Wednesday, 21 March 2012
Fresh-sliced mango flesh (we’re trying for vegetational diversity during this off-season).
No photo, but we saw the huge woodchuck that terrorizes The Botanist’s garden. He (She?) was cruising along the edge of the cornfield above the garden, stopping to peep over the vegetation and check out the house (we see you!), before disappearing in the uphill direction.
Saturday, 17 March 2012
Raspberry cane sporting an…accoutrement.
Did more raspberry cane removal. Not quite finished because I switched to the asparagus bed. Did find a this-year’s-asparagus crowning the soil.
Can you say “spring!”?
Wednesday, 22 February 2012
Sorry for the crappy photo….
Yesterday afternoon, I was on one of those phone calls where you have to pay attention, but you are doing far more listening than talking. So, I saw a couple of clumpy new weeds out the back window and grabbed my gloves (thankfully) and managed to put the right one on one-handed, and proceeded out back to vanquish the fast-growing greenery while keeping up with my listening. And I started removing fistfuls of the young growth and realized that there’s a…strange…shape among the leaves.
Surprise!
I think some time back F told me this is a (non-poisonous) Storeria dekayi, aka De Kay’s or brown snake (I never would have known otherwise). This species never gets very big, and tolerates urban life in these parts.
Lesson: wear your gloves when you’re gardening and PAY ATTENTION!
Friday, 10 February 2012
In a new section of Piedmont Park, or a long-time section that’s now opened up, there’s a strange, um, pond, um water-feature, that has an odd orange scum/growth. And yet. The pond let has fee-shees, and, at last observation, three healthy looking leopard frogs.
UPDATE! Thanks, Felix: this is not a leopard frog, as I offhandedly wrote, but an American Bullfrog (Rana catesbeiana). No spots; overall generally green coloration. Apologies. Clearly, I’m not a frooog scientist….
Thursday, 12 January 2012
I confess, this isn’t from today, but from last week at the MSU Museum (Go Green!). As a kid, I spent considerable time in front of this series of huge dioramas. Distinctly odd to see them in this century. Once again I eyed the line of leaf-cutter ants in the tropical forest diorama for an unnatural length of time. Why? I cannot say.
Thursday, 5 January 2012
We got out of the house this afternoon, and strolled the old fields at Fenner Arboretum (now Fenner Nature Center—sorry), which gave us a good chance to listen to small Vs and pairs of Canada geese wheeling overhead. Next, we visited the banks of the Red Cedar, and checked out (a short section of) the riverside path that connects the capitol downtown with MSU in East Lansing. There I found this carcass—looked very much like a salmon—rather strange…filets removed, remainder left to adorn the river-access area. Hrrrumph.
Saturday, 17 December 2011
I think I’ve mentioned this before, but I continue to be amazed at the insect life I capture in close-up or close-in photos I take—critters I am only sometimes aware of when I capture the image.
If the resolution’s too hammered for you to spot “him,” “he’s” off to the right of the bloom. Why are bees “he” in my reflexive linguistic brain?
Sunday, 11 December 2011
Over at the ABG, even though we didn’t go in the Conservatory, we found strange non-local plants. And this one, nope, I didn’t even look at the name.
Saturday, 10 December 2011
It’s tour-of-homes weekend, and on our stroll this afternoon we saw many well-turned-out folks carrying maps clogging the sidewalks. One house with a sign and balloons advertising its listing on the tour had the front door wide open. Along the grass bordering the walk between the front porch and the driveway were tidy pairs of shoes.
Shoe sale there, the Guru said….
Thursday, 29 September 2011
I’d call it a killer tiger, but all I observed was toying, although I’m certain the chipmunk didn’t see it that way.