friday's fringe - 18 (fungusamongus!)

every friday. just one of my nature shots.

with an occasional 'morph' tossed in now & then.

the fungus-among-us collage

ALL these MUSHROOMS and LICHEN were spotted around our home in july & august.

"In a rich moonlit garden, flowers open beneath the eyes 

of entire nations terrified to acknowledge the simplicity of the beauty of peace."

~Aberjhani,  Elemental: The Power of Illuminated Love

lk

friday's fringe - 17 (perfectly perched!)



this new FRIDAY'S FRINGE banner is made of armadillo & raccoon bones, deer teeth & feathers.
i'll be adding it to the 'bOne dOOdle' page above...and you'll see it each friday at the top of the post!  :)

every friday. just one of my nature shots...

with an occasional 'morph' tossed in now and then (like today - TWO!)

like an oil painting...

embossed...almost looks as if it's painted on cement...

and the original...

Great Blue Heron at Rodman Reservoir

lk



first of october surprises...

the first weekend of october.

cooler weather...

cool enough to open the windows and let the fresh air in without the A/C kicking on!  yeah!

(as long as the traffic out on the road is sparse...it'll be good.

dirt road + open windows = layer of dirt on everything. ugh.)

the weekend began with this big Imperial moth hanging out on the front porch all night...

and then moving to a new spot...he spent ALL saturday too!

~O~

early sunday morning...sam's voice bellowed

"DEER ALERT! DEER ALERT!"

which means...deer in the yard! deer in the yard!

but by the time i got to the window, all i caught was the tail end 

racing back into the woods.  damn!

as i stood there...at the back door...hoping the deer would come back...

here comes another deer. a different deer. i couldn't believe what i was seeing.

it looked like cross between a deer and a Paint horse!

i raced for my camera...wishing for this magical deer to wait 'til i got back.

he did. he waited. and he wandered in the yard as i snapped away...

i've never seen a deer like this before! 

after he wandered back into the woods...we googled him.

he's a PIEBALD deer. 

they occur in less than ONE % of the White-tail deer population!

a rare sight.

it turns out that it's a "recessive gene that produces the Piebald condition".  

to many Native American people...the 

"White deer is regarded as a spirit...

an ancestor or benevolent soul transfigured from human form.

the Piebald deer is respected as a spirit in the process 

of transforming to or from the spirit world."

if he happens to get in a hunter's sight...i hope the hunter gives him a break! for if not...

"If a white deer were killed (and without remorse) the hunter might later

 lose his life in a freak accident often involving his hunting or survival skills."

a Piebald White-tail deer.

a ghost deer. a spirit animal.

~O~

later in the day...

wait a minute...let me backtrack a bit...

about 8 months ago we found
a dead 'possum behind the shed. we have no idea what killed it or how it died.

we gave him a nice burial.

i wanted to dig the bones back up after some time had passed...

and make something out of them.

BUT i never really marked the site. i put a grating over the top

so that no animals would dig him up and scatter him about.

but the grating was bigger than the grave.

so i dug...and dug...in my spare time...never finding the entire skeleton.

not in one piece anyway.

just various bones here and there.

jaws. partial skull. leg bones.

then with one flip of the shovel, about 18" deep...i uncovered a...

WORM LIZARD!

Worm Lizard/Amphisbaenia

COOL!!!  wow. i was so excited. 

i scooped him up on the shovel and ran around the yard...looking for sam...

trying to keep him from wriggling off the shovel.

another FIRST. i knew what he was, but had never found one myself.

they're closely related to lizards and snakes, they're limbless, blind & have no ears.

their scales are arranged in rings,they burrow underground and prey on smaller insects.

it's rare to see them as they usually don't come above ground unless they

get rained out and have to come to the surface to breathe.

this one was about 7" long. as soon as i took my pictures...

and showed him off to sam...

we set him free on the dirt pile where he immediately began burrowing.

within 6 seconds he was out of sight!

anyway, i'm not finished digging. 

the 'possum vertebrae are still to be found.

