Recent photos

Our youngest daughter is away at camp along with her digital camera. Since I have yet to get a digital camera of my own, I've been stuck with using my phone, which I find to be rather unsatisfactory. Oh, well. Here are a few scenes from the last few days.

I already posted pictures of a turtle laying eggs, but I came across another one.

Another view. There's good eating on one of those...

Juvenile Canada geese wading in water that ought not to be there, overflowing the banks of Lake Monona. (Madison's river and lakes have been spilling over their banks since the beginning of June. You may have read about some of the flooding that has occurred. Of course, if you live around here, you've experienced it.) Those geese may still be cute, but before long they'll be delinquent thugs - swearing, smoking cigarettes and excreting everywhere. There's good eating on one of those...

More water that ought not to be there. This time the Yahara River.

The Yahara River bike path under East Washington Avenue is now passable, but damp. For a few weeks it was under water.

I saw this turkey moseying through the UW Arboretum yesterday. There's good eating on one of those...

Gah! It's looking at me!
You guessed it! There's good eating on one of those...

Toad porn: the sequel

This is what happens when toads do this without taking the proper precautions. Click on the image if you wish to enbiggen it.

Toad porn

Missed me!

It was quite windy on Friday. While making my daily rounds with the dog, I was walking beneath a large tree when I heard a loud tearing, cracking sound coming from overhead. It occurred to me at that time that it might be a good idea to get away from that tree, and sooner would be better than later. I suggested the same to a woman walking nearby, and we proceeded briskly away from the tree. It was only seconds later that the tree split down the middle and a large chunk of it fell where I had been walking. It think it took at least 5 seconds or more to fall so I believe I would have had time to get out of the way had I been underneath, but I'm glad I didn't have to find out. Of course, I had to get pictures the next time I went back. And, lucky you! Here they are.

Turtle sightings

Mother's Day, 2008 at the UW Arboretum.




From a different angle.




This beast was a good two feet long or more. Unfortunately, it was also dead.




Today at the bark park. It appeared to be laying eggs right in the middle of the trail.



Hard work.

Some stuff.

At the bark park recently, this toad wanted to learn to fly, so it climbed into my toadapult.




A lost child. The tennis ball is just there to give some idea of scale. It made one heck of an omelet.




At a rest area in Minnesota on the way to a wedding. I guess Minnesotans are flexible.




At the same rest area. I wasn't quite sure what this was supposed to "mean." Is it "fresh" or isn't it?




I guess the drinking age is a little younger in Minnesota.

Loose ends

The last week or so has been rather hectic, what with single parenting for a week, car accidents (no injuries, thank the gods. Or not) kid and spouse going back to school, pieces of music to learn at the last minute (more about that later - I guess you've heard that one before), financial issues to deal with...

So, now I have a job application to turn in, some pieces of music to finish figuring out and work up to performance level, a meme I'd like to get to and some pictures that I've been meaning to post but haven't gotten to. Right now, I'm going to deal with the pictures. As is usually the case when I put up photos, if you want to see them better, click on them and they'll probably get bigger. I wish the same could be said for my bank account, but don't we all?

Winter is drawing to a close and spring is drawing nigher, although it wouldn't surprise me if we get more snow before summer arrives. In Wisconsin, we almost always get snow in March, it's not at all unusual in April, May isn't out of the question and a couple of times in my life we've gotten snow in June. It snowed several inches last Friday while Ms. Geranium was making her way back from Pittsburgh (now, that was an adventure! I hope she posts about it.) and we're supposed to get snow tomorrow. But, spring is definitely rearing it's head. Over the last couple of weeks, the birdies have been making their presence known. Noisy little buggers. At our local Bark Park, I've been seeing robins, hearing redwing blackbirds and those obnoxious canada geese never really leave, but now they're making one heck of a racket. (When I first moved to Wisconsin, canada geese were a rare sight, possibly endangered. Now, I think it's illegal to hunt them [there's good eatin' on one of those!] and, probably due to climate change, they've figured out that they don't have to migrate south during the winter after all and they've become something of a nuisance.) A week or two ago when I was there I decided that, since the ice on the marsh would be melting soon, Molly and I would take a walk on it while we had the chance. We came across a couple of canada geese.



