The Capricorn Kid

"Old people are scary and I have to face it -- 

I am old and I am scary and I am very sorry about it, but I don't know what you do." 

~Dame Maggie Smith :-)

Well, I have a few years to go yet before I plan to consider myself "old," but today I advanced a year closer... and I'm definitely scary since I woke up in the wee hours with a sore throat and that "oh no, I'm coming down with some sort of pestilence" feeling. Fortunately it's very wintery outside and so we're all snugged in cozy-like, enjoying a quiet day of puzzles, movies, and football. My kinda day, despite the creeping crud.

Anyway, to mark the turning of another digit on my body's odometer, here's a photo of me taken just before my first birthday...

The Capricorn Kid

I don't remember ever seeing it before finding it a few months ago, tucked in an unfinished album of my Mom's, but it became an instant favorite. It may be ancient history (I mean really, look at that vintage Nov 1962 issue of Good Housekeeping in the magazine rack!), but some things never change: the hair has gray in it now but is still every bit as feral, that chip-on-the-shoulder body language looks awfully familiar, and I wear the same expression on the rare occasions I have to dress up. :-)

And since no birthday blog post of mine would ever be complete without a Capricornian homage to one of my favorite critters, here are some of the lucky rescued goats of Someday Farm B&B, where we spent an idyllic week during our trip to the Pacific Northwest in 2013...

Scuffy, who became my immediate BFF, nuzzling her buddy.

(I nicknamed her Scuffy because of the bald scuff mark on her throat, 

which she got from spending so much of her time doing this!)

Scratching Scuffy's sweet little nubbin head, so happy among the critters!

Bill was my other favorite among the goats, and I love this photo I took of him

Well, I'm all partied out now, and must return to my spot on the sofa with its handy box of tissues and bag of herbal throat lozenges, to watch the NFL playoffs as BW puts the finishing touches on this year's yummy birthday cake! Washed down, no doubt, with homemade elderberry syrup. Cheers!

Rule Breakers

Happy Holidays! 

Well, "Project Clean Up My Big Bunch O' Blog Drafts" went well when it came to reviewing and deleting, obviously not as well when it comes to completing and posting! Most of them turned out to require more time and effort to finish than my hibernating self has cared to expend, but here's one that was nearly done and that I had a lot of fun putting together. Hope it'll provide as many chuckles for you as it has for me! But should any of these tempt you to go forth and be naughty, remember: Santa's watching. :-)

No fair!

"Hell, there are no rules here. 

We're trying to accomplish something."

~Thomas A. Edison

Let's face it. Some rules are good and necessary, but some just seem made to be broken. 

Sometimes subtly...

And sometimes not...

And lest you think it's just dogs who are engaging in acts of civil disobedience...

Photo by Marcia M. Olinger, Caledonia, Michigan

Adding "please" and an emphasis on "not" doesn't always work either...

Then again, sometimes you're just better off complying...

SkyWatch Friday: Tricks & Treats!

After waiting in vain all week for a hauntingly beautiful Halloween sunrise to share, I had a sky-less Halloween post ready to go… until just a few minutes ago! As my finger hovered over the "publish" button, BW called to me with eerie timing, "Come see the sunrise!" Sure enough, it was a colorful, luminous beauty that seemed to mimic a glowing jack-o-lantern…

Oh those trickster Wyoming sunrises! Now you don't see 'em, now you do! :-)

So here's my originally planned post with more Halloween fun from (mostly) ground level…

Above-ground level, that is. ;-)

First, a sneak-peek at one of this year's quilts in the annual Fiber Arts show at the library. The lone Halloween quilt in the exhibit and one of my top three favorites in the show, I thought it would be better appreciated here than on my upcoming quilt show post...

"Who's Watching?"