~O~

OH, and speaking of BoNES...

i DID do another BoNE DooDLE!  for October...for Halloween.

bOne dOOdle #9

put together with raccoon, deer & armadillo bones.

pictures snapped & then taken apart. 

(see bone doodle page above for more)

~O~

so after such a magical beginning to october...

i can just FEEL that this is going to be a good year ahead...

0ct 2, 2011   7:06:50 pm

Winter is an etching, 

spring a watercolor, 

summer an oil painting 

and autumn a mosaic of them all.  

~Stanley Horowitz 

have a good week.

have a safe journey & enjoy the ride.

laura

doodling...'S' caboodle

(bone doodle #9. deer teeth. armadillo & raccoon bones)

when i thought about doing another BoNE dOOdle...for summer...

and decided to just make a BIG 'S'...

i was reminded of the doodles my father and i did together when i was a kid.

my father - who loved to write - who had an obsession with spelling - 

who would doodle letters of the alphabet 

in all kinds of type faces...which he created from his imagination.

we doodled the alphabet together.

he would draw a random letter and i would have to make that letter

into a face or stick figure.

get it?   if not... 

i sat down and did the alphabet just like we used to do...

i don't think i ever met anyone else who had this much fun with their dad!

he was very sarcastic too. 

no, seriously...i loved the spelling bees at dinner

and creating our own fonts!  :)

ok, so i got a little side tracked.

S is for summer.

here in north florida it's been hotter than usual for june.

breaking a hundred.

S is also for sweat. which i do too damn much.

i've said it before, i'm a sweater...and not the soft fluffy kind.

so why am i in florida?

to make a long(ish) story short(er)...i'm from NY originally.

i was born in south carolina...the folks who adopted me came to SC

to pick me up and took me by train back to NY.

that's where i was raised.

i left NY in my 20's. lived in los angeles, CA for about 15 yrs.

in '87 my two sons were 3 and 6 yrs old.

since their father left and moved to san francisco...

forgetting about his boys and me...there was nothing tying us there.

so we packed up our essentials and pet snake...

and drove cross country to florida, where my sister sally was living.

she passed away a few years ago...

my boys are now in their twenties...living a few hours away.

but i'm still here...putting up with the heat...

because i met sam...and he was pretty much settled and comfortable.

besides, i had also gone back to school 15 years ago & became licensed 

by the state of florida as a massage therapist.

so...here we are...'til we retire. 

then we plan to head north and out of florida!

to the mountains somewhere i hope.

(if you happen to be reading this on the other side of the world, where it's winter...

would you mind blowing a little COOL in this direction!)

back to S.

i leave you with some S pictures!

(Snake. yellow rat. climbing tree.)

(Sandy beach. st augustine.)

(Spider(s). banana.)

(Spectacular. florida state caverns.)

(Sky. i love this. i love the moon.)

(Squirt. well, yeah, they're not really squirting...more like peeing. 

but the water's coming out of their mouths. so they're Softly Squirting...

along the streets of st. augustine)

(Sunflower)

(Sand dollar)

(Spikey. lawn aerator. even though we don't have 'lawn'...some grass,

mostly dirt. it helps to loosen the dirt so the squirrels, armadillos and moles

have an easier time digging! ha! actually it's a leaf collector.

sam says you drag it behind the (riding) mower...have not seen that!)

and...here's a picture of a truck we saw while hiking Royal Springs.

the guy was pulled up to the 'port-o-lets'...and cleaning out all the waste!

this picture fits THREE  'S'  words.  

(click to enlarge...read their slogan i circled in red)

(Silly. Stinky. and...uh Shitty!)

tomorrow's friday!   yay.  have a relaxing weekend!