Molly had a few choice words for them. "Hey! What do you think you're doing? Get out of here! I mean it! And don't come back, or else!"



A few days later, Sparkly Seacow joined me on my daily rounds. The sandhill cranes had been quite noisy for a few days, so we went in search of the source. (Sandhill cranes were almost extinct for a while. Now, thanks in large part to the International Crane Foundation in Baraboo, WI, you can see them rather often if you know where to look and know what they sound like. If you ever get to southern Wisconsin, the ICF is worth a trip. The ICF has been quite successful in their program of breeding cranes and reintroducing them to the wild. You can stand face to face with a number of different types of cranes, some of which are among the most rare birds in the world. Some of them are taller than most humans and look like freaking dinosaurs; it's an unnerving experience to have one of those critters eyeballing you from inches away.) We walked out across the still frozen marsh once again. SS wasn't too happy about it, but I could see that the ice was quite thick. We followed the noise and found one crane out in the marsh grasses. It's more or less in the center of the photo, but pretty well camouflaged. Make it bigger by doing that clicky thing, and you should be able to see it.



Those things are pretty big, but I wanted to see how close I could get. It decided I was too close and flew away. You can see it on the left of the photo below. The problem with that digital camera is that you can't see the screen when you're in the sun, so framing your shots involves a lot of guesswork.
I can still hear them every day, even when I can't see them. Must be mating season or something.

Related news: (Name withheld) of Springfield, WI was arrested when it was discovered he was killing and eating sandhill cranes. When asked what they tasted like, he replied "they taste kind of like bald eagle." Sorry.

What goes up, must come down, right?

I have debunked the Law of Gravity! Excuse me a moment while I upload some photos. I'll be right back.

("Pssst! What the heck is he talking about?"
"I don't know, maybe all that 'home alone' stuff has pushed him over the edge. Or maybe a little too much time in the sauna."
"Shhhh! Here he comes! Act like everything's normal! Just smile and nod.")

Okay, I'm back. In case you're wondering what I meant, allow me to explain. It all starts with this 11-year old dalmatian-mix that became a member of our household a few months ago. If you're a regular reader (I'm pretty sure there are at least five of you), you know all about Molly and her need for copious amounts of exercise as well as my lack of gainful employment. These two things combined mean daily trips to one of Dane County's Dog Exercise Areas. Within a short time of acquiring Molly and discovering the necessity of getting her to the Bark Park™, I also discovered that she is crazy about chasing balls. Not just likes it, but crazy about it to the exclusion of (just about) all else. She's pretty smart about balls, too. Before you throw it, she doesn't watch the ball like many other dogs, she watches your eyes to determine where the ball is going to go (a bad throw or mischievous thrower can fool her.) She isn't too smart about ballistics, though. A ball thrown in a normal manner usually hits the ground within 2 or 3 seconds, but a ball thrown as high as you can throw it stays in the air for, well, longer than that. So, you throw the ball as high as you can and Molly takes off in the direction she thinks it's headed. 2 or 3 seconds later she starts looking around in an "it ought to be around here, somewhere" sort of way, which is very different from her "I'm going to get that ball" gait. Then, a few seconds later, the ball comes down, usually pretty close to where she thinks it should be. Her reaction is good for hours of laughs. I get a chuckle, she gets the ball, we're all happy campers. Until...

One day while Ms. Geranium, Molly and I were at the BP together, I threw the ball as high as I could. Molly took off. Up! Up! Up went the ball! Down! Down . . . . wait a minute . . . it didn't come down! Molly is running around in her "seeking" mode. Ms. Geranium and I are looking all over the place: on the ground, in the nearby tree ("It never came down, maybe it's in the tree." "Yeah, right!"), on the ground some more. Over here, over there. In the tree ("yeah, right!") Meanwhile, Molly is getting a little frantic. No ball anywhere. Finally, we give up, finish our walk with Molly expecting the ball to turn up at any turn (that happens sometimes. She doesn't know how.)


