Things seen:
Landing pad for aliens?
One of Cat's intended victims has taken refuge between the window and screen. I tried to grab it to put it outside so it wouldn't starve but it stays up where I can't reach it. I needn't worry about it starving though, at least not yet. As long as the door is open during this temperate weather, plenty of flies are finding their way to this particular window.
Just chillin' out on top of the heron's head.
Disturbed a nest of walking sticks when I moved one of the brick piles the other day.
Looked up Saturday to see this. Not really that unusual. I do occasionally see someone on horseback in the neighborhood.
I looked up to see three little hairstreak butterflies fluttering in the corner of my window. Impossible to get a picture so I captured them one by one and let them loose outside.
Things found:
Marc walked out in the big backyard the other day and found this egg laying on the ground, about the size of a small chicken egg but it doesn't quite look like a chicken egg, the sheen is a little different. There are four neighbors who have chickens, three of them keep them in coops, the fourth is at the far end of the street and their chickens don't wander down this far. My neighbor thinks it's a whistling duck egg and they were in the yard, or rather in the tree in the yard, a few days previous. I did an image search and it's the right size but what the fuck duck. Just drop an egg and fly off?
Walked out into the little backyard the other morning to find this shed snake skin. Perhaps it's what got two of the three eggs in the abandoned cardinal nest.
How perfect with all the little scales.
Things thought about:
I thought I would get back into doing watercolors and got out the professional quality paints a friend of mine sent me recently since she no longer uses them. I haven't gotten any further than making a sample sheet of the colors. Does this count as a painting?
Getting paint from the pallet to the paper, using brush and water...seems like a kind of painting to me. I admit to not knowing what "three little hairstreaks" might be.
ReplyDeletehairstreaks are butterflies, little bitty butterflies.
Delete37paddington: so much nature! And such a variety. Here in my corner of the world we’re doing no mow May to promote healthy habitats for our insects and other critters. Dandelions dot the overgrown lawns and squirrels scamper in trees. That’s as much nature as we get in the city. And yes, that definitely counts as painting.
ReplyDeletelast weekend was the first time to mow/trim down the backyard since we wait til all the spring wildflowers are done and gone to seed. the lots on either side of me are full of dandelions even though they mow semi-regularly. doesn't seem to phase them in the least. I didn't have that many in my yard this year for some weird reason.
DeleteI would say that once you take the brush in your hand and start to mess with the colours, that's painting, or at the very least preparing for it, and as we all know correct preparation is a very important part of any job. Well, other than a politician maybe. No training required and few learn on the job.
ReplyDeleteAren't those watercolors pretty?! I can't wait to see what you will paint, Ellen.
ReplyDeleteI bought a watercolor workbook which is basically a teach yourself sort of thing with pages that can be torn out, with a design lightly printed so I'll probably start with a few of those until I draw out my own.
DeleteSo IS that a landing pad for aliens?
ReplyDeleteYour egg could be a chicken egg. Each hen's eggs have different "finishes". Or it could be a duck egg. It always seemed to me that the laying of an egg sometimes occurred at inconvenient times and places.
Twice in the last few weeks now I have driven off down the road to see a terrified anole clinging to the edge of the car window. I stop and help them off. Poor little things.
I have no idea what is causing the green circle but it was there last year too. Steve suggested a fairy ring but I don't remember seeing any mushrooms.
DeleteI think that mysterious circle is the beginning (or end?) of a mushroom "fairy ring." Can you take the screen off to let the lizard out? That is very weird about the duck egg. Maybe there's a nest nearby?
ReplyDeletethat's what I thought too when it was there last year but I don't recall ever seeing any mushrooms. and yes, I can remove the screen so that the anole can get out and will when we turn the AC on and I close the window. that might actually be tomorrow when the the predicted high is low 90s, heat index over 100, and humidity.
DeleteI was surmising that a snake ate the cardinals eggs, so maybe the shed skin is circumstantial evidence!
ReplyDeleteThe watercolors look so tempting. This is the time of year I fancy a bit of painting. Something about the returning light. I hope you'll show us what you make.
I'm sure it was because when I checked the nest and took the last little egg there was a small segment of snake skin in it which I suppose rubbed off from the next material.
DeleteIs there a circular water source below that "landing pad"?
ReplyDeletenope. it's out in an empty section of their acre near the street.
DeleteLots of stuff going on there from unusual rings on the grass to an anole on the screen... shed snake skin and an abandoned egg. I look forward to seeing your watercolor art.
ReplyDeleteAnoles are so cute. Which reminds me, Mike has seen skinks this year but I haven't. Maybe I'll go wander around the yard...
ReplyDeleteI have never seen a lizard in Spokane. They were everywhere in Tucson, and we liked to see them. Yes, that is for sure a painting, there's paper and paint. Spring is on hiatus here, we're wearing socks in the house and turning on the fire place. Sad, just sad.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was working last week, I watched a female mallard lay an egg right on the dock next to me. She dropped it (literally) under a deck chair. After she looked at it for a couple of minutes, she wandered off, found some shade, and went to sleep. Every year I find an egg or three on the docks. My assumption is that they're left by young female who haven't quite figured out the value of a nest. When I looked at the egg, it was cracked from the drop, so I just tossed it into the water. Loved seeing the walking stick. I think they're so cool -- although I confess that the anoles are my favorites.
ReplyDelete