Get well, Cutie Pie

Cristiano da Matta remains in a medically induced coma following a freak accident during Champ Car testing at Road America. Despite 8-foot fences, a deer found its way to the track, and da Matta collided with it at speed.

I've liked Cristiano ever since seeing him drive for Newman-Haas in 2002 or so. He did a few TV ads that made me realize just how old I've gotten, since they caused me to spout sugary Grandma-praise like, "Isn't he just cute as a button!" (He's rather small.) I started calling him Cutie Pie. I wanted to give him bear hugs.

Besides being cute, he's Brazilian. I'm not sure what it is about Brazilians. I have immensely liked every Brazilian I've ever met. I become a total idiot whenever I meet a Brazilian, and feel compelled to tell them that. But they don't care, because they're Brazilian; they're cool. They just smile and talk to me about Senna.

Da Matta left CART for Formula One. Initially I was excited, but he drove for Toyota, which I suppose meant that he was doomed to fail... midpack teams never seem satisfied with their drivers. He went back to Champ Cars before F1 could crush his spirit irrevocably.

Maybe after recovering, he can join up with Montoya (and Villeneuve?) and try NASCAR... now that would be interesting!

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RuSPORT, da Matta's current team, has asked that in lieu of flowers or gifts, donations be made in Cristiano's name to the Hole in the Wall Camps, an official Champ Car charity.

Colors of Summer

Bellflower (Campanula americana)


Yellow Fringed Orchid (Platanthera ciliaris)


Joe Pye Weed (Eupatorium purpureum)


Spider Lily (Hymenocallis occidentalis)


One of those yellow flowers (dontknowenuf stuffidus)

Special editions

It's been a busy week. I didn't mean to stop posting, it just sort of happened. While I was gone, here's what you might have missed:

The lovely young Leigh of Alis Volat Propiis hosted a summery summary: a vacation version of I and the Bird.

Pablo of Roundrock Journal delivered potent quotes while hosting the second Festival of the Trees. (I kept looking for the thong quotes but there weren't any!)

Roger of Words and Pictures, whose beautiful landscape photos I always want to step into, hosted an elegant edition of Circus of the Spineless.

The Scratching Post hosted The Carnival of the Cats, which was organized around a cat's day - sleeping, purring, eating... where was the part about world domination, though?

And of course there was the Friday Ark.

Stressed

We finally got rain over the weekend, but the water table is still well below normal. I can't remember seeing the trees so stressed.



It's not really fall yet.



The sycamores in particular seem to be adopting this strategy.

While walking in the woods, we came across these fruits that I thought at first were wild grapes.



But they're not. When I saw the caps I realized that they were actually persimmons! Really, really undersized persimmons.



When I broke one open, they were wormy inside too.

Cat pile

Doesn't look that comfortable to me.

Ginger is the cat who likes to hide his face. He's always trying to burrow under, squeeze behind, or tunnel through something. One night this week I caught him rooting into the back of a chair. There was a crease in the fabric that evidently resembled a secret passageway.

TGIF

Time for the Friday Ark again!

My garden helpers

I've been noticing a lot of Indigo Buntings (Passerina cyanea) in the garden lately. I'm a bird nut, but I'll admit to a little fist-shaking at first... hey, those tomatoes didn't get pecked all by themselves, you know.

But it finally dawned on me that the birds were eating bugs. Especially (I think) those stink bugs and leaf-footed bugs who'd been ruining the peas. Hubby yanked up the peas last weekend (they were about done anyway), but the bugs had been hanging around still - looking to try their luck with the okra, probably.

Earlier a Phoebe was hanging out too. I believe he's the Tomato Hornworm guard. We found the ends of a few stems eaten off, and hornworm frass underneath, but no severe damage.

Thanks guys! Feel free to peck a few tomatoes. We've got plenty!

Happy amphibians

My first try at a video blog. Actually it's just for the sound, but you get to see me moving the camera around slightly.



These are the voices of Fowler's Toads (Bufo fowleri). (I think. Click on the link and listen to see if you agree.) After our recent rains, the dry swamp has some water in it again, and all is right in the amphibian world.

List of more Alabama frogs and toads here.

Upload your videos to YouTube!

Please let me know if the video doesn't work for you.

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Updated: I had second thoughts on my ID. I believe they may be Fowler's Toads rather than Eastern Narrow-mouthed Toads.

Odd bugs

I started out composing this post by whining about how I couldn't identify these bugs, even with the aid of BugGuide. Then I remembered to search on the plant name too, and voilà! Jagged Ambush bug, Phymata erosa.

These individuals weren't too happy about being observed, and crawled away to the underside of the flower when I tried to get closer.

More pics from BugGuide.net.

Vegetable graffiti

My tomato greets you.


(Just in case you didn't catch that.)


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Updated! Check out the eerie coincidence that Maktaaq reported.

Spending time with celebrities

This morning a tv show (Today, I think) had a segment where they asked people which celebrity couple they'd prefer to spend the weekend with. Most of the respondents chose actors (Angelina & Brad, Tom & Katie, Will & Jada, Vince & Jennifer, etc). A few chose political figures.

My husband wondered aloud which ones would be the best at mowing grass.

Zen dentistry

While being tortured prepared for my ill-fitting temporary crown the other day, I had a sudden moment of astonishing clarity and realization. I developed a brilliantly insightful theory concerning the substantial benefits of being a Buddhist when you're at the dentist.

Unfortunately when they turned off the Nitrous Oxide I forgot what it was.

It's Friday

Visit the Friday Ark for crittery goodness.

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Eastern Box Turtle (Terrapene carolina).


Animal graffiti.