time to peek in...

i'm back.

where have i been?

nowhere in  particular. right here.

living life.

reading books. a lot!

taking pictures. a lot!

enjoying...

a purple passion flower

i've thought about entering blog-land...many times.

but for some reason i just couldn't get motivated to do so.

this morning

emo found a snake in the garden...right by the front steps.

fortunately he (emo) was smart enough to leave it alone!

i did pick him (emo) up and bring him indoors...just to play it safe...

while the  VENOMOUS Moccasin  moves on!

pretty, eh?

(pretty scary too!)

a snake.  

it's the year of the snake.

and i was born in a snake year too.

so i thought it an omen!??

today seemed like a good day to poke my head in and say 'hi'.

i want to ease my way in.

one of the reasons i took a blog hiatus, was i started to feel overwhelmed.

now i plan to take it slower.

less often posting...and not trying to read every post of every blog i follow!

so

come on in

and enjoy a few pictures.

tiny tree snail, out back at the edge of the woods.

a Fence lizard

the next two pictures are of STINK BUGS!

stink bug nymphs

Green stink bug

one morning in may...about 7am, i looked out the back door...

and here's what i saw!!  a Barred Owl perched on the bird feeder...looking right at me!!

a Barred Owl

this is one of my favorite dragonfly shots i've taken lately (in june)!

perched on a cactus

a Zebra Longwing - the state butterfly for florida...feeding on lantana

about dem bOnes.

of course i'm still into bones.

finding them. cleaning them. turning them into...art?  jewelry? it all depends...

a hog skull my son travis found for me! =)

another great find!

i'm pretty sure these are Opossum feet!!

ok

the end is near.

ONE more thing to mention.

emo!

he sure has grown!!

and what a personality!

he is a butterfly, dragonfly, mole & mouse chaser.

he is an expert climber,

drinks out of the sink faucet,

and still sucks on our fingers at night.

here he is...deep n thought.

and here he is...passed out in sam's lap.

“No need to hurry. No need to sparkle. No need to be anybody but oneself.”

~ Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own, and Three Guineas

stay cool.  be safe.

laura

friday's fringe - 12 (stinky)

a 'stink bug' nymph clinging to a couple of dried pine needles

every friday. one of my nature shots.

(with an occasional 'morph' tossed in now and then)

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...)

a bevy of bugs...and other meanderings

(dogwood...blooming all over town...)

every day, little crawly...
creeping...
flying...
critters
are making their way out of hiding!
the sun's warmth is bringing out new growth on plants...
budding...flowering...and the ground is heating up.

this week...between appointments, chores & errands...

i was able to get some pretty cool pictures...wandering around the yard...

B U T T E R F L I E S!!  

and grasshopper, lizards, woodpecker, inch worm, stink bug...

(the Tiger Swallowtail feeding on an  Azalea)

(fence lizard)

(anole, sunning himself on the side of the house)

fuzzy mushrooms anyone?

(Spicebush Swallowtail...at mud pit, up the road...)

"Butterflies are self propelled flowers."  

~R.H. Heinlein 

oOo

one day...in the late afternoon...when i was out back watering the plants...

i heard the sound the woodpecker makes as he's hopping down a tree, toward the ground.

i dropped the hose, grabbed my camera...and kept my eyes open.

wow! they move so fast! up and down...side to side...backside & front side of the tree....

finally. i got him!  a little blurry, but it was the best i could do.

(Pileated Woodpecker)

(grasshopper...on the Azalea bush)

this is a cardinal.  the picture was not what i expected. 

sometimes it's like that. you see things one way, 

but then the picture comes out totally different.

almost a silhouette.   pretty cool blunder, i thought!

he's singing...i caught him in mid-note!

oOo

about a week ago, sam and i forged our way through the underbrush and

downed trees...out back.  i love to go wandering out there...even though i inevitably  

come home with bleeding scrapes from the thorny vines...and a tick or two.

the maple trees back there are dropping these little seed pods. 

well, they don't really drop...but when they fall from the trees individually, 

they twirl to the ground like a helicopter!

as soon as i saw them...i was reminded of when i was a little kid.

we called them pinocchio noses.

why?

because we'd peel open the end with the seed...and it would be sticky inside...

then we'd stick them on the end of our noses! 

cwazy kids!  the ones we had up north (NY) were way bigger!

or maybe i was just way smaller...

(a Cloudless Sulphur... also on the Azalea)

"Flowers and butterflies drift in color, illuminating spring."  

it's kind of hard to get a good look at this little guy.

i couldn't get too close...and my ZooM doesn't work too good on small things.

but this tiny butterfly has FUZZY ORANGE LEGS!!

(Eight Spotted Forester)

(another green Anole...on the Mock Orange...right out the back door)

yes, they're falling out of the trees! inchworms!

well, maybe not actually falling...but dangling...

slowly lowering themselves by way of their silken thread...

(inchworm on sam's arm)

oOo

ok, so you know about my weird art...and collections...

but i have another obsession i've never mentioned.

poop.

(WHAT?!)

yeah, you heard me. i like to take pictures of poop. scat.

(WHY?)

so we can ID it later. so we can tell what's been here - or there.

so we can see what critters we've missed.

i have quite an array of poop pic's!

well, sam...being the jokester that he is...

suggested i do a post titled

"one crappy post".

ha!   hmmmmm...sounds like a plan.  :D

oOo

i'm still working on those deer jawbones.

oOo

leaves.

their colors, shapes, textures...

intrigue me.

especially when they start to disintegrate...

when all that's left are the veins...the leaf's skeleton...i'm fascinated.

or when they're riddled with tracks of some mysterious insect...or disease...

or a leaf in the early morning...covered with dew...or rain water...

i am captivated!

"Do not go where the path may lead; 

go instead where there is no path and leave a trail."

~Ralph Waldo Emerson 

oOo

another 'yard' plant blooming!

this is a succulent. i have a lot of them...in pots.

they're easy to grow and new ones will sprout  from a dropped leaf.

they have these really pretty little flowers.

(Echeveria Carnicolor)

oOo

ONE more thing.

the first stink bug of the year!

and he's a big one...for a stink bug anyway!

they're so WEIRD...so prehistoric looking!

(stink bug on a Bromeliad)

oOo

uh-oh...i lied.

no, i didn't.

i just forgot to mention...

one LAST thing.

remember - last sunday we went to the races. the drag races.

some of those cars speed down the track at OVER 300 mph!

300 mph, under FOUR seconds...and under a quarter of a mile!

aaaaaah...i hate to admit it...

but i love the smell of NITRO in the morning.

i love how your bones shake when these TOP FUEL cars start up!

you can FEEL the air around you being sucked down the track...

anyway, if you're interested...you can click here to see some race day pic's!

oOo

and so. this is the end.

my next post, which i'm going to try to do some time during the week...

is all about our hike to Alachua Sink...which is LOADED with alligators!

sneak peek -->

((hopefully...i'll get to YOUR part of the world tomorrow morning...))

thanks for wandering...

stay cool. 

have a safe journey...enjoy the ride!

 :] laura

"May you have warm words on a cool evening, 

a full moon on a dark night, 

and a smooth road all the way to your door."

 ~Irish Toast