghensis.

This waterfall is usually a gentle and friendly thing, as we see it here, but it can be a roaring cascade after a bad storm. There used to be two footbridges over the stream below, but both are mangled wrecks since a storm a few years back.