Retreat! 3

This is up at Bunbun Promontory, a spot now famous for being where I thought long and hard about whether I was ready/capable/prepared to be a damn dad.  Of course, it turned out I was.  Have you seen pictures of my son?  I can tell you about him.  He was very sweaty yesterday, for example, after napping on an electric blanket.  So yeah.  Now, of course, the commonwealth of Kentucky is considering putting up official signage/plaques/markers on the spot where I once considered those possibilities.  I'd hate to see state funds spent on something seemingly so frivolous.  But I am, alas, powerless on this.

Looking east

To the south

Westward

In a northerly direction

Down

Up

A rainbow this morning

Fading out but still.

Mantis madness

Maybe you all know this, but praying mantises eat hummingbirds.  Or they can and sometimes do.  It's not like it's all they eat/do.

This should be welcome news to those who've been hearing me talk about how skunks eat bees for the last thirty-five years.

Hawks!

Speaking of the Bride, her mother owns a few properties. And that's all I want to say about that. (?)

No, actually, she has a few very nice houses and has been having me go along as her comrade-in-landlording to meet the prospective tenants and act as muscle should things get out of hand. I have a baseball bat with a nail through it and everything.

I was supposed to meet her at 11:45 to show a place but then her battery died and we rescheduled for 5:30. But before I got word of all this, I was already there, and, looking into the azure from her property's front step, way, way high in the sky I saw a little hawk circling and circling over downtown D_____! How odd! Like he was in the deep pineywoods or something. Wanted to warn him that any critters in the neighborhood that he might make a hundred-yard dive for would probably taste like they say "might could."

The horror of nature

It's been pleasantly cool the last few nights, so the windows are open and winsome pre-fall (heh) breezes have been a-waft.

That must be how some weird-ass green grasshopper-like bug that can fly ended up in the bathroom this morning. Like an inch and a half long. Ick!

By now, the cats have likely torn it limb from brittle limb, but it is wise to remember that, for all the tomatoes and good things that the natural world provides, there are messed-up green bugs trying to lay eggs in your eyes while you sleep!

Plus I walked though a spiderweb yesterday and about ninety minutes later a spider was walking on my face! YEECH!

Asian water cats!! You know it!

Yes, the DDN has an item that these three were born recently at the Columbus Zoo. What good kids! Plus their weird breed has webbed feet so they can swim out and catch fish!

Water cats! Who knew?

While we are on the topic of self-gratification,

a friend reports that, sick in bed with a cold, he heard on some Dicovery-type show that a male baby in the womb will begin to pleasure himself at 28 weeks!

Nature amok, part 8 - The owls ARE sorta what they seem, which is to say AWESOME

Another correspondent sends this link, and it rules:

http://www.factzoo.com/birds/owls/html

Look at them in all their odd permutations!

Nature amok, part 7 - Morning of the grasshopper

I keep hoping, sensibly enough, that, when we are out at 5:45 in the dawn pickin basil, a hedge toad will wander up...alas, no.

This morning, though, disposing of some bolted rapini [twss], a full-on grasshopper crawled on my hand. An old fashioned grasshopper. Didn't even know those were still around...

Nature amok, part 6 - the most gross bugs in the universe

We all thought that the tomato hornbug was the worst thing that ever happened, but wait!

A correspondent writes:

Behold the disgusting bugs that eaten most of my evergreen tree.

Wiki
lowlights -

- the evergreen bagworm's case grows to a length over 6 cm,
tapered on both ends

- commonly parasitized by ichneumonid wasps [bonus,
right?]

- The female never leaves the cocoon, requiring that the male
mate with her through the open end at the back of the case. She has no
eyes, legs, wings, antennae and can't eat, but emits a strong pheromone to
attract a mate.

Ew! Ew ew ew ew ew!

Nature amok, part 5 - HOT STUFF

(listen to the Rolling Stones song of same name whilst reading)

Drudge had this graphic up, but what I really want to know is: if it's 102 in New Hampshire and 69 [heh] in Maine, what kind of hellish The Road-like netherworld is it like at the state border between these two, where the two fronts are colliding with apocalyptic fervor???

[edit: that little "1 = Coldest" key probably denotes that this is not actual temps, but some other measurements...either way, let's hope that that Tom Petty-looking dude with the weird little "aeroplane" from ...Thunderdome is at the ready!]

