dragonflies and fungi. oh, and two dead bats.

last week sam & i watched this show about dragonflies  (suborder Anisoptera).

did you know that fossils of very large ancestors of the dragonfly have been found...

with a wingspan of over 29 inches!?  yikes!  i didn't.

did you know that there are about 3000 species of Anisoptera?  nope,  sure didn't.

up to several years of the insect's life is spent as a nymph living in freshwater; 

the adults may be on the wing for just a few days or weeks. 

dragonflies are an ancient group. they have been around for 300 million years!!

wOw!!!

all of this and more, interested me so much...and since i have such a fondness for bugs (and fungi!)...

i thought i'd go on the hunt for some cool dragonflies and fungi.

Four-spotted Pennant - Brachymesia gravida

earth star

Antillean Skimmer - Orthemis sp

Great Pondhawk - Erythemis vesiculosa

here's a Great Pondhawk munching away on...a butterfly? another dragonfly? something!

Seaside Dragonlet - Erythrodiplax berenice

Eastern Pondhawk - Erythemis simplicicollis

well, that's it!

oh yeah, i almost forgot...the bats!  dead bats.

sam knows me. no doubt about that. forget flowers. chocolates. just bring me some bones!!

(he found these at work. they were caught up in the big roll down warehouse door. poor bats.)

i'll be roaming around blogland this weekend...until then,

thanks for stopping by & reading, or just looking at the pictures!

be cool.  be safe.

laura

snakes & bones & more cool stuff

snakes.

they're not everybody's favorite.

but you have to admit...even though you may not want to hold or touch one...

they sure are beautiful to look at.

this little guy, a juvenile Rat Snake has hunkered down in our shed for the past couple of weeks...

trying to stay warm enough to make it through those nights when the temp drops to freezing.

in the woods out back...camouflaged in the bare wintery-thorny-vines...

is another young Rat Snake (but older than the one in the shed).

take a look at this snake. a Black Racer.  i spotted it out back...in a clearing in the woods.

wanna guess how i got so close...to get this picture without the snake racing away?

mm-hmm.  dead. no blood.  no bite marks.

the detective in me thinks it froze to death.

i flipped it over...here's the underside.

you probably know by now what i do when i find dead critters.

i take them home.  bury them.  wait for them to decompose. dig them up.

collect the bones...clean the bones...and then decorate them, or use them in my art.

besides this dead one, i've found two snake skeletons along the side of the road.

so

what to do with all these snake bones?

a couple of months ago i started to make SNAKE VERTEBRAE earrings.

ok. enough about snakes.

i was surprised to see mushrooms & lichen 

still pushing their way up through the ground or clinging to trees...

 in this colder weather we've been having.

when i think 'fungi', i tend to think warm, humid. 

two more pictures...

a dragonfly trying to soak up a little warmth...

and a Red-bellied Woodpecker. 

not an easy task to get a picture. 

i can hear 'em, but by the time i usually spot them...they fly to another tree.

depending on where we live on planet earth,

chances are we're dealing with the winter cold or the summer heat.

but when i got an email from a friend the other day,

who lives in Siberia...and she told me the temperature there right now is 40 below 0...

i felt a little woozy!

FORTY BELOW ZERO!!

that takes all the FUN out of winter...don't you think?

anyway...whatever YOU'RE dealing with right now...

be safe.

take it easy.

laura

shower.dead hummer.skink.butterfly.and the moon.

our 'bird feeder'

if you're aware of our 'bathroom repair saga'...and even if you're not...

it all started back in february...with me losing an earring.

a pair of celtic knots that sam and i each wear (wore) one of.

sam crawled under the trailer to check the trap in the tub's drain pipe.

it wasn't there. but he discovered a leak.

SO, began the tearing down of the walls and pulling out the tub...

which exposed damp and moldy-ish floor and lower walls.

this past sunday...

we christened our new shower!

yay!  finally...we can wash indoors again!!

JUST KIDDING!  our place has two bedrooms, each with a shower and toilet.

but now we have our own shower again...

and ALL the tools, ladder, caulking, paint...have been moved back out to the shed.

here's a pic of sam doing the final touch ups sunday morning.

it was a pre-fab shower. walls in 3 pieces. we did everything ourselves.

well, sam did most of the work...i did the painting and some of the caulking.  

sam did the rest.  

yay! it's finished!  we did a good job.

oOo

OK

so i'm home between appointments

and wanted to get this out there.

tomorrow i have only ONE massage...so i'll have some time to catch up on my blog reading!

oOo

sam found a dead hummingbird outside the shop where he works.

even though the guys he works with gave him some weird & surprised looks...

he picked it up, bagged it...stuck it in the fridge...and brought it home to me!

