Category: Miscellaneous

Bad Meat?

I just cooked myself a hamburger for lunch and I’m a bit concerned about the meat being bad. It had been refridgerated since Saturday (it’s Wednesday) and smelled a bit…iffy.

If I feel sick later I know what to blame!

Our new clematis plant finally flowered today; here’s a shot:

Dsc06998.jpg < First clematis flower!

At the risk of turning this blog into a nature commentary…here’s a shot of our backyard the other morning, taken from the house:

one.jpg < Look closely at the tree…

Can’t see it? Here’s a closeup:

two.jpg < Woodpecker

There were actually two of them, and they were large! Neither of us had seen these before in the wild, so it was quite a sight!

And later that evening, in a sequel-of-sorts to my last entry, our backyard trees were full of lightning bugs 🙂

Bugs and Bats

We went for a walk this evening around 8pm, and it was dark before we got home. This is the time of year for lightning bugs (fireflies) and we could see them flickering in the bushes as we got near to home. One of them was on the edge of the road in the grass and I was lucky enough to pick it up. It was quite an experience holding it and watching it flash (like a bright green LED) in my hand.

Of course I couldn’t take a photo but it looked just like this:

Firefly.jpg < It’s about an inch long

Back when we lived at Pine Grove Lane in Marcy, we once had an enormous swarm of these in our back yard. We went outside and stood amidst them – hundreds and hundreds of them. It was mesmerizing because they fly slowly and flicker quickly only once every 2 or 3 seconds. It was like tiny pinpoints of light surrounding us from ground level all the way to well above our heads. A memory we will not soon forget.

As we got closer to the house today we saw a bat. The bats around here are very small (about mouse sized) and when they fly you can clearly here their wings flapping. He was very active, probably catching bugs (maybe even lightning bugs). We’ve seen a couple around here, but I can’t really say what they look like since I’ve never seen one roosting or during the day.

Here’s a quick shot of the house I just took:

night.jpg < Can you see the moon?