Nature amok 4 - KITTEN STORM

Listen: so Kelley gets home late Friday night and there are KITTENS in the street, on her porch, just EVERYWHERE. Well, sort of. Only three! And mom! But they scamper and flolic like more cats, y'know?

Here they are:













Squishy! Conjunctivitis-stricken but he's now been to the vet! We will get to put drops in three times a day while Kelley goes to Chicago. Love him!





















Kelley with Fruitbat! My fave, a good egg. Kelley can write about her experience with these kids in Vol II of her autobiography: Kelley Deal: Knittin' and Kittens.




















Li'l Cait holds up Bellpepper! Could this Dayton native be Georgia-bound? Let's hope so!

Nature amok, part 3 - COMING OF THE DUCKS

Okay, so Mike calls (which is odd, because we hardly ever talk on the phone), I call back...

Seems that last week, before the Big Storm, there was a duck living in the pool at his parents'. Do you notice that I must be pretty high-falutin', as the last two post involve friends with pools?

Anyway...after the storm, said duck was gone. No harm, no fowl (ouch).

Well, in the last 48 hours, the duck has returned to the pool - with eleven ducklings!

Mike's dad (Mike Sr) calls some sort of animal-wrangling branch of the regional constabulary. Sheriff says "Oh, no, we can't move those - they're mallards. Federally protected!"

So now, Mike Sr is duty-bound to protect these rascals!

From a forwarded "Pops 2 son" email:

I went out to the pool about 11:30 [last night] and there's Mom duck and 11 little duckies snoozing on the concrete deck by the pool. I'm afraid that a cat will get the little ones. Lots of cats running around the neighborhood, and they will kill stuff for fun. Tomorrow, I have to construct a better [!] ramp for the little ones to get in and out of the pool. And, I need to duck-proof the skimmer so a little one doesn't get pulled in and drown. I'd like to also make a floating platform that is anchored in the middle of the pool so they can get on it at night and nothing can get to them. Put a little canopy on top of it for shade to keep them out of the 90+ heat... Maybe a small color TV and a CD changer for entertainment for them. And a small cooler full of tasty duck treats (whatever they are!). And they should all have a new bike! And a ball glove! At last, I have grand-ducks!

And, yes, that is the back corner where Milo from the Descendents peed on either July 5 or 6, 1987. Probably the 6th...

Video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udqHNUOxkuw

Nature amok, part 2 - NIGHT OF THE FLIES

Text conversation:

Cory: What's the deal with all the tiny flies outside? Have u seen them?

NE: Are you tripping?

NE: None here. Prolly some fucked up
hatch. Billions of 'em?

Cory: Seriously man, I went to Meijer and people
were like freaking out and running inside. Then I got home and they were all
floating on my pool.

Cory: Thousands. And yes I'm tripping.

NE:
Weird. It will probably be on the news tomorrow...I will try to find out.

NE: It's all very AENIMA

Nature amok, part 1 - WALL OF BEES

Whoa! Our friend Chris's mom has a house on some acreage...and, apparently, A WALL FULL OF BEES!

The bees had made hives inside the wall of her house, and a bee-removal expert dude had to be called in at 150 bucks an hour (and he vacuumed up the loose bees and took them away in a box to his BeeWorld wherever it was).

Anyway - it took thirteen hours in a bee suit...

Here is a pic of inside the wall - this is just one spot, there were bee stalagmite/tites all over!

Ach du lieber! RACCOONS!

ONE street over! No more open windows for us, EVER. NO RABIES FOR BABIES, etc.

Mother's day memories

Our niece Macy:

Also, hydrangea:

Critters of Primorye!

Where?, we collectively sigh/ask? Primorye! In the Southeast corner of Siberia. Kinda like the Island of Misfit Toys, Animal Version, at least according to a non-fiction book called The Tiger which I am reading (it's about a small village being stalked by an Amur tiger). Let's see what they have:

Raccoon dogs! Look like raccoons, but are dogs!

Dholes! Wild dogs that roam in packs! One can imagine a buzzard (or some Russo-Cino buzzard-type bird) telling one of these, as the dog eats more than his share of carrion, "Don't be an a-hole, dhole!" I can, anyway. Am doing!

Nice tail!

Yes, and maybe something in the water zillions of years ago caused all sorts long and weird tails, because please check out the paradise flycatcher:

And look at the size of these cubs! Someone get Jeff Koons to make these in navy violets, stat!

Wait, maybe they are in the foreground, you're right. Still, pretend they are huge.

Obligatory "Spring has sprung!" post