The China Creek North pollinator Meadow is popping off right now! Thanks to all the hard work and help from volunteers, it's become a space really beloved of the community. If you're ever in the northeast corner of Mount Pleasant here in Vancouver, make sure you come by and visit 🌱

Just a little Rhamphorhyncus enjoy a fishy snack for fun.

I hope you all have some peaceful and stressless holidays! ❤️ My husband and I don't buy each other Christmas gifts. We just buy our own and then pretend the other gave it to us. So I would like to thank @robinbougie.bsky.social with all my heart as visions of prehistoric forests dance in my head🌲🪴

Late summer at the boulevard garden. As a shoe-box apartment dweller, I'm so grateful to have the privilege of caring for a tiny patch of Earth to help decompress from the day and world events 🌱

One of my fav paintings to come out of the Vancouver island art retreat!

Happiest of birthdays🥳 my true love @robinbougie.bsky.social He is my best friend, he makes me laugh constantly, he is a supportive team player and the best human I've ever met ( our nicknames for each other is Frog and Bear) 🐸🐻

Today's pics from the China Creek North Pollinator Garden are of fuzzy bumblebees and a beewolf. Like the name suggests, the beewolf is a wasp that hunts bees as food for its young. Some of the nectar rockstars right now are Sea Holly, Globe Thistle, Canadian Goldenrod and Yarrow 🌱

Summer evenings in the China Creek North Pollinator Garden are magical. As the sun sets over this east-facing hillside it illuminates the tops of the plants and reveals thousands of pollinators as pinpoints of light zipping around as they travel from flower to flower. 🌱

Took out the microscope to look at some small purple Nepeta or Catmint flowers and buds. You can see the glistening pockets of fragrant oils on the bud that gives it that sage/mint smell. Fortunately the cats couldn't care less about this plant as I'm growing many cuttings on our balcony. 🌱

Took the bus up to Whistler. We had a great time exploring the turquoise blue glacial lakes and streams. We walked through a grove of trees where bears like to sharpen in their claws 🐻 (and leave behind big poops).

Mountain botanizing! Pacific Coral Root (Corallorhiza mertensiana) a parasitic orchid that doesn't photosynthesize or produce roots. The Pipsissewa (Chimaphila umbellata) is a partial myco-heterotroph. Then our native Columbia Lily (Lilium columbianum) and Sickletop Lousewort (Pedicularis racemosa)🌱

I just luvs them.

As the Phacelia fades in the pollinator garden, the Clarkia blooms and becomes the star of the show. One of my favorite things about this PNW native flower is how every plant has a different pink color scheme, but also how the Leaf-cutter bees cut notches out of the petals to use in their nests 🌱🐝🌸

Parkbus is a service that helps us car-less city dwellers get out into nature. They had a special deal for only $30 round trip from Vancouver to the Othello Tunnels in the Coquihalla Canyon and also the town of Hope, which leans into the fact it's the filming location for the Rambo movie First Blood

After removing over 200 invasive blackberries and a metric ton of Reed Canarygrass, the public pollinator garden that we took stewardship over last year is really starting to come into its own. Special thanks to the volunteers that help make it happen 🌱

It wasn't a huge turn out here in Vancouver, but what we lacked in size we made up for in passion and intensity! #fuckfascism

The flowers of the Sarracenia, also known as North American Pitcher Plants are my absolute favorite. They are so elegant and graceful for a plant that devours insects for a living 🌱

A large Edmontosaurus regalis is giving the side-eye to a young Tyrannosaurus. Rex that's just passing by.

A large mosasaur finds a meal in a Komoksodon kwutchakuth. Named in honour of the K'ómoks people of BC and the word for shark, kwutchakuth, in the Comox language. The diving birds are Maaqwi cascadensis whose fossils were found on Hornby Island here in BC. Ma'aqwi means "water bird" in Coast Salish.

Hello Vancouver iNat users! The China Creek Pollinator Garden is now an iNat project: China Creek Park Pollinator Garden 2025. Which means any observations of insects (and other invertebrates), birds, mammals and plants will be recorded and we can demonstrate the importance of urban green spaces.

New painting! Featuring a pod of Stenopterygius

There's not much I can do about the state of the world, but one thing I can do is to get people to look at more bugs. I'll be handing out bee-ingo cards while working in the Pollinator Garden once the flowers are up. If you get four in a row you get a sticker.

Shaturday Morning Cartoons - Cadillacs and Dinosaurs with @rebdart.bsky.social 🦖🦕🦖🦕🦖🦕🦖🦕 youtube.com/live/A12SOwV...

A selection of paintings available in my online store: www.laurabifano.com/shop

I'm taking a look at the Rhynie Chert again, so I made a quick size chart of the plants I've already illustrated from it. These plants are some of the earliest land #plants, being from the Early #Devonian. From left to right: Asteroxylon, Horneophyton and Aglaophyton. #paleoart #paleobotany #sciart

Seeing the first spring Bumble Queen with pollen all over her face has helped suppress the existential dread for at least a moment.