(check out the bone doodle page up top there...when u have time)

~have a safe journey & enjoy the ride~

:] laura

"Anyone who says sunshine brings happiness has never danced in the rain."

bugs, dewlaps, misspelled sign and a bone dOOdle!

(florida anise in front yard)

florida.

land of sunshine.

beaches.  swamps.  alligators.  sharks.  hurricanes.  orange juice.  tourists.
and bugs. lots of bugs. flying. crawling. burrowing. biting. sucking. stinging.

luckily, the caterpillar invasion has died down.

i'm not constantly plucking them off the porch or the front door anymore!

BUT,  i am sweeping their tiny cocoons off the side of the house...
from under the porch handrail...off the porch roof...off the windowsills.
otherwise, we will be setting ourselves up for

a second wave of the tussock caterpillar invasion.

an invasion i can live without.

the 'Anoles' aren't any help either. they don't dine on these hairy caterpillars.
in fact, i've seen the lizards do a detour around the caterpillars
when their paths cross.

BUT i know what DOES think these pesky caterpillars are yummy! 

at first i thought it was a stink bug...

then i saw one chewing on a tussock caterpillar!

ok, i thought.    THIS IS NO STINK BUG!

i started to do a little research...and realized it's some sort of Assassin Bug!

they lie in wait...

then STAB their unsuspecting prey with their proboscis (beak) 

and inject a toxin that dissolves tissue.

the assassin bug then dines on the other bug's liquefied tissue.

UGH!

 the young assassins are called Nymphs.

i spotted one on the Mock Orange bush.

OR this could be a wheel-bug nymph. it's a little confusing. 

so many types. so similar.

they're very small...

it's hard for me to get a good close-up picture with my camera.  

( want to see MORE bugs & pictures? check out this very cool site! )

i know...you're wondering how i could confuse the cute little stink bug

with the terrorizing Assassin bug??!!

well...here...take a look...not necessarily the color...

but the body shape...the legs!  keep in mind, there are many shapes & colors...

here's another stink bug...

i finally realized, the stink bug doesn't have that LONG nose...neck...mouth...whatever!

oOo

another couple of weird bugs seen close to home...

this is an Army Worm (on the front of the house)

here's a Sawfly Larvae...

and a Ladybug...

this butterfly is a Gulf Fritillary...

and this little one is a Horace's Duskywing...

here's a beauty-ful dragonfly!

((thanks sam! he took this picture!!))

"The rich mind lies in the sun and sleeps, and is Nature."

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

oOo

on to the lizards. (one of my) favorite critters! the Anoles!

in my last post i showed pictures of two males fighting.  testosterone flying!

this time...i wanted to show the more lovable side of these little critters.

here they're each displaying their dewlaps...that skin hanging from under their necks...

which they stick out when they're trying to attract a female!

(on the roof)

(on the front porch)

(on the side of the house)

(on a tree)

(another on the side of the house)

and this guy. i have to give him credit. he's creative. not afraid to be different.

while ALL the males are using their dewlaps to attract a female...

this one thought he'd try a little pole dancing!

well, it's a lizard thing i guess.

and finally...what ALL the males are trying their hardest to accomplish...

(caught in the act! up on the roof!)

oOo

and lastly...another misspelled sign!

obviously, this is an Air Conditioning company.

cute name...catchy, eh?  it's COLD in the ARCTIC...not the ARTIC!

maybe the owner's name is Mr. ARTIC?  

i hope so.

"It's a damn poor mind that can think of only one way to spell a word!" 

~Andrew Jackson 

(when i have time...i'm going to make a page up there...just under the header...

where i'll post the misspelled signs as i run across them!)

oOo

OH YEAH...i almost forgot!!  i did another BoNE dOOdle!!

made with deer teeth  & vertebrae, raccoon & armadillo bones, and a small pig skull.

(begonia)

'til next time, stay cool.

have a safe journey & enjoy the ride.

:]laura

(and a final message...from Milo...)