Thursday, 26 July 2007
This cat is very happy because in the forty-eight hours prior to this photo-session, she caught and ate a rabbit, caught and abandoned without eating a young weasel (short-tailed), and most recently, rolled in the garden.
Sunday, 15 July 2007
We went for a walk at dusk and in the unexpected cool of the evening, the cats were out (I think we saw five). This one was napping when we spotted it, but posed by the time I got the camera turned on.
Sunday, 8 July 2007
We suffered an infestation in the kitchen, and despite bleach and serious cleaning (including under the stovetop around the burners, ick), the ants would not go elsewhere. We resorted to chemical means to reclaim the counter. (I apologize for the ethnocentric colonialism aspect of our behavior.)
Friday, 29 June 2007
Yeah, I know, an old picture: Kitch-iti-kipi from 2004..
Pearly lipstick. Ever wonder what makes it pearly? I hear it’s ground up fish scales.
Ick.
Tuesday, 26 June 2007
Today’s NYT science section takes evo-devo as its topic. I had to look up the term, and only felt mild relief to find it’d been around less than ten years. (I think.) Still…. Evo-devo evolutionary development biologists look at how molecular and genetic changes put in motion a whole set of possibilities and take away another whole set.
So, here’s my contribution. Two thoughts….
Here’s an article on the bushy tree of life, and its many branches, a more technical explanation than what the venerable NYT offers. I provide it, not merely for the content, but also for the final subhead. My response: let me count the ways….
Second is the photo above, of a mature tree next to Lake Clara Meer. Its neighbor, disfigured by a streak of rot and a blob of uncontrolled growth (virus?), I noticed, has an orange dot at eye level. I’m guessing it’s slated for removal. So this oak will survive a little longer, offering its leaves to the sun-gods and its shade to the squirrels…and me. Another tree of life….
Thursday, 14 June 2007
…and lunch, and dinner, and snacks.
An insect scourge of the Southern Gardener these days is the Japanese beetle, which has no sense of personal space. This cluster demolishes a rose….
Tuesday, 12 June 2007
Is this the year of the turtle somewhere? This is the second one I’ve seen in a month of not being in high-turtlehood places….
Weather update: more rain last night (I slept through it), and thunderboomers periodically this afternoon and even right now.
Sunday, 10 June 2007
Yesterday, we saw these pewter-blue butterflies, which seem to be attracted to the damp soil.
Saturday, 9 June 2007
One corollary to Mandatory Fun Day is at least one walk around the property. Sometimes a swim, but not this time. Yesterday’s rain, which I found a lovely punctuation to the festivities (no tarps to hide under this year, since the porches are so inviting), has changed everything. And made the lake gorgeous (yes, this is a lake in these parts—pond in the upper Midwest).
A second corollary to MFD is my personal acquisition (against my wishes) of chiggers. This year’s count is four, including one on my forearm—very odd.
Sunday, 3 June 2007
Played hooky today and headed for northeast piedmont GA, where the rains came last night (is that why the hummers were so busy?), but had gone by the time we arrived. ATL got nary a drop.
levigate
to reduce something to a fine powder or paste