Hey ! Merci pour l'artshare 💕 Je m'appelle Rine et je fais des fleurs en papier crépon 💐

Happy Valentine's to @robinbougie.bsky.social Over 30 years of marriage he is my rock and the most wonderful person I've ever met. His strengths are my weaknesses and vice versa, we are stronger together than apart. Our sappy pet names for each other are Tender Bear 🐻 (that's me) and Sweet Frog🐸

Will get up early tomorrow (wed) and go live with pre-orders for the FIRST volume of my brand new book series, SONIC SEWER! It's packed with music trivia, reviews, unusual stories from my own life, and SHITLOADS of amazing art! This might be the best thing I've ever done. cinemasewer.storenvy.com

Wowsers! Thank you for all the new follows 😃 I really appreciate each and everyone of you. I'm hoping 2025 will offer me more time to post personal art. I've also been busy taking the Vancouver Master Gardeners course, which is through the Van Dusen Botanical Garden. It's been a nice distraction 💚🌿

Weekend respite. Your bucolic TYRANT® moment of Zen... __ ©2025 Stephen R. Bissette

I've got a new book coming out next month - all about how prehistoric plants changed the world - and I'd love for it to bloom wildly when it comes out. Pre-orders make a massive difference, so please consider ordering a physical, ebook, or audio copy, and asking for it from your favorite library 🌱

Fleeing Facebook and Instagram? Discover one of the best corners of Bluesky: the SciArt Feed 🐡. 🎨 Hundreds of artists 🧪 Science-focused ✅ Curated contributors 🥳 No NFTs or gen AI Like & pin it today:

Choices on Bluesky go beyond reactionary politics and anger farming. With the SciArt Starter Pack, get thought-provoking images from over 100 selected artists engaged in science. Plus, add the popular SciArt Feed 🐡 to your skyline. ✨And no AI images.✨ #medsky #academicsky 🧪 🎨 #illustration

Finished January of the China Creek North pollinator garden phenology wheel. The dandelion leaf represents the nice lady that gathers them for her pet bunny. Since the weather has been so unseasonably warm many lupine sprouts are popping up through the dead stems and seed pods.

Personally 2024 was a tough year. Both of my parents passed away, another family member is struggling with terminal cancer. There is still so much to be grateful for; friends, family, my husband and the little things in life. Everyday on this side of the grass is a good day. Cheers 🥂

A study in 2014 points to much of the ice-age megafauna having had diets high in nutrient rich flowering plants. Of course flowering plants need pollinators, Mason bees, bumblebees and leafcutter bees most likely provided those services. The large and small interconnected in a complex relationship.

Just imagine the sound of the rain blooping on the lake water while ravens croak in the distance. One of the great things about this gray, rainy Vancouver weather is that Stanley park is very quiet. It also really brings out the cool fungus.

Hallopus victor - A #jurassic crocodylomorph from the Morrison Formation. #paleoart #sciart #croc

Forest Interior with Jinzhousaurus. Miguel, 1924. My last piece of the year, inspired by Ludvig Munthe's 1870 painting "Forest Interior". #paleoart #hadrosaur #sciart

Aenocyon dirus skull (digital painting) #paleoart

Have yourself a merry little Carboniferous. #Art #SciArt #PaleoArt #Inverts

Pearly everlasting (Anaphalis margaritacea) is a common and widespread native wildflower across N. America. It is an important host plant for the Painted Lady butterfly 🦋 and bees 🐝 adore it. It's perfect for sunny dry areas. It's named for its pearly sheen and it makes an excellent dried flower.

Common sneezeweed (Helenium autumnale) is the worst common name for this beautiful flower. It doesn't make you sneeze, but was used as a snuff. A native to the Pacific Northwest it is perfectly adapted to our wet Winters and dry Summers. It is also an absolute native bee magnet 🧲🐝

Hello Vancouver friends! A fellow Green Street Gardener is no longer able to care for this established roundabout garden at 8th and Blenheim. There is a nearby water source. If you're interested you can apply through here: vancouver.ca/home-propert...

Last spring I commissioned my father-in-law to build me a flower press. I like making these bookmarks with pressed flowers, leaves and weeds that I collected throughout the summer. The color is added by using tissue paper. It's nice to have a little artistic hobby with low stakes.

In a rare occurrence of not having any freelance to do in the morning (I'm up between 4 and 5 a.m.) is a perfect time for a quick study. This is the Western Red Columbine (Aquilegia formosa) that bloomed at my streetside garden garden in Spring. Hummingbirds love it!

There is beauty in the pollinator garden year round and early winter is no exception.

Early Bird #SciArt #paleoart #artbyjulio