Saying yes...

Heed the Orb!!!

Animules...

Mr. Handsome has developed a taste for tomatoes. He's a known apple junkie, but I guess has decided to branch out to Love Apples as well. If I'm not swift and alert when passing our row of tomato plants, Mr. H manages to stealthily snag one, whereupon he makes a beeline for the house, and once inside the house, makes another beeline for the top of the stairs where he crunsh, crunsh, crunshes... I've seen this happen enough that I know now what to look for before coming in... his mouth, semi-shut, lips in an o formation. Also, copious amounts of drool cascading down from his drooping drool sacs.

The below photo was taken right after he devoured his top of the stairs snack and decided to venture back down to see if he was in trouble. I don't know... do you think he looks guilty?

Another animal that is finding food in our yard is one of a pair of hummingbirds that hangs out. This one though has taken to perching on the feeder for 30 minutes or more every morning. Excuse the crappy photos, but I have to take them between blind slats. I can open the slats and it won't bother her, but if I pull the blind all the way up, there's not enough to distract her from the coffee-drinking human on the other side of the pane.

Thunder? Do you have something to tell us??

As seen on the internetz...

I see your water snake and raise you a monster!

FYI: My left foot is in this photo, but since this creature is so enormous, my foot doesn't even register!!!

My lawn is littered with these... you can't walk through it without hearing crunsh, crunsh, crunsh... the grass muffles the crunch ever so slightly.

Random Nature

Thunder's Columbine photo made me think of our volunteer Columbine in the front of our house. It's not in a good spot. I've tried to dig the damn thing up to move it a couple of times... tried to kill it a few other times, but it's going nowhere.  I'm more of a fan of single petaled fleurs as opposed to the fancier pom varieties, but this is still awfully pretty

Also... a photo of a volunteer bunny... also thriving. We had a family of them nesting by the happy, happy bird feeder. Sorry for the poor photo. Those little boogers are fast!! Zipping from one protective plant to another.

 

Photography challenge for thundra...

1) Something biomorphically and geometrically pleasing.

2) Something autobiographical.

3) Something hopeful.

4) Something WEIRD!

5) Something enigmatic.

6) Something under-appreciated.

7) Something nostalgic.

8) Something swirly, curly, lurly-lurly...

9) Something gagtastically artistic.

10) Something humorous.

11) Something delicious (not food).

12) Something softer than it looks (no kit-TENS).

13) Something with amazing balance yet asymmetrical.

14) Something revealing (no moobs).

15) Something discreet.

16) Something unexpected.

17) Something where the feeling when you took the photo jumps off the page and makes us feel like we experienced it as well.

That's all! :)

Thundra... I've got a shoe for you...

I forgot... it's still February in Chicago...

Ahem, BG... (Updated!!! With Thunder and Lightning!)

Your mentioning your red/white/blue t-shirt with large peace sign necklace had me thinking back to favorite ensembles when I was around that age. I remembering pestering my mother for this beauty!! One of my best friends had the more patriotic color combo. I went for harvest gold/brown! w00t!

I also wore mine with a stunning harvest gold jersey knit peasant blouse (50../50 blend), or an equally scary harvest gold, 100% plastic buttondown. No pure cotton back then. Actually, here's the description of the shorts/skirt:

Acrylic knit bonded to acetate tricot! Mmmm, breathable! No wonder it had a zipper! You'd suffocate otherwise!

I wish I had a photo of the shoes... they were brown and were called, "Charlie Brown Shoes". I don't remember why, but I can see them in my mind. I'll have to search the almighty Google to see if they mention those. I don't know if the name was regional or national. My one sister and I both had them.

UPDATE!!!

My time machine info retriever has delivered a photo of Mr. Thundra... circa 1970... It would be selfish of me not to share. :) Sorry for the poor quality. The time machine does not have a working scanner.

I think Thundra missed his calling as one of The Brady Bunch.

Showing Thundra the bird...

Not to detract from Mr. Handsome down below, or ZRM, but I had to share a photo of some cute leetle birdies that were hanging out just outside my living room window.

Grizzled and the lamblets were off for his sister's 12th Night celebration... While it's always a good time, I've created my own 12th Night celebration... staying home with the dahgs and deholidayizing the house. Yeah, I know, I'm sure most of you would rather continue celebrating instead of undecorating a tree/house, but to me, it's a welcome break after a month of yuletide cheer.

It was another sunny, warm, unseasonal day yesterday. Our main Christmas tree is placed right by a bank of windows so tree goodness can be seen both inside and out. While defestooning the tree, my eye caught movement in the bush directly outside. It was full of cute little juncos and sparrows, basking in low-angled afternoon sunlight! I ran for the camera, knowing any shot I took would have the challenge of window glare, but I tried anyhow. There were probably 7 in the bush (not sure of the value of this to one in the hand), with the gentle glow of afternoon sun on their poofy little birdy bodies. I was able to catch 4. They looked very content.

I just took a closer look at the photo, and think I caught 5. There's one that is camouflaged towards the bottom right.

Click to enlarge and find all of the hidden birds! Extra points for anyone who finds the crocodile.