POTD CHALLENGE - NATURE: CAN BE WHIMSICAL!

Unfortunately, there is nothing near to this shore pine to show its size relative to its environment in this old-growth forest. So, imagine that my SUV could be cradled between the two lowest limbs, quiet easily, with room to spare. It reaches probably 150' skyward, but it is the limb growth that looks so outrageously indecisive! Yes, this is all one tree:

POTD CHALLENGE: NATURE

This is Nature at work. The coastal seastar, below was relaxing in the outgoing tide. This photo was taken with it underwater in a shallow tidepool:
Here, it begins attaching itself to a rock covered with mussels. Such rocks are exposed only on an extremely low, or minus tide:
This is a close-up of the same thing: the seastar will "capture" a mussel and make a meal of it. The time it takes to do that could be clear until the next low tide:

POTD CHALLENGE: NATURE

Nature amazed me the other night with a sun that wouldn't set in the prescribed way. There was no color stretched across the sky; instead it seemed to all be contained within the perfect orb of the sun. Even after complete darkness, the sun hung above the horizon. This, and the ones below are all sooc:

POTD CHALLENGE: NATURE

I am still here on the southern Oregon coast. This sunset photo was taken from the front porch of my sister's home. I have never seen a sunset like this before, where all the usual colors were gathered in the orb itself and not stretched out across the horizon. The sun looks like it is a cut-out, just pinned up on a backboard. It was amazing. This is one of several in a series; the last one I took during pitch darkness, but the sun looked the same. I will post it next time.
My sister's home is settled in an old-growth forest:
I am still (and ever will be!) learning my Nikon D300. I was amazed that what I saw in the viewfinder was darkness, yet because of certain settings, the photo turned out showing the real post-dusk glow:

POTD CHALLENGE: LANDSCAPES

I am far, far from my PC with its collection of my landscapes; I have brought a new laptop to the southern Oregon coast to my sister's summer home. So, mostly I will have "sea"/landscapes for the rest of this week for the challenge.
These were both taken at sunrise this morning from the bluff on my sister's property, in front of their house.

It was a minus low tide:

POTD CHALLENGE: PATRIOTIC

This was easy, because I have been watching these plants grow and knew that soon the flags would join them. This is an entrance to a small business in our little town: