Cedar berries

Berries from an Eastern Red Cedar (Juniperus virginiana).

The berries only appear on female cedar trees.

There's a fascinating detective story here about Eastern Red Cedars and disappearing bark.

Locally there's an excessive amount of cedar berries, cedar branches, and whole cedar trees on the ground, due to widescale tree butchering by power company contractors. More on that later.

Another snappy visitor

Last week Jasmine started barking like a crazy dog again. "There's an alien reptile here! Right here! Right here! Right here!"

This time I had to tie her up at a safe distance, since the turtle was jumping at her. Jumping and snapping. I've never seen a turtle move so fast.

If this is the standard for snapping turtle behavior, there really must have been something wrong with April's slow-moving visitor.

The new guy was a little smaller, decked out in about an inch of mud, and feeling very lively.

How to get a fiesty turtle out of a dog's range?

I'd heard stories of snappers grabbing a stick and holding on til sundown. He'd grab it all right, but would let go the moment I tried to lift him up. Didn't take too well to being herded with the stick either. (Got to see him jump at warp speed again though.) I eventually scooped him up with a long-handled shovel and relocated him to the other side of the fence. Heavy little sucker.


I found a site with pictures showing the difference between common snapping turtles (Chelydra serpentina) and alligator snapping turtles (Macroclemys temmincki). They show our visitor to be the former.

Hot Chickens

When chickens are hot, they breathe through their mouths.

I started playing with the effects on the photo program.



Hot waxed chicken.



Solarized hot wax chicken.

Our dog the celebrity

Jasmine is rarely nippy... so when we tried to check her injured foot and she objected, we took her to the vet.

Despite planning to do so, we never got around to taking her on any "going someplace fun" rides. So now she sees them all (rightfully) as "going to the vet" rides, which she was quick to figure out that she dislikes.

The vets' office was overstuffed with people worried that they'd better get something looked at before the long holiday weekend. Other than the horse and a nervous German Shepherd, none of them looked like the two-person job that getting Jasmine to the vet has become.

In a room full of cats and lap dogs, a Great Pyrenees is a celebrity. I think she knew it, too.

When it was finally our turn to muscle her onto the scale, people oohed and ahhed at her 100 pounds. A young boy was properly impressed: "Wow! What kind of dog is that?!"

I was tempted to say, "The kind that likes to run through mud and tall grass and get things stuck in her foot."

It was a long grass seed that had gotten embedded and then a little infected. She got a "take a nap" shot (that she bore quite bravely thank you). The foot was clipped and prodded and balmed, and I was able to brush some mats out of her coat while she was in no position to object.

She woke up slowly, a little scared and unsure. Then she played me like a fiddle, lying on the cool floor pretending that her back legs still wouldn't function. My "poor baby" was apparently just enjoying the air conditioning. Hmmph.

Stop shouting those animoles

Mira and Turtleheart I owe you one.

1. Total number of films I own on DVD/video:
Free, free, set them free

2. The last film I bought:
hook line and sinker

3. The last film I watched:
halfheartedly

4. Five films that I watch a lot or that mean a lot to me:
sillyfluff
eye candy
meaningful story
heartwrenching allegory
understated avant-garde comedy

Deja vu, all over again, only with music.

1. Total volume of music files on my computer:
area times depth

2. Last CD I bought was:
indy Canadian

3. Song playing right now:
soundtrack from the movie of my life

4. Five Songs I Listen to a lot, or That Mean a lot to Me:
by nice southern boys
by Canadian alt-country group
by US-based Dylan-influenced British pop-folky
by UK-based Dylan-influenced british pop-folky
by various people named John

same end for both:

5. Tag 5 people and have them put this in their journal/blog:
A dermatologist has removed the tags, for now. I am converting this one to a true meme, which means that you only copy it if you want to.

Chicken chronicles

The hens have decided to shun their handmade nesting boxes. The only place to lay an egg is in the kitty litter box. It's where all the best chickens go, you know.

I've decided to publish some overly grainy (a.k.a. Enquirer-quality) photographs, since the public deserves to know the full story.


Your reporter arrived late to the scene.
A Leghorn was already in the box, when interlopers appeared.


Ms. Lakenvelder scoops Ms. Dominique.
A recycling flash prevented blow by blow photographic evidence, but proof is visible in the tell-tale tail.


Room for one more?


Why not.
Ms. Lakenvelder's twin sister also arrives on the scene,


and is joined by Ms. Americauna.


No room at the enclosed kitty litter box.
Forced to wait in line.
Nothing to prevent a chorus of vociferous sqawking the whole time though.


The chicken version of "how many people can you cram in a phone booth"?
This week's answer: three.


You're kind of in my way.

Me me meme

Trix at Whippoorwill has tagged me for a meme.

When I first started reading blogs, it took me forever to figure out what a meme was. It's kind of like a blog virus, only a voluntary one. Someone has an idea and then other people copy it for their blogs. The most famous is the "100 things about me" lists that you see on lots of blogs. (I haven't done one, mainly because I would find it difficult to stop at 100. I'm thinking of starting a "100 things about me before the age of 5" meme for egotistical blabbermouths like myself. Feel free to run away screaming at any time.)

Anyway, recently someone decided that people weren't paying enough attention to their memes I guess, and memes became more like chain letters. You get "tagged" or "handed a stick" or something similar. I generally defy chain letters on general principle. But if chain letters were about books...?

Smartypants version:

1. Total # of Books I’ve Owned:
They have owned me instead

2. Last Book I Bought:
on a whim

3. Last Book I Read:
in bed

4. Five Books That Mean A Lot To Me:
a b c d e

At heart I am truly a smartypants.

My more conventional (boring) answers:

1. Total # of Books I’ve Owned:
Before we moved, we ran out of room for bookcases at 11 and started piling books on the floor. We've since downsized and used the library more.

2. Last Book I Bought:
Two from Lee May, after hearing him speak. In the interest of space-saving I'm trying to use the library. Unless I have a chance to buy directly from the author. Or it's something I really want. I will probably buy John Wesley Harding's book Misfortune too.

3. Last Book I Read:
Still haven't finished both of May's, because it has taken me so long to get an eye exam appt and then to order new glasses. My eyes had reached the limit of my arm's reach, it was hard to find someone to turn pages for me in the next room, and I'm a terrible procrastinator when it comes to doctor's visits.

4. Five Books That Mean A Lot To Me:
Too hard. Field guides and poetry and art and literature and language and neurology and everything else. I listed some of my favorite authors and a few books in the blogger profile if you're really interested. It has everything except my favorite color (blue).

Since I ducked out of this question I will quote my favorite book passage for you though. It's from A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. Chapter 3 to be precise, "The Night Shadows".

A wonderful fact to reflect upon, that every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other. A solemn consideration, when I enter a great city by night, that every one of those darkly clustered houses encloses its own secret; that every room in every one of them encloses its own secret; that every beating heart in the hundreds of thousands of breasts there, is, in some of its imaginings, a secret to the heart nearest it!

That is my favorite part. I think about it all the time, especially while driving at night. The rest of the paragraph is good too:

Something of the awfulness, even of Death itself, is referable to this. No more can I turn the leaves of this dear book that I loved, and vainly hope in time to read it all. No more can I look into the depths of this unfathomable water, wherein, as momentary lights glanced into it, I have had glimpses of buried treasure and other things submerged. It was appointed that the book should shut with a spring, for ever and for ever, when I had read but a page. It was appointed that the water should be locked in an eternal frost, when the light was playing on its surface, and I stood in ignorance on the shore. My friend is dead, my neighbour is dead, my love, the darling of my soul, is dead; it is the inexorable consolidation and perpetuation of the secret that was always in that individuality, and which I shall carry in mine to my life's end. In any of the burial-places of this city through which I pass, is there a sleeper more inscrutable than its busy inhabitants are, in their innermost personality, to me, or than I am to them?

5. Tag Five People with this list.
Charles, because he needs something to write about, and I stole the smartypants style from him anyway.
Jenni, because she sent me a book meme before
Rhodent, because she has proven her willingness to go along with memes
Jenny, because we've talked about books before, and
Maikopunk, because her blog has "book" in the title, and if that's not asking for it I don't know what is.

Anyone on the list, please feel free to ignore it, you won't hurt my feelings. I'll assume that you're fed up with memes. (Jenny peut avoir ras-le-bol avec ces memes.) Anyone not on the list, no you are not chopped liver. I almost put you on it, really. Please go ahead and participate anyway if the spirit moves you.

I'll second that

This is not awesome.

First Ken Jennings comes in second in the Jeopardy "Ultimate Tournament of Champions," then local boy Bo Bice comes in second on American Idol.

The winners were good, but...

I was prepared to be crowing today about Alabama's second AI winner (both Bo and Ruben Studdard are from the Birmingham area).

Still proud of him of course. People I know, who know people who know him, say he's very nice.

But boo hoo. Bo hoo. Dagnabbit.

Damsels & Dragons

Basically, dragonflies rest with their wings open, and damselflies rest with their wings closed. (Unless they're spread-winged damselflies, in which case the wings are partially open.)


Male Ebony Jewelwing Damselfly (Calopteryx maculata).


Immature male White-tailed Skimmer (Plathemis lydia).


His close-up.

Thanks BugGuide.net and Gloria Mundi Press for the ID help.

WBHM

My husband had an appointment yesterday to record a testamonial for WBHM, Birmingham's NPR station.

I tagged along because, you know, blog fodder.

If you're a local public radio listener you may soon be treated to the dulcet tones that are the basso profundo of my dear husband.

He mostly talked about NPR's news shows (Morning Edition and All Things Considered), WBHM's excellent local arts and culture show Tapestry, and the Ivory Billed Woodpecker Radio Expeditions story that I wrote about earlier.

With luck they'll find something useful between the parts with the chair squeaking, him leaning away from the microphone, or me butting in to tell him what to say. (Sorry, dear.)


My husband (left) with Michael Krall, WBHM's Program Director. Both are infinitely more handsome than they appear in this poor photo.

For the record, I am addicted to all the shows mentioned above plus:
To the Best of Our Knowledge
This American Life
Fresh Air

It's hard to say which is my favorite - I like them all. Click the above links to listen to them on the internet, or here to see WBHM's program schedule. (NPR's full list of programs is here.)

You can E-pledge to WBHM right now. We always do.

Dang, I forgot to ask where Steve Chiotakis sits.


In the interest of full disclosure: I have photoshopped two annoying glares out of the second picture above. Wish I could fix the harsh shadows too. I don't take many indoor shots and here you can see why. The built-in flash on my camera is somewhat lacking. Also, I tend to use "photoshop" as a verb even though I use a different editing program. And, since my husband won't sing to me, I don't really know that he's a basso profundo, but his voice is rather low. Finally, he may or may not actually have dulcet tones. I'm a little biased.

Primrose path

Pink Evening Primrose (Oenothera speciosa)



Some are white, and apparently tasty. I just wonder what has a mouth shaped like that.

Edited to add:
Thanks to Ron from Toad in the Hole, who let me know that this was the work of leafcutter bees! A.k.a. Leafcutting bees.

I love the latin name: Megachile sp (don't know which one). Family Megachilidae.

Too many roosters, part 2

1.


2.


3.


1. Buff Orpingtons. We had three roosters, which was two too many for our hens.

2. This is why. The roosters fought, injuring each other and the hens as well. Many of the girls had all the feathers plucked out of their heads and backs. We tried to give away the extra roosters, but could find no takers. So...

3. Chicken and dumplings.

My mother-in-law gave us a recipe: Simmer about 1/3 of the chicken for 2 hours. Take the chicken out to cool and add onion, celery, salt, and pepper to the water. Roll biscuits out flat, cut into strips, and add to the water. Cook for 15 - 20 minutes then add the deboned chicken back in and heat through. (We also added some sage and summer savory.)

Birds

Remember the ugly ditch? We needed it cleared so the driveway wouldn't flood, but I hated removing the trees since there were always so many birds there.

Well the birds seem pretty happy about the ditch. In fact they love it.


Chipping Sparrow (Spizella passerina).

WHY didn't I have my camera when I saw the Scarlet Tanager?! A male was splashing around as a female watched from a nearby branch. In the past week I've also seen a Bluebird, an Indigo Bunting, a Blue Grosbeak, and a Goldfinch bathing there.

I can't believe I managed to get two bird pictures in one week.



This Green Heron (Butorides virescens) stayed put nicely while I ran inside to get the camera, but his/her mate got tired of waiting. I think they might be nesting somewhere nearby. They love this dead tree.

Edited to add:
Ever since one of the Dharma Bums told me about the Friday Ark, I've been hooked! Click over there to see links to many more animals. Thanks to that site for adding our links too.

Rooster antics

Well do you love me (I can really move)
Well do you love me (I'm in the groove)
Ah do you love me (do you love me)
Now that I can dance



With the way you look I understand you were not impressed...



Don't you love me anymore?

(lyrics by Berry Gordy Jr., Elvis Costello, and Albert Hammond & Diane Warren, respectively)