turkey time

look what blocked the road on our way home last night.

we decided to name them john, paul, george and ringo.

ducks

the boy loved seeing these ducks at the park near our home. they were quite vocal and had unusual knobs on their heads.

there's a hedgie in the breakroom!

a co-worker brought her pet hedgehog "julie" in to the office today. it was quite a treat to see. beady eyes, tiny sharp teeth, and prickles everywhere. adorable in its own way.

reminds me of another julie, a woman in england who has hedgehogs in her garden and also knits some adorable hedgies. visit her at little cotton rabbits and click on "hedgie things" to see more.

be vewy, vewy quiet ...

as you know, i adore gophers. or groundhogs. whatever. i can never remember the difference.

the point is, when i see one, it's a good day indeed.

each morning and evening i pass a meadow that is fondly known around our house as "gopher field." when conditions are just right, you can see a gopher in all his glorious gopherness, sunning himself, nose pointed up toward the summer sky.

but don't let him catch you watching, even from a far-off distance. for he will surely scamper off into the woods as fast as his chubby little legs will take him.

Moth babies

The moth is gone, but left these eggs behind. Yet another nature moment we can share with Jack Henry. (and all of you!)

Hello, little guy ...

Er ... girl. This moth has taken up residence on our front porch, and has begun laying eggs. Stay tuned!

This just in: Squirrel eats apple!

Did this guy eat the whole apple before I arrived? Or did he just nibble on somebody's leftover apple core? I like to think he ate the whole juicy thing.

This just in: Squirrel eats Bagel

Just saw this. It's a squirrel. Eating a bagel. Pretty cool.

OK, fine. Six more weeks of winter.

It was 62 degrees and sunny yesterday here in Nashville. So if that's what the groundhog means by "winter," I'm cool with that.

This just in: Squirrel eats pickle!

I saw this hungry guy on my way across campus yesterday. I know, I know. You can't actually tell it's a pickle because of the wax paper, but trust me: it WAS a pickle.

Happy Friday!

I have some lovely video of the raccoons playing on our porch, with the sounds of Jack Henry crunching on a carrot in the background. Enjoy! My first video post!

If you leave out catfood, they will come.

Not one, not two, but three raccoons came calling last night. I so wish I could capture how darn cute they are. My lame BlackBerry phone camera makes this one look possessed. Note the glowing eyes.

Jack Henry and the Ferocious Beast!

A raccoon visited our porch last night. We watched at the window as he ate from the cat food bowl and then I thought, I know, let's capture this for the blog. Here's the first shot, from the safety of the living room.




Next, I put my life in danger as I fired off this one as the beast was fleeing the porch.











Lastly, an artist's rendering. We decided to name him Bandit.

OK this is getting ridiculous.

First goats. Then turkeys. Now this. (And don't get me started on the gophers.) Now maybe you understand why it takes me so long to get anywhere.

Turkey trot

First goats; now this.

You can't make this stuff up

Goats on the loose. And I captured it for the blog. One of the pleasures of living in the woods: random goat sightings.

Au revoir, Lester Sprigley

Have you ever seen an old possum? Ever hear of one dying from natural causes? Well, no, not usually. They are not known to live that long, as they regularly wander into the street which usually leads to an untimely demise. Well, Lester Sprigley defied the odds. He lived long and well. He was fat from gorging on cat food and we loved seeing his pointy little face each evening. Sadly, we found him this morning, expired in the ivy, a life well lived. Goodbye, Lester Sprigley. You will be missed, our possum friend. Rest in peace.

Snake Tango: part 1

We took Jack Henry to the river yesterday to throw rocks, and what should we find, but two enormous poisonous water moccasins doing a brazen, seductive dance by the river's edge. These suckers were huge. And did I mention poisonous? Of course after chronicling every bit of useless minutia in my daily life on this blog, I arrive at the most fascinating and terrifying thing I've seen in recent memory sans camera and Blackberry. So I ripped this photo off the Internet. Just try to imagine two of them rising high out of the water, intertwining their heads in a beautiful and scary snake tango. Needless to say, Jack Henry didn't get to throw a whole lot of rocks.

Snake Tango: part deux

Again, these are not the actual snakes we saw, but I wanted to give you a visual on what it looks like when the snakes are upright like this in the water. Freaky. The second part of the story is that right by the snakes were a couple of backpacks, fishing rods and tackleboxes, and we couldn't help wondering where the people were to whom these belonged. So we went looking for them, to warn them of the snake hazard near by. (These snakes can deliver an extremely painful and sometimes lethal bite, and are known for their aggression.) We found the young ladies - they were fishing and floating blissfully in the snake-infested river nearby. When we let them know their things were within biting distance of venomous snakes, they of course shrieked with panic, especially since their keys, wallets and i-phones were inside one of the backpacks. Hubby, being the gentleman that he is, braved the snakes, fishing rod in hand for protection, and rescued said valuables. Turns out that the mother of one of the young ladies works in my building, and is someone I've had lunch with on several occasions! To summarize: Snakes-bad; Hubby-good; Child-not permanently scarred; i-phone-rescued. Moral of the story: Duh! Don't go in the river! And if you do, bring a camera to capture the mayhem.

It's Ground Hog Day!

Yesterday we went on a little nature drive and what an unexpected surprise: this ground hog stood by the road and posed politely as I took his picture.