Weekend Plus!
Benches first. At least one and some filler boards. Hansel and Gretel up first. With a nice back design.
We did everything, plus more!!, on the weekend itinerary. I tried to download the actual list as typed, but it wouldn’t let me. Or I couldn’t figure it out. Either way I don’t have time for it right now. I have work and I need to get showered and dressed so I am not running around like an idiot in an hour because I am so late. I will post it and picture it later in the day, and week, (’cause it’s that much), if possible. We tried to capture the fun of all the moments on camera, but its a hit or miss thing when we get busy and have actual fun. We had three camera’s trying to snap the action though, so something good is bound to have been caught on film. Both of my kiddies are home for the week. School registration is Thursday. Back in class on the 14th. Summer is nearly over and it feels like it just started. I’m still working on my old folder of posts. This is going to clear out a few more pics. This makes 7/20 for benches and there are three filler boards advertising the Farmer’s Market and other events in town. I like the parrot the best.
I took another picture of my garden plant. It is continuing to spread across the yard and up onto the logs. More vegetables have appeared. I think we are going to be hit by a squash flood very soon. None and then a ton. I need to start looking up recipes or something. Pictures are still on my phone. I need to download everything. That will have to be later too. That was kind of a teaser, and so random, but here are the last two filler boards:
Seahorses, coral, and fish.
Flamingo. I’m really not sure if these particular boards represent a greater theme or really even go together with the benches. Doesn’t seem like it. Florida maybe? The tropics? It sure isn’t Fairytale related. But who cares. They are here and they are posted and now I can go get dressed. Our weather has bypassed blistering summer and is now breezy and temperate again. Almost, almost, chilly. Definitely cold at night. So get out and enjoy while you can, if you can. Later gators.
Feed Me Seymour! Feed Me!
Now that might not seem very impressive all on its own, but it is, when you consider that it started like this:
We don’t even know where it came from. That is our “big stump” pile, this bit of nature is growing out of, from when that broken tree was removed so many months ago. I came out one day and there it was. A plant. We decided to leave it because it looked like an actual plant and not a weed. The neighbor behind us has a garden and this same plant is in it. We think zucchini, squash, pumpkin, you know, something like that. Big leaves. Yellow flowers. Super fast growth. Like, accelerated, sonic, creeping, crawling, curling over the branches, type of fast growing. We figured maybe a bird or squirrel or rabbit carried one of the seeds over to our area and poof. Now we have a garden too! Mind you, we have done nothing to this plant. Nothing. No water. No weeding. No maintenance whatsoever. My thought was, that if it really wants to survive, it will have to survive on its own. Survive and thrive. It’s definitely doing that. Every day the thing seems like it’s getting bigger and bigger. When I went out yesterday, my first thought was: Little Shop Of Horrors. Hence the title above. It’s actually kind of scary. Old time movie scary. One day I expect one of those leaves and one of those long, thick stems to be sitting outside the back door tapping on the screen, holding a dead animal. “I’m hungry, Seymour!” “I’m hungry, Lisa!” Damn nature, you scary! (Reference: Tracy Morgan–SNL) And how do you know my name?? OK. Well we have been waiting to see if anything else is gonna grow off this thing except some yellow flowers. This is a good one I took a picture of today:
And then I looked closer. I will admit, as crazy as this sounds, that I was somewhat hesitant to go sticking my hands and arms into the leaves because the plant seems so Jurassic and kind of menacing. But I did. Because I am a human being. A human who is way bigger than a plant and not in a horror movie, or completely “eccentric” or insane at this point in my life. And this is what I saw:
It looks like a squash! Actual food? Maybe? Should we eat it if it actually turns into a vegetable? Is squash a vegetable or a fruit? I don’t know. It’s pretty big I think already, but I have nothing to compare it to, except the other smaller one growing next to it.
So that was my morning. Now I have to go to work. I will keep everyone updated on this gripping tale of, “Growing Something In The Wild!” Ha. Wild. More like, “Growing Something Accidentally In A Suburban Backyard Stick Pile!” Now that, is scary! Later!
Sunday Bug
I have two more left. This was technically the last bug on the tour, but I am putting it second-to-last because I want to go out with a bigger bang! Bumblebee Big! You’ll have to look tomorrow!
Anyway, I still have to go to my sissy’s and it doesn’t look like I am getting outdoors to do any actual exercise today, so I’ll quickly post these things that are outside, in nature, and that will kind of have to be good enough.
You will also have to excuse the extra people in the pictures. For some reason, everyone globbed up right at the end, talking to their friends, pulling snacks out of strollers, on the phone, kids laying all over the grass… and wouldn’t get out of picture range for all the rest of us. But you can still see the bug.
Come on people! Get out of the way!! Go talk on your cell phone out of picture range!
Crazy Electric Blue Crawfish and his good friend the Blue Gourami
Now that the big fish tank has been downsized (minus two of the large decoration “buildings”—update on that later) to accommodate the growing Oscars, there are less places for the crawfish to hide. He likes the plants (still have 2) and the back of things. But the only thing to go behind is a tall, pillar piece that isn’t really hide-able.
