Bonus day
Friday, 18 June 2010
Indeed, today was a bonus day: we visited the Haus d’Pumpkin for the second time this week!
Alas, Señor Pump declined to appear today; this photo is from our first visit….
Musings
One plant, one huge salad
Thursday, 10 June 2010
Those of you who remember that my feet are at the larger end of the scale can tell how darned big The Botanist’s lettuce is this year!
However, those big feet came in handy this morning when I chased away a cottontail who was too interested in the lettuce, peas, and other tender goodies. Don’t know if the neighbors noted a madwoman racing across the front yard following that fast-moving little white spot. (If you know the layout here, you will realize that our little jaunt looped three-quarters of the way around the house….)
Changing patterns
Wednesday, 9 June 2010
Today I heard that the swallows didn’t return to San Juan Capistrano, instead heading farther north and stopping at a country club.
So, did they prefer the country club life? Was there too much hubbub at the mission? Or, is it more along the lines of the “C” (as in climate) word?
Smelled, not seen
Tuesday, 8 June 2010
If the title is a riddle, the answer is a skunk. At 4-something in the morning. Trundling by beneath our open windows, I assume. After wafting, hmm, I awoke. And smelled, but didn’t see him/her.
The photo is Au Sable Point Lighthouse, from yesterday. Wow! That lens bends reality!
Loony loons
Thursday, 3 June 2010
Sunny and clear this morning, so we rode over to the Seney National Wildlife Refuge and went straight out on the driving tour. We were over half-way through the seven-mile drive when we spotted these three loons. They slowly circled, did no feeding—we’re guessing some type of spring behavior.
On the drive, we also saw trumpeter swans (with offspring), sandhill cranes, and, yup! bald eagles! We saw very few ducks and Canada geese. We also spotted (busy) beavers, clouds of dragonflies, and colorful wildflowers.
After the driving tour, we returned to the visitor center and also did the 1.5 mile walking tour. There we found a swamp denizen we’d missed while driving—voracious mosquitoes.
What a great way to avoid chores!
Keep your eyes peeled
Sunday, 2 May 2010
I trust even the rodents noticed today’s weird weather—warm and windy. Supposed to be worse tomorrow.
Bobbin’
Saturday, 27 March 2010
Day started out colder than I expected, then got warmer than I expected, but only in the sun….
We made a brief late-afternoon trek to the Bot Garden to wander and take a few photos. Of course, most were flowers, but we also captured the souls of a few fish…and robins….
Not Vermontville any more
Saturday, 20 March 2010
Realizing we had an afternoon devoid of chores, we headed off to do that Michigan thing (okay, and elsewhere)—take a drive! Maybe it had more of a Michigan twist because big flakes of snow filled the air. Yet, the roads were merely wet since the temps were above freezing.
We thought this Sandhill Crane (Grus canadensis) was our most exciting find, although we enjoyed the whole darned wander to Yankee Springs….
Curious about Vermontville? Read a bit about this small town famous for its springtime Maple Syrup Festival.
Tooth day
Thursday, 11 February 2010
I call this tooth day because we both went to the dentist and got our semi-annual cleaning. I’m sparkly!
This mouthful, however, is from the side of a specimen in the DNR lab on Sapelo—it’s an alligator (Alligator mississippiensis).
Ah, thanks WikiPee—I see “alligator” is a corruption of the Spanish “el lagarto,” or the lizard (which in Colonial times seems to have been a general critter category; I have heard variations of lagarto applied to several creatures in Mexico).
Not in Kansas
Friday, 5 February 2010
Yeah, this was a rainy day. Meteorologists say this storm is headed north, and will dump the white stuff in the northeast. Here, though, it’s coming down in buckets.
And, yes, those are live oaks (Quercus virginiana) festooned with Spanish moss (Tillandsia usneoides).
No native Spanish moss decorations in Atlanta, so you know we drove to the coast. In said storm. We saw the front three times. This photo is from the last time, when we were on the driving tour at Harris Neck. In spite of the waves of fierce precip, we saw a flock of turkeys, and, later, after dark, a small herd of deer (we were going slowly, so no worries about a deer-Prius accident).