(pretty soon...i'll have a hummer skeleton!)

poor little hummer.

anyway, i took a picture so you could see the BRIGHT iridescent red neck.

it was so cool. i'd never seen this up close before.

what a gift!!

better than flowers.

ha.

speaking of flowers...the jasmine is blooming. 

aaaaaah. right by the front porch. i love the scent.

SWEET!

i spotted a Five-lined Skink the other day...hiding under the palmetto palms.

Five-lined Skink

the Gulf Fritillaries are starting to come around.

last year they were all over the yellow lantana.

this one likes the Blue Mist.

(i don't know why this plant is called a Blue Mist...it's really more of a lilac color)

UPDATE on my sciatica.

my butt is sore...from rolling around on the floor...on a tennis ball.

BUT other than this soreness, the sciatica is no longer a pain in my ass...

just my legs.  a little.  especially towards the end of the day.

with stretching, heat & ice...and sam's leg massages...

it's better every day.  WAY better.

thanks for all your healing wishes.

now...YOU make a wish.

gotta run now.  i leave you with a parting moon shot.

no, no...you can open your eyes...not THAT kind of MOON shot.  

the magical morning moon. just before dawn on 15 may 2012.

“Go slowly, my lovely moon, go slowly.”

~Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner

be cool. stay safe.

laura

caterpillars. a live hawk. and a dead crow.

before i get to the caterpillar invasion...

or even the dead crow for that matter...

have a look at this Red-shouldered Hawk silhouette shot.

sam pointed out the hawk sitting on the electric line...out near the road.

facing west. early evening. dark clouds rolling in.

he flew out of the shadows (the hawk, not sam), landing farther down the line. just for a minute.

and then he was gone. 

oOo

on to the caterpillars.

when it's just about dusk, and the birds are all snug in their nests...

and you're very quiet...

you can hear the caterpillars feasting in the trees.

really. it can be a bit disturbing.

this is what the TENT caterpillar builds. in the Oak trees.

when they emerge...they emerge hungry!

and those aren't the ONLY caterpillars, competing for food.

the Tussock Moth caterpillar is...right now...

EVERYWHERE. 

not only are they crawling all over...but they spin these sticky little cocoons around themselves.

wherever they feel inclined.

on trees, all over the porch, car tires, window sills...

i hate to admit it...

the critter lover that i am...

but i've been plucking them off the front porch.

NOT squishing them...but plucking & flinging...into the yard.

so.

you can hardly walk under the trees right now without something landing on your head.

now it's the caterpillars. soon it will be the spiders.

no entering the forest without a big stick to wave in front of your face.

so what keeps the caterpillars in check?

from taking over the world?

or at least from taking over florida...

the lizards. maybe the bats? birds. baby snakes perhaps?

and other critters & bugs that have an appetite for fat juicy caterpillars.

like this black and white wasp.

flying around the front porch, carrying something green.

quite a heavy load.

landing here and there...on the porch ceiling...trying to get a better grip.

it seemed like he was looking for something.

he was.

he found it.

his hidey hole in a wooden beam...a hole drilled by a Borer bee (or Carpenter bee), i think.

the perfect place to stash his meal.

oOo

now...about the crow.

on our way back down the drive...from seeing the hawk...

i spotted something kind of big and dark...like it was just hanging in a tree.

i thought it might be a big black plastic garbage bag that the wind tossed up there.

so i walked over for a closer look and to grab that bag down.

it was a crow.

it was creepy.

just hanging there...like it fell right out of the sky.

we have LOTS of crows.

lots of aggressive...noisy...crows.

i like them. except when they chase a hawk away.

then i wish the hawk would stop in mid flight...turn around...

and chase the crows back to the trees where they came from.

but to see this poor dead crow.  it was sad.

we left him there. for now.

oOo oOo oOo

i leave you with a curly-Q and thorn picture.

“Why fit in when you were born to stand out?”  

~Dr. Seuss 

~be cool. be safe.~

laura