And the Gourami likes to “sit” on stuff. Not sit, but kind of hover over and skim a surface to where it looks like it’s resting on it.
So these to crazy marine animals got together and I guess they are cool with hanging out on top of each other. The Blue Gourami is sitting ON the Blue Crawfish. It was funny to see because the crawfish wasn’t trying to snap at him. And it looks like the fish has claws. I took the pics with my camera phone and they didn’t move at all.
This is from the end looking longways into the tank. The camera phone took a good picture. Sometimes I get really lucky. I don’t know how amusing you’ll find it, but here it is:
Right in the middle of the plants. Fish on top, crawfish underneath.
After I saw how good the camera took the picture of the tank, I thought I’d try to get a long view of the whole tank. You can see the pillars in the back and an Oscar on the top, right. And there’s a shark near the bottom, swimming away. The light on top is from the tank, and it adds a nice underwater, peaceful glow I think. Makes you feel like a fish. That may be a stretch. But stare at it long enough and you’ll go into a trance!
And back to the Bugs!
We are almost to the end. I think this is third to last. I just found out the Arboretum where they had this display is having a 5K race in the fall through all their paths, or some of their paths; the place is huge. So, more to look forward to. Pictures of trees. IN AUTUMN! Yowzer! Stick around! Even with a (hopefully) not-too-crazy school schedule, I want to keep running and keep writing. It’s a good stress buster. Corny.
Now look at these big bugs!
You see that expanse of space behind the sculpture? Big land. Tired kids. But all four are in there.
Hey guys! There's a giant bug sitting in the weeds right in front of you! We could look in the mud at home. For free. 3 out of 4 captivated by dirty water. I had to put it in though, because it's just too cute.
Cool Word of the Day! Special Edition (!)
It’s a two-for-one day! And it’s dedicated to my daughter, so that she will never again get the two words mixed up!
Cataract: (noun)
Has two separate, distinct definitions. The pathological, that most every one knows, Stevie, ahem, I’m looking at you ; )
and then another, regular one, that I was unaware of. See, learn something new everyday!
Definition: Opacity of the lens or capsule of the eye, causing total or partial blindness.
Definition 2: A huge downpour or waterfall.
Interesting.
And this is the special word that Stevie keeps mistaking for the first:
Chloroplast: (noun)
Definition: An organelle present in algae and plant cells that contains chlorophyll and is involved in photosynthesis.
You probably don’t want one of those in your eye!
I love you, my sweetie-fish, ><Ò)ε
Mom (That’s supposed to look like a fish kissing–it’s a stretch–just roll with it!)
I didn’t really think it would turn out
The deer pictures. I have two, well, I have about a hundred pictures, that upon closer inspection on the big screen are composed of a lot of grass, trees, leaves, shrubs, weeds, and sky shots, with a small, blurry, deer-shaped smudge in the center, or off to the side, or at the bottom. Just your basic professional camera-phone, nature-photo photography. It’s mostly crap.
But this came out pretty good. I’ll only bore you with one, because the other one looks just like this except the deer might have tilted his/her head ever-so-slightly to the left. (Nope, actually, I change that thought—one below—one above, if that isn’t confusing enough) I notice the change in color too, now that I have it here. One seems darker and more natural. Almost the same shot, from the same distance, from the same spot on the trail. All I had to wait for in between was my phone to save the picture.
And all you thought you were getting was long, rambling stories about nothing and here it’s a (could be) college-level (generous) type discussion on the technical and and artistic capabilities of camera phone technology. I am sure I can make up any number of time-frame-exposure-light sentences for you to read and we can all feel extra smart during our day today!
But, it’s the usual, simple, at my favorite running trail, deers so close they are trying to jump on me! See past post for THAT exciting story! Even the babies are bigger than you want bumping into you!
Ah yes, you have learned well grasshopper…
Or something like that. If you don’t “get” the above headline, then it doesn’t matter if I got it wrong. Please just forget it and look at the pictures!
More bugs! It’s a grasshopper!
I know! That was alot of grasshoppers! Last shot. WITH the kids. Looking at this picture now, I notice they all seem so suspicious...and tired of sitting next to big bugs made of shiny sticks. That they can't even touch! They are so over it. But we still have, like, three more! At this point they were probably walking half a mile or more already. It's a BIG place!
Here's an extra shot that kind of shows "vastness". No bugs. Just land. (And water)
CrazyBugs!
It all came together in the middle for a brief moment, captured forever in photographic evidence. Four kids and a Ladybug. And we were only half way done!
Crazy for the Lady's...
Zee Bug of zee Day…”ant’s” ya’ glad ya’ tuned in! (heeheehee)
If you’ve been following along…this is the “ANT” post. Grab a can of Raid and look at these:
I'm not sure how many the artist made of these giant ants, but there were three in the Arboretum and a whole bunch more on the grounds outside, when you passed it on the highway.
Large and in charge!
Creepy!
Still unable to get all 4 kids, BUT, got a picture with Ethen, who still doesn't like to be photographed, AND he's smiling!
just shy of pretty 