Technique: Pieced

Artist: Tammy Johnson

From a kit designed by Heidi Pridemore

Quilted by: Karen Van Houten

On the day of our visit to the cemetery and picnic among the "Roman Ruins" last week, we also drove by this old home in Sheridan's historic "Residence Hill" neighborhood. It was for sale when BW and I were looking for a place and we made an offer on it, but it was not to be (just as well - ideal location, but way too big and in need of too much work, it would have meant delaying BW's retirement and thank goodness that didn't need to happen!)

A spooky spider, pretty pumpkins, and comely crow await trick-or-treaters

I didn't have to wander far from the home we did end up living in to get these next photos. Our neighbors a few doors down have their place very festively decorated for fall and Halloween, but I especially love these gossamer ghosts gamboling around the festooned spruce...

And up the street in the opposite direction one is greeted by these gregarious ghouls and their hauntingly hospitable howdies! :-)

Remember our friend the Red-tailed hawk? He showed up again at dusk last Friday, perched on our next door neighbors' roof. I took some more photos of him (of course) despite the bad lighting, and really liked this one of his eyes reflecting my camera's flash. By darkening the original a little I ended up with this great silhouette ~ add a few spooky elements courtesy of PicMonkey and our red-tailed friend becomes The Haunted Hawk of Halloween! :-)

It's predicted to be sunny and 71º here today (and tomorrow) with no wind. Combine the balmy weather with the fact it's a Friday night and we're expecting a record turnout of monstrous moochers Trick-or-Treaters, though we "only" bought enough vegan goodies for the first 250 or so. Wish us (and our poor doorbell) luck, and enjoy a safe and happy Halloween! 

SkyWatch Friday: Winged Flight & Bing Wright

Okay, I admit it, I took some poetic license with my post title. But "Red-tailed hawk sitting on a lamp post in the mist" simply doesn't sound as melodious with "Bing Wright." :-)

A Pensive Pose

It was a misty, drizzly day and our friend repeatedly stretched out his wings like this;

whether to shed water or take advantage of a free shower, we're unsure!

"They went that-a-way!"

I took the above photos with my telephoto lens. Here's one with my regular lens for perspective…

Our skies have been overcast and dreary most of the week, so no colorful sunrise or sunset photos for this SkyWatch post, I'm afraid. However, I've been saving this treat for just such an occasion. In case you're wondering who the Bing Wright in my post title is, he's a photographer who often takes photos of sunsets reflected in shattered mirrors, making them look like stained glass...

See more of Bing's "broken mirror/evening sky" (and other) photos here: 

Photographs of Sunsets as Reflected on Shattered Mirrors by Bing Wright

And as always, enjoy more sky photos of all sorts here:

SkyWatch Friday: The Difference Between the Lightning Bug & the Lightning

For the past month or more, our neighbor has been trying (unsuccessfully) to convince us that there's been a nightly cloud of lightning bugs blinking and flashing their luminous bellies above a street lamp north of our houses. Though we've looked for them (also unsuccessfully), we've remained skeptical for several reasons:

1) Lightning bugs (aka fireflies) prefer warm, humid climates and are native to areas east of the natural barrier of the Rockies. They're rarely seen in the more arid states west of Kansas - and those few species that can be found in the Rockies are not the flashing variety.
2) We haven't seen any in the 25 years we've lived in Wyoming (to our sorrow)
3) When we've lived in places with lightning bugs, we never saw them cluster around lights. In fact, along with development, researchers cite light pollution as a probable major factor in the worldwide decline in lightning bug populations, since it interrupts the flash patterns lightning bugs use to communicate and attract mates.
4) Every time our neighbor has tried to convince us, he's had a beer in his hand. ;-)

What we have seen are small moths flying around the streetlights, whose light reflects off their wings and makes them appear to be glowing. So we think those are probably what our neighbor is seeing and mistaking for lightning bugs.

But last Friday and Saturday evenings, we also saw this amazing cloud of lightning blinking and flashing above the street lamp north of our houses...

So maybe our neighbor meant to say lightning and not lightning bugs. :-)

"The difference between the almost right word and the right word 

is really a large matter -- 

it's the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning."

