Cricket
@colleencricket
Former suburbanite turned farmer. Enjoyer of tea and books. Striving to be a better person than I was yesterday.
My morning path crossed with a juvenile central ratsnake. It tried to give me BIG MAD when I tossed down a glove for scale for my picture. I missed getting the open-mouth threat display but got an excellent tongue.
This is my first attempt at growing melons in over a decade. The three plants are covered in fruit, with this one the first test harvest. It split perfectly on my knife and is exactly ripe. You can smell the photo. I win this round (ha ha).
Here is a photo of the fire climbing the eastern hillside of highway 395 near the California Agriculture inspection station.
We have a bird nest in a scraggly lilac by the shop door. My guess is cardinal, both by the look of the mom speeding away and the look of the three speckled eggs in the nest.
On Tuesday, two delightful yearling Angora goats grazed in the deep afternoon sun.
Bring the content you want to see... I grew the epitome of an amateur gardening potato! It's round and golden and entirely potato goodness.
Bring the content you want to see... Here is last night's Fowler's toad cleverly disguised in matching leaves.
I just finished reading Waifs and Strays by @helenharper.bsky.social . It was tons of fun (with a few deserved deaths) and 100% stuck the landing. Recommended.
@mapcenter.com has just the thing for an avid reader! The atlas of fictional lands.
Remember that you can get two wins in one purchase when you buy your favorite books at your favorite local independent bookstore.
A post from earlier this week - The Wild Bird Sanctuary near St. Louis subscribes to the @tkingfisher naming convention.
My big pile of dopamine hits is ready to mail out on its assigned date tomorrow. With the help of friends, I have 200 get-out-the-vote postcards for Virginia voters written and stamped. Persist. Resist. & Grow.
I just rescued a frog from the frog ladder in the pool filter intake. Clueless, but pretty.
The highlight of my day at MDRF was running into Dungeon Crawler Carl (cosplay) and getting permission for this photo.
Everyone can do at least some of the little things. The kind things. The things that help everyone and keep society glued together. If you can, go get vaccinated. Flu, Covid, measles, all of them. This is a small way to take care of yourself and all of your neighbors in one action.
I love my family and my friends. I can receive vaccinations, so I do receive my vaccinations. (I also get irregular titers for immunizations to be sure.) Spread love and kindness. Get your shots.
Check out the ringneck snake I saw on the back patio last night! They are very common across the USA. They come in many colors, live in woodsy mast and mulch, and eat slugs and bugs.
I will now introduce you to Real Gooseberries (tm). These are the gooseberries of my childhood. They are bright and bouncy and out for your blood. Ribes roezlii is the particular gooseberry species name. Makin' ya cry is the game. I pick them with gloves and tongs, and store them in paper bags.
Red hummed caterpillar (moth) hatching on my blueberry plant. From observed behavior, the entire hatching stays clumped together as it slowly migrates down the branch. Like a hornworm, these caterpillars consume the entire leaf before moving to the next one.
I moved fast enough with my phone camera to snap a tiny skink at the door to the barn.
We now have my Christmas bench set up behind my birthday flocking that I still need to take down. No one said we were punctual, just quirky.