For a week or so after that, every time I walked past that vicinity I took a quick look in the tree knowing that if it (the ball, not the tree - I love those squinting modifiers) were on the ground it would be long gone, but I swear it never came down. One day, I'm throwing the ball high near that tree again, tempting fate, or the gods, or whomever, and a woman walking nearby asks me "are you trying to knock that ball out of the tree?" "Duuuh, what?" was my extremely intelligent response (good thing I'm married and my wife knows I'm only stupid most of the time - if I were single I'd never have any luck with the ladies with repartee like that. She wasn't my type, anyway.) Sorry, back to the suspenseful narrative - she replies "I thought you were trying to knock that ball down." I explained that I suspected I had gotten a ball stuck in the tree, but had never been able to locate it. "It's right there! For days I've been wondering how someone managed to get it perfectly wedged between those two branches" she tells me. (If you so desire, you may click on the photo to enbiggen it.) I follow the direction in which she is pointing her Chuck-it™ and . . . Doh! All this time, I'd been barking up the wrong tree! (Sorry about that, I couldn't help myself. There's probably a special place in Hades for people like me, but at least I won't be alone. My dad will without a doubt be there, too.) Two weeks later, that ball is still in the tree. Now, when I walk past it, I take a couple of throws at it with the new ball under the assumption that, eventually, I'll knock the old one out of the tree or there will be two balls stuck up there. Either option works for me.

Sunset at the Bark Park

This was a couple of days ago. It looked better in real life - more red in the clouds. The camera phone takes such grainy looking photos and you can't control the exposure at all. Oh, well.

Winter. Again. Sorry.

I apologize if I'm sounding like a broken record (does anyone remember what a record, broken or otherwise, sounds like?), but I find winter to be such a wonderful time of year, and we're actually having a real winter this year.


The whole family has been rather under the weather for the past few days, but Molly the Super Dog (that's why she wears the red cape), still needs to get outside. Yesterday, since I was probably suffering the most, Ms. Geranium, the Emergency Backup Bark Park Guy, was kind enough to take Molly out to the bark park for her daily exercise. Today I was a bit better, while Ms. Geranium seemed worse, so I resumed my duties as Bark Park Guy (we suspect that that is how Molly thinks of us.)


Temperatures had risen to above zero, so it felt downright balmy. As a result, the bark park was more crowded than it had been for the last few days.



The bark park to which we usually go (there are several in the area) because it's the easiest one to get to from our house, is part of a park that borders one of Madison's wealthiest neighborhoods. Therefore, in addition to deadbeats like me, it also attracts people "of means" - you know, the kind of people who own dogs as fashion accessories ("what do you think, will my yorkiepoodalemeranian or my bitchnfreeze go best with the new Hummer that I bought to accent my new highlights? Or should I wear a wig and take the Bentley and the toy schnotzu?") Today I chatted for a few moments with one gentleman who was complaining about the cold and bemoaning the fact that, for business reasons, he was only able to spend one month at his house on the Pacific coast of Mexico. Although he seemed like a nice enough guy (for a rich bastard), I just couldn't bring myself to feel sorry for him. But, thanks to those rich folks, it was Free Burritos For All™ day at the bark park! Just kidding, the car pictured above must have belonged to the other deadbeat dog owner.


It was snowing again, so even though I was still feeling a bit pekid, it felt good to be up and about in The Elements. For some reason, you can't see it in these photos (maybe it's the camera - I also found the photos of fog I posted a while back didn't look anywhere near as foggy as it looked in real life - on second thought, maybe it's my eyes), but the snow was falling pretty heavily when I took these.


Did this sign keep me from walking out on the ice? Only my hairdresser knows for sure.








I just liked the way the snow was sticking to the bark in this one.
















Snow covered fungus.














Etc, etc.