~ Mark Twain 

SkyWatch Friday: Ringside at Sunrise (+ bonus goodies)

As if the splendid "Super Moon" rising in the evening skies wasn't enough to take our breath away this week, our morning skies on Wednesday and Thursday seemed to be putting all they had into a Sunrise heavyweight title match to which we had ringside seats! Choose the winner (if you can!)

Ladies aaaaannnnd Gentlemen! In the east corner, in the orange, gold, pink, and purple trunks, Wednesday's "Tornado Cloud" sunrise...

And also in the east corner (awkward!), wearing… well, pretty much the same colored trunks but with more fluffy bits, Thursday's "Golden Glow" sunrise…

Let's get ready to ruuuuuuuuummmmmble!!!

And now for anyone who's interested, here are some bonus, non-sky pics. I have not forgotten my promise to share photos from Sheridan's (relatively) recent annual Garden Tour, but since it's looking like a multi-post dealio, I wanted to first clear out some of these poor little stragglers that I never seem to get around to posting!

During our hot summer weather, our front porch is the place to be in the early mornings and evenings. When we were clearing out and organizing our garage recently (to make more room, for reasons that will become apparent at the end of this post), we found our pretty iridescent glass-winged dragonfly candle holder - a gift several years ago from my friend Jo. In the melee of moving 3x in a year, it had wound up stashed away rather than hung up and enjoyed! So we immediately remedied that - finding the perfect spot for it was easy!

Yup, easy as 1-2-3! :-)

Now his little doorbell brother has someone to talk to! :-)

Speaking of insects, here's a threefer, though it's a sad ending for two of them. Sitting on our back patio (the place to be in the hot afternoons), we watched this robin chase several grasshoppers along our back fence. We didn't think she'd manage to catch one, but she did! She then - with her mouth full, the feathered glutton - continued to chase the surviving grasshoppers around. This time we knew she'd never be able to catch a second one, not with her mouth still full of her first hapless victim - but again, she did! Beats us how, despite watching it happen. Aware she had an audience, she perched on our fence, turning her head to the left, the right, and straight at us repeatedly so we'd have ample opportunity to admire her grasshopper-catching skills. She did this for so long that I eventually fetched my camera, attached the telephoto lens, and took several photos of her before she flew off to those trees in the background - where she no doubt has a nest full of late-summer babies to admire her grasshopper-catching skills far more than we, her vegan audience, ever could. :-) 

Only when I downloaded this photo did I see that I'd inadvertently also captured a winged critter in flight…

And while we're on the subject of critters, here's a recent photo of a content and contemplative Tessa, watching the passers by from the shade of the front porch...

And now to our final critter, BW - who retired two weeks ago today and has finally learned to love it (haha!), posing beside our new T@B teardrop trailer!

It's a 2014 S floorplan w/wet bath "M@xx" model. Despite being teeny-tiny (it'll fit in our garage, yay) and so lightweight you can tow it with some cars (like the Subaru Outback) and even maneuver it around by those two handles you see, it manages to squeeze in a U-shaped sofa/dinette which converts to a queen bed, a wee kitchen (2-burner stove, bitsy sink, little fridge), a "wet bath" shower with commode and hamster-sized sink, a furnace, air conditioner, stereo system, and television with DVD player! All the comforts of home. Well, not really, but it's not really camping if you haul all the comforts of home with you! 

We got the T@B - which, in a nod to my Tuscan heritage as well as its cheery trim color we have named "Girasole," Italian for sunflower (gira sole meaning "turns to the sun") - so we can take our dogs with us when we go places. They are all canine senior citizens now, but still love going on adventures! 

