Dogs that hunt

Inspired by this thread by Kate Harding at Shakesville: http://shakespearessister.blogspot.com/2008/04/it-cries.html


US Women's Party -- what would it look like?

Spread the question.

Okay. So. I'm hoping that all the good folks at Gin's might somehow find this lonely LJ post and help me out. I don't want to post at Ginmars because it's not really relevant to, uh, anything.

So here goes: I need reading material. Suggestions. Authors to check out, etc. I've just about exhausted myself with my fascination with crime/detective stuff and want to branch out. Specifically I want to branch out into fantasy, or whatever they might be calling it these days. The last time I read any fantasy novels was back in 1979, so I'm a little out of date.

So, any recommendations?

For the first time in almost fourteen years, I won't be greeted by my old friend Sierra when I get home from work. Old age and gravity got the better of her - we took her in to the vet this morning and then laid her to rest under the rose bushes. I held her as she died; she relaxed so gracefully into me, something that she has been too frail and rigid to do for months.


Rest in peace my stubborn, stubborn old friend.

Ack, I'm so totally busted. No luna moths were destroyed in the making of this LJ. All depictions below of are the tomato hornworm which becomes the Five-spotted Hawk Moth when it is done devouring one's tomatoes.

Learn something new everyday.

Meanwhile, the BigGayGirlfriend is off yonder on the banks of the Haw River playing with 4th graders and all the grand eco hippies we know. So that leaves Blue and me, kinda blue.

I'm such a sap.

Sightings of the week: luna moth caterpillar and black swallowtail caterpillars munching on the bits of my garden that have gone untended (specifically the tomatoes and fennel). I bought the fennel last April, ignored it all summer, and then got up Saturday morning to find it infested with happy, munching caterpillars - which was the whole damn reason for buying fennel in the first place. The luna moth was covered in:





which are wasp eggs. This one was lucky as the eggs were newly attached and I could very gently and easily remove them. Another Luna moth caterpillar was not so lucky, having had its innards reduced to mush by the hatching wasp larvae. Oddly enough, the Trichogramma wasps are considered beneficial to human gardeners, as they "naturally" "control" caterpillars.

Other interesting, but even more bizarre, sightings were: woodchuck and red fox. Yes folks, right here in downtown Durham. Go figure. I tried to figure but my mind boggled to think of a woodchuck trucking over miles of ground, dodging cars, and finally winding up in my back yard. The red fox, well, that wasn't right either, and frankly since I had all three dogs with me at the time I was a wee bit worried about rabies. Fox I say! Fox!

If you see the Buddha, kill the Buddha.

I don't know my warblers well. They flit and sing at the edges of my vision and knowledge, prefering the upper canopy and relative secrecy. Sunday was my first Spring Audobon Bird Count -- I have done the Christmas count and am much more familiar with winter migrants and our year-round residents. Sunday was rainy though, all day, drizzly rain. The birds, for the most part, remained hidden watching *us* as we trudged through wet poison ivy and tick infested fields. My fellow birders knew bird calls though, which worked well towards my personal warbler redemption. I managed to "hear" Pine, Yellow, Black and White, and Northern Parula Warblers, to include Common Yellowthroat and Yellow-breasted Chat. Unbelievably and uncommon to most casual birders' experience, I also got to watch a pair of Northern Parulas flitting amongst two wild-grape infested oak trees.

Other bird highlights: numerous mature bald eagles and two immature eagles; a casual perusal by an osprey of our group while we were watching the N. Parulas; Pileated woodpecker.

But the most beautiful and awe inspiring were the toss up between the E. Kingbirds and the male Blue Grosbeaks. Sigh, if only *I* could be that blue.






However, the kingbirds were in display, like this:






Good day in all, except for my friendly Lone-Star ticks who have left 3" x 2" welts on my back, tummy, and thigh. Nothing suspicious... yet.

How long does it take for cabbage to mature? I need the space for my cucumbers and pole beans, damnit.

The kittens keep finding snakes. And bringing them inside. I cleaned the front room last weekend and found two flattened and petrified smooth earth snakes under the couch. Yesterday Blue and Bella had a Northern Brown snake curled in a ball next to the Yellow Chair. I will say though that there is nothing more mystical than holding a slowly uncurling snake in your hands -- it's absolutely mind-boggling how diverse life is. I mean... scales! forked tongues! no feet, no hands.







In other news, FatBoy Slim, our lion-headed goldfish made his trip to the great toilet-bowl in the sky. The Ick got him. Damnit.

test...