Putting my time to good use

My wife and I were about to leave the house for a ride this afternoon.  I went outside into warm sunshine, and while I waited for her I looked at the bush just outside the garage door.  This insect flew into the picture and landed on a leaf, and I snapped four or five quick shots before it left.  

 

My Day(s)

Keeping my attention:

Checking the Internet Archive a few days ago, I learned that a book I was interested in had been added to the IA collection.  "The 168 Days" was written soon after the FDR proposal to enlarge the Supreme Court had been rejected, and while I'd known about it for some time, only last year it was made available online.  

Through that book listing, I learned about the Bellamy Salute, which was supposed to accompany the Pledge of Allegiance and predated the Fascist and Nazi salutes that resemble it.  Just the same, in 1942 the hand gesture while reciting the Pledge was changed to placing it over the heart, the one I remember from grade school.

Then yesterday, I learned about the following.  After reading Fred Allen's autobiography, Much Ado About Me, I knew he had written for Variety, and here's an excerpt from a piece from 1923.  More than 20 years later, the anti-South jokes in the original article were flipped into pro-South and anti-North jokes and delivered by Senator Claghorn, voiced by Kenny Delmar. (Yes, Delmar.  I noticed that too.)

Return visit

On April 16, I was looking at the wood violets on the formerly landscaped area of our back yard, when a movement nearby caught my attention.  A garter snake slithered away from me, but I got one adequate photo of it.  

Yesterday morning around 8:30, I went out the front door to show a contractor where I wanted him to start work. On the way back to the door, I saw a garter snake on the mulch beneath a small tree.  At first, I wasn't sure if it was alive, but it moved its head just a little, and I realized it was warming up in the early morning sun.  

One snake spotted in more than 25 years, and in the 26th year, two sightings in just over a month.  If it hadn't been for the contractor, I wouldn't have seen this one, so maybe I should get outside more.

A purpose and a place

Our front yard has been weed-and-feed-ed, and I recently paid to have several square feet of mulch added to the south side of the house.  The prior layer of mulch had broken down and was apparently an ideal potting mix for a number of weeds, which made it look shabby as seen from the front sidewalk.  Curb appeal, I get that.  Can't be lowering the property values in this neighborhood.  

The back yard, which isn't so visible, has had a crop of dandelions, and the formerly landscaped "island" near the back edge of the property is now largely covered with wood violets, since they are a natural low ground cover that needs no maintenance or mowing.  

Not to say it's all wild and unkempt; I keep the plentiful catnip from growing tall, and ruthlessly uproot the spiny thistles when they pop up.  From a distance it just looks green and intentional.

There are exceptions, though. Landscaping in the front yard was airtight (or "weedtight"?) for the first couple of years, but in the past two that has given way to patches of speedwell (left, above) and yellow wood sorrel.  I couldn't get a picture today of the latter with pollinators, but there were hoverflies helping themselves to the former.  They're colorful, they're pretty, and they're attractive to pollinators, so they're staying put.

Sunny Bunny, 10 May 2026

 The morning of May 9, I looked out the back window and saw two rabbits, probably the same two in the post of May 5.  One of them was in the sun, and I considered getting out the camera again, but I was on my way somewhere and passed up the opportunity.  The rest of the day I regretted it, though.  

So when I saw this cottontail the next morning, I stopped everything else and took this picture.  

"Whatever it is that you love, go and photograph it... Go photograph what you can’t not photograph. The things that upset you to miss." -- Kyle Agee, https://petapixel.com/2022/05/21/you-are-still-a-photographer-even-if-no-one-likes-your-images/

The Happiest Day of My Life (lately)

Around 6:45 this afternoon:

Across the room, my wife of 41 years 

My cat on my lap

Kaleidoscope on the iPad; I had listened to it in high school, more than 50 years ago

Useful information on Xitter, confirming I happened onto the right answer to something years ago

Homemade chocolate pudding for dessert

And then I went outside, and in our back yard I saw two rabbits.  I wanted to remember them, and make a note of all the good things of that moment.  Like the man said, "If this isn't nice, I don't know what is."

Not dead yet

Our next-door neighbors have a dogwood tree on their property, so I'll guess that this volunteer in our yard came from there.  It picked a good location, too, just inside the landscaping without interfering with any of the other greenery.  Something happened about five years ago that was a shock to its system, but it survived and each spring the blossoms appear as shown above.