Musings

First, the lupins/lupines are beginning to bloom! Just today; not yesterday.

This second one’s trickier. JCB and I have seen a white!! raptor!! soaring above the grasses above the field and through the orchard, yesterday afternoon and today, too. Not many times, but a few. It’s white. Like, very white. With black wing-tips and tips on the tail feathers. At least that’s what we think we’ve been seeing. Haven’t got the glasses on it.

Went through two editions of Sibley’s studying all the pictures, and there seems to be only one possibility: gyrfalcon, white variant. It’s a majestic bird.

Posted at 6:37 PM | 2 Comments »

Farmer day—I got the “garden” planted—with basil, spinach, and lettuce. It’s so small that we’ll get max 10 plants of each! Kinda ho-hum, except that this planting rejuvenates The Botanist’s garden mound.

We also did once-removed farmering, visiting Spinner’s End Farm while the alpaca/llama shearers were there.

Four guys, each knew his job. They worked on two work spaces they had set up, alternating with balletic precision. Green Shirt is the head guy, doing the most delicate shearing, with the most junior fellow (it seemed to me) as his assistant—lots of head management for his helper. The second team did the wrangling (fetching and releasing), the foot management (front feet bound and stretched one direction; back feet the other—leaving the body-barrel poised for attention), the toenail trimming and shot (brain worms if I remember correctly), the teeth-grinding (special grinder for those lower front choppers), the cleanup trimming—I’m not sure whatall.

Interesting to watch—all four shearers knew their job and was so fluid at it. They had begun the shearing season somewhere in the south, working their way north across the Midwest, and from here were headed west in the next week or so toward Wyoming (or something).

There’s an unusual occupation for the income tax form: itinerant alpaca shearer. I wonder what they did for the rest of the year….

Posted at 10:08 PM | 1 Comment »

We stayed around the place, but today was a critter day even so.

I heard Sandhills while sipping coffee.

Went out to work around the yard a bit and discovered a hop-toad in the water barrel (catches rain from the north side of the roof and porch). The Guru got a yoghurt container and rescued him/her. Major karma there….

My cousin and her husband came up and told us about the fish gathered at the foot of the bluff. They’re pretty good sized, with some stripes down the side. I’m told they’re suckers. Quite a sight, watching them roil around in the shallows. The waves were a bit kicked up, so the water’s not so clear….

And…the Guru found Tick#1 of the year. Sigh. One of the big ones with the white dot. Still walking, thankfully.

Posted at 8:09 PM | 4 Comments »

Lady-birds get a significant amount of calcium for making eggshells from consuming snail shells.

Of all things.

So, are French birds particularly calcium-healthy?

Posted at 8:28 PM | Comments Off on Complex cycles

Our good friends D&K took us on an easy hike-wander during which we saw many plants and flowers, and disparate evidence of human land use over the years. The canopy was thick enough—that is, the leaves were emerged enough—that we were almost entirely in shade. The woods were wet from the rain rain rain, as recently as yesterday. Other than birds and insects, this turtle was perhaps the only critter sighting during our ramble afoot.

From Dowdell’s Knob, we could see the swath of downed trees left by the winds almost exactly three years ago—the same storm system that caused so much destruction in Tuscaloosa—and many more places.

Posted at 9:15 PM | 2 Comments »

Police escort brought the Buddie Clydesdales to see us today. They’re in town for upcoming St. Paddy’s day celebrations—I’m suspecting, actually down in Savannah. They got here yesterday. DOn’t know what…hotel…they stayed in!

They actually delivered a small amount of beer, but not to the attending crowds. We heard it was bottled fresh this morning.

I know there’s small beer, but I don’t think slow beer is a type of beer…a brewery yes, but a beer type? Enlighten me?

Posted at 8:30 PM | 1 Comment »

Tail of a lobster tail.

The temp outside today did one of those up-down-up-down patterns that always feels so strange. Almost 70°F upstairs, which is just plain too hot for winter (February! Northern Hemisphere!) sleeping.

This weather has no connection to a lobster tail on ice, except that I saw this one in the seafood case today….

Regarding the title…crustaceans are arthropods, and insects are arthropods, and insects are bugs, so….

Posted at 10:39 PM | Comments Off on Crustaceans are bugs

Did short bits of this and that, got in a walk and looked for a hole in the overcast, but only saw a hint of it; this is from yesterday at Mukilteo. The way I see it, any town with an exciting name like Mukilteo deserves mention.

Posted at 8:42 PM | Comments Off on Avian sorting

Two big excitements today: huge, giant soft snowflakes, and the elk came to visit—meaning to rest and chew cuds.

Gorgeous! Wondrous!

And then the temps rose and the snow turned to rain.

Still the elk rested and chewed.

They stayed three hours, then stood and shook like giant wet dogs, and moseyed on.

Posted at 10:22 PM | 2 Comments »

Love the seagulls watching over the backdoor ventilation zone of this tasty-yummy restaurant….

This is behind Judy Fu’s Snappy Dragon, highly recommended especially for potstickers and dumplings. The stack of boxes to the far right are labelled “Onion King.”

Posted at 9:48 PM | 1 Comment »