It’s been an intense week: I have worked hard, and I have played hard. I’ve been exploring up in the woods behind the house.

That second milkweed pod is taking advantage of a run of rainless days – it’s holding more seeds in reserve, but definitely letting many go.

I’ve… Read full post »

 

(hey folks. it’s time for another hijacking by my big brother. he’s an animal control officer. here’s what happened to him today.)

I had a weird, but good, but still weird day today.

Part of my job in the mornings when I don’t have a rookie scheduled, is Vets Runs,… Read full post »

Aw man, I gave away all the excitement in my headline. When will I learn?

See? I have nothing left to say here!

In the meantime, the original pod is empty, except for…

 

…that tongue thingy hanging out.

Some of the seeds didn’t get very far… Read full post »

It looks like wandering around, wondering, asking questions, and taking notes. And with luck, finding useful information in field guides to help the process out.

This particular post will mark a slight departure from the normal, because while I’m certainly not including all 263 pictures I took toda… Read full post »

In between looking around and taking all the photos you’ll see below, I mused about what I’m doing with my life.

Two seeds left! Maybe some kind of aster?

I like doing this. I can feel roots growing out of my feet every time I come up here.

We’re… Read full post »

That is all.

I’ve got a secret.

I’m fixing to bust.

My fellow pod has the same secret.

Here she is this morning.

And here she is, five hours later:

Blurp!

Where will this lead?

Madness, I tell you! Madness! Waaaaa hooooo!

Just gotta be meeeeee….… Read full post »

 

See if you can guess what these are.

They are wilting hosta leaves.

Aster-like flower, I believe.

Leather? or leaf?

 

J is for Jennifer. (Hi, Jen!)

[Newsflash – I forgot to include my favorite picture from the day!!]… Read full post »

My birthday’s coming up in a few weeks, and Kevin treated me to an early birthday present.
Anything that involves putting on a helmet is bound to be fun.



What could it be? What could it be?



It involves a chair lift…



…and fall foliage…



It’s zip lining! This is where y…

Read full post »

Even the Fu Manchu Bottle Brush caterpillar* sports bangs above its lovely eye(s).

If you look carefully at said eye(s), you’ll see my reflection.

I urged Fu onto my lens cap – he was on the roof of the portable screened-in porch, which Kevin was dismantling for the winter,… Read full post »

This is how most of this week month has been:

Out of focus. Meaning, the things that are actually deeply important to me? Uhhhhhhhh….

What are they again? I can’t see straight.

Basically, I have spent the past month or so working too hard, and not getting enough… Read full post »

If a tree falls in the forest, and nobody is there to see it, does it make a sound?
The answer is, “yes”. Yesterday afternoon Kevin and I were minding our own business up in the house when we each heard a tremendous boom. He stepped out on the deck, and I… Read full post »

 

Fall’s definitely on its way. The milkweed pods are nowhere near opening up, but they are losing their green.

july 24
september 16

Bittersweet nightshade berries are so translucent, that you can make out the seeds inside them.

Jewelweed – aka “touch me not†–… Read full post »

Every once in a while, you need to pull the refrigerator away from the corner and clean the floor underneath it. The only remedy for having done so, is going outside with the camera. So this afternoon, we visited the little wetland across the road. The water’s low, and we only… Read full post »

Remember my brother, the animal control officer? He’s hijacked this blog a a few times before, once when he issued a Notice of Violation to a red tail hawk, another time that involved a lot of body fluids, a crackhead, and a bar of soap, and most recently, when he impounded… Read full post »

I had an epiphany today. Those things you love to do, that feed your soul?

You should do them.

It’s not enough to know that you love doing them.

You need to actually do them.

I know, brilliant, right? That’s what you get for having an… Read full post »

My brain just turned to mush today. I was deciphering some spreadsheets for work – nasty, complicated things with eighteen million little internal references, none of the calculations complicated in themselves, but a spaghetti soup of one cell referring to another to another to another to anoth… Read full post »

oh, the precious golden days are on the way out. I struggle between wearing t-shirts, and flannel shirts. I’ve been crazy-busy at work and haven’t spent much time outdoors – for shame! for shame!

Most thistles are on the way to white puffballs – this one still had purple bits… Read full post »

Would you look at the size of his forearms? He’s like the Popeye of little green flies. I have already submitted this to bugguide, and I’ll bet by the time I’m through drafting this post, some bug nerd  afficionado will have provided an ID. GOD, I love the interwebs.  Nearby,… Read full post »

Remember the flower that vanished yesterday, and how I was going to do a drive-by this morning and sneak up on it? It worked. Purple flowers up the wazoo.

This plant was nearly as tall as I am. Crappy, overexposed shot – let’s show you the color a little… Read full post »

On a run this morning, I noticed one last batch of a lovely purple-blue flower at the top of a hill about a half mile from the house. I’ve never photographed it before, so this afternoon I went for a walk to investigate. Much to my consternation, when I got to… Read full post »

Asters, all done and ready to cook up seeds.

A solo diner.

Don’t.Freaking.Touch.Me.

[I had to prop this thistle flower upright to get this shot – you can see they’re all drooping in the last shot – and that’s my t-shirt wrapped around my finger at… Read full post »

It’s been a whirl of travel and work since my last post. Visits with lots of old friends. Followed by a ton of work. Today I delivered mass of permit applications I’d been immersed in for weeks on end to state offices (for my job), and then handed out samples of… Read full post »

Part One: They are not called day lilies for nothing.

While we were traipsing around Pittsburgh last week, the day lilies at the side of the house were going great guns, leaving us only one flower, and one bud, to enjoy upon our return

Yesterday.

Note the weird extra… Read full post »

Hello Sports Fans! It’s time for my biennial bitch about the road signage in Pittsburgh. Or, as a high school classmate of mine observed, “what signage? where?†In short, Kev and I went on a road trip this past week, to visit family. We drove across the scenic Undulating Plateau that… Read full post »