FIVE SECOND STORIES

In the Neighborhood:

Around the house: 

The Diner and Back 40 

Buddy in his castle keep:

Marigolds and heliotrope:

Salvia and scavola:

Tiger in my front yard:

Road lilies in full bloom:

The West Garden: 

6/21-Solstice Day was grey, warmish with a bit of humidity. Rain promised for later on and overnight. Buddy was taking it easy:

He rested his chin on the edge of his outpost:

These days, the hydrangea is the star of the Back 40 with its glowy blooms:

I've been less fastidious about mowing the lawn as of late and I found that I enjoy it. I realized that I have a variety of greens for our wild friends to enjoy especially our 7 live Rombas like the one pictured above. The result is a visually softer landscape featuring these days flowering clover. I'll mow soon and this cut makes the greenness more uniform. 

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A real life Attenborough event:

As I was walking through the house, I glanced out front and saw a dark object in the middle of the street. "Hmm, a big rock" I first thought. Once I focused, I realized that it was moving and it was a turtle! I watched as it made its way into the front yard and stop. I ran to grab the camera and hollered at C who was doing yoga. When we arrived, the turtle was digging into the ground:

I described its markings and mused it might be a Snapper. My former Girl Scout corrected me and said that it more likely was a red-eared slider based on my seeing a red area on its head. She ran and got some water for it. I was off petting Bud when she hollered "She's laying eggs!" I missed it. C went inside and googled the critter for more info. Upon returning, we witnessed the turtle moving loose soil. "Yep" C said, "now she will sit on the soil using the weight of her shell to compact it. Then she will cover it and will be leaving soon". Sho' nuff, within 15 minutes Mrs. Turtle had left, presumably for the creek which lies 80-100 yards away to the East. The eggs will hatch in August-September with the little ones emerging at night and heading to the creek. I put a cloche over the nursery to keep the predators away and hopefully we can time lifting the cloche with the emergence. Stay tuned! 

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Another unusual find: I was putting away some trimmed limbs on the brush pile when I spied a skull near the new access hole MamaC had dug into the apartments. I used a gardening trowel to show scale:

Based on size, the hump on the top of the skull (the saggital crest) which indicates a mammal whose jaw strength can crush bone and teeth that this belonged to a opposum. It is missing its canine teeth. Now, just where did this come from? We've had a resident Blossom (our nickname for the species) but haven't seen her since late Winter. Is this her? Did she die in one of the apartments and MamaC cleaned house? Tis a mystery. 

6/22-first full day of Summer. I was out mowing and was treated to see this visitor:

If indeed this monarch is a descendant of one who visited this garden years ago, according to google, it is roughly 7 or 8 generations removed. Made my day! 

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In memoriam: Major Oak, Sherwood Forest

The 1,200-year-old Major Oak in England's Sherwood Forest, famously linked to the Robin Hood legend, officially died after failing to produce any leaves.  Conservationists attribute its demise to decades of soil compression from millions of tourists, combined with prolonged stress from recent extreme heatwaves and droughts.

Conservationists will leave Major where he is. His slow decay will provide a home for many species including mammals, insects, birds and mycelium. This is what I am doing with Grandfather Birch, whose one of three main trunks has died. I had the top of the dead trunk topped off so we would not have to contend with the constant dropping of limbs. Hopefully, this trunk one day won't collapse at once onto the house🙀

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Hilarious vid concerning Stoffel, a famed honey badger, who is one tough MFer, take on zookeepers at the Moholoholo Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre in South Africa in a lengthy inter-species battle. Above everything else, Stoffel shows that apes aren't the only species who create and use tools.

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I came across this kid's TV show from my childhood: The Beany and Cecil show:

Created by animator Bob Clampett after he quit Warner Bros. and based on a television puppet show Time for Beany which ran from 1949-1955. It was revived in 1962 and joined The Jetsons and The Flintstones as the first color cartoons on ABC.

I vaguely remember the series (I was 8 years at the time) and did not care for it. I was (and still am) a devoted fan of Rocky and Bullwinkle which was also on ABC beginning in 1959. I didn't care for the dumbed down characters and lame satire plus it seemed like a rip-off of R & B right down to their secondary character (shown here in the boat to the left of Beany) of Dishonest John who looked a lot like Snidely Whiplash. Oh, and the magpie who looked to be a close cousin of Heckle and Jeckle. Boo hiss.

Another animation tale: 

During WWII, famed animator Chuck Jones and Theodore Geisel (Dr. Seuss) created a series of propaganda/training cartoon for the troops featuring Private Snafu. From 1943 "Spies":

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The Enchanted Highway: From Wiki-a collection of the world's largest scrap metal sculptures constructed by local artist Gary Greff beginning in 1989 at intervals along a 32-mile stretch of a two-lane highway in SW North Dakota. 

Pheasants on the Prairie

Geese in Flight 

Grasshoppers in the field

 Deer crossing

 

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David Hockney's dachshund paintings: his beloved dachshunds, Stanley and Boodgie, served as his primary muses between 1987 and 1995. Following a difficult period marked by the AIDS crisis and the loss of close friends, Hockney retreated to Malibu and used his dogs as a way to process grief. He created over 40 colorful, intimate portraits of them, famously capturing them asleep or lounging in his studio.

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Our eager algorithms-you can click on a couple of semi-related vids on YT and they will whisk you away to a new realm, so buckle up!:

Southern Culture on the Skids Camel Walk southern stoner/punk music with insane earworm riff from 1996:

From the satirical mag The Onion: First openly gay racehorse:

Mr. Six, mascot of the Six Flags theme park, likes to party:

Frugit, reportedly Ai generated with I Knead Dem Biscuits with fun animation:

 

Jones' Goodass BBQ and foot massage-created by Ramiro Castro in 2004:

 Whole lotta misspelled b'day cakes:

Smells like Teen Spirit in classical latin: 

With stars of the series Trailer Park Boys, The Kittyman Sea Shanty, arrgghh: 

 

From British Electric Swing group The Correspondents Fear and Delight 2014:

Finally, the very surreal Finland's Leningrad Cowboys cover of These Boots from 1993:

Whew, what a long, strange trip it's been.

And now, a dose of our current reality: 

FUBARland: the Reflecting pool mess has gone from bad to now, an environmental disaster. But since the EPA has been neutered and all the problems being blamed on vandals by the regime, it looks to remain the very swamp that the Roach was elected to drain. As I have noted in earlier posts, one of the hallmarks of this regime is irony. This disaster as well as the destruction around the White House, DOGE and everything else that Roach has done, indeed show the effects of a Vandal-in-Chief.

Meet Mr. Reflecting Pool contractor John J Cafaro, Roach donor and Mar a Lago neighbor:

Where do they keep finding these creeps? A MAD magazine character comes to life. And you think what I have just posted about my journey with the algorithms was nutty? Sheesh.