Though we signed the purchase agreement on Girasole a couple weeks ago, we won't be picking it up at the Montana dealership till Monday because we took our 1995 Jeep Grand Cherokee ("Otis") in for repairs and upgrades. He's got over 206K miles on him, bless his little 8-cylinder heart, and we needed him to be as safe and dependable a tow vehicle as possible before asking this additional duty of him. We spent the time he was in the shop, well, shopping! Getting such a late start on camping season does have one advantage - we're getting a lot of stuff on sale (including the T@B itself!), which is especially helpful since we have almost no camping gear (sleeping bags and a camp stove are about it), and have never had a travel trailer/RV of any type before. So we needed accessories - boring stuff like hoses and tire chocks, and fun stuff like a (backordered till October, sadly) matching yellow & grey T@B tent that attaches to the trailer's side (where the dogs will sleep and where we can stash some gear), some portable dog fencing, fun party lights (a necessity, you ask me!), and a pair of these reclining camping chairs. Which I blinged up for this photo with the sunflower from the bouquet from BW's retirement breakfast, plopped ever so appropriately in an empty Girasole wine bottle! :-)

Methinx it's a Sphinx!

Sounded a little like a combination of William Shakespeare and Dr. Seuss for a second there, didn't I? :-) 

I'm not talking about the Great Sphinx of Giza, but of a pair of White-lined Sphinx moths (Hyles lineata) who have been flitting and feeding amongst our beautiful blooming bee balm in the front flowerbed the past few evenings. The first evening we noticed them as we sat on our front porch enjoying the cool temps of twilight, we thought they were hummingbirds. They are about the same size as hummingbirds and feed in the same manner, and so are often called hummingbird moths. As it happens, there was also an actual hummingbird in the mix that first evening - which rather confused things for a bit! But he took off over our roof and hasn't been seen since. Apparently the moths have staked out the bee balm for themselves, at least when the sun goes down.

I took a bazillion photos, most of which were crap - these are the best of the bunch, and aren't as ideal as I'd have wanted (it was dusk, after all, and they do flit fast, the flighty little farts!), but they'll give you a good idea, I think…

Pretty sure the pair is a male (R) and female (L)

Most of my photos are of the male, he was the one feeding the most (surprise, surprise! lol) The Sphinx moths (there are about 1200 species, 60 in North America - our White-lined Sphinx being the most common) get their name from the sphinx-like rearing posture the Sphinx moth caterpillars assume when alarmed.

In addition to hovering like a hummingbird, they can swoop & dive like hawks - hence their other nickname, hawk moths. And they can fly 30 miles an hour! (See why getting good photos was such a challenge?!)

This photo of the female is really blurry, but I wanted you to see her curled proboscis (tongue). Sphinx moths are important pollinators that typically feed on flowers with abundant nectar at the base of elongated tubes (like orchids), and so possess a 10-11 inch proboscis. No other insect has such a feature. Interestingly, flowers that have evolved to attract hummingbirds usually have no scent (since hummingbirds can’t smell), while moth-pollinated flowers often emit a strong, sweet scent as the sun sets. 

In most of my photos, the moths' wings - which beat about 50 times a second - were an indistinct blur, so my favorites were these few that captured their colorful wings frozen in motion. I especially love the wing position in this one.

A day or two after I took those evening photos, I was burying chopped organic banana peel at the base of our rosebush (works like a charm as a rose fertilizer) when who should I catch snoozing inside the rose branches but one of our Sphinx moth friends! Repose in the roses by day, belly up to the bee balm bar by night - doesn't sound half bad! :-) 

References: 
Beyond Bones (blog of the Houston Museum of Natural Science): Sphinx Moths 
Silkmoths: Hyles lineata lineata
Butterflies and Moths of North America: Attributes of Hyles lineata
ButterflyZone: Moths with Longest Proboscis 

And finally, here's wishing my dear friend Joanne ("AdventureJo" in Interwebz Land) a very happy birthday on Monday! Jo and I have been friends for 32 years - longer than some of my blog readers have been alive! :-)

Happy birthday, Jo - you are indeed a ray of sunshine! Eternally youthful sunshine! :-)