Nature
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@HoraceZontal Yes, but actually a mile from the city line in Indiana where we live.
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This guy earned the name of Lenny when I discovered him hanging out with me in the she shed during winter several years ago. I left water for him and he took care of all the creepy spiders and occassional red wasps that would get in. I got him a black beetle one morning. He would often show up around me when I would be outside. When I was in the garden digging up old soil, I would find a grub and I could put it on the rock wall and Lenny would come and eat it. He learned to be near me when I was working in the garden. He would crunch them and make some funny faces getting them down. I was devasted to find him drowned in a bucket of water after a torrential rain. His descendandts live on though. We have chameleons, sand lizards and these, which are rustic lizards. You see them in the trees and scampering around in my garden. They run along the top of my flower bed railing taking care of gnats, flies and mosquitoes. That's what Lenny was probably doing on the bucket. We found him one time in the underground pipe of the condensation line from the air conditioner during the hottest part of the day. He was chilling
. Lenny comes from a Stevie Ray Vaughan song, Lenny. https://youtu.be/dmxLND2czNk?si=ka2FEwwdAEdppoKf
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@wissox83
Ah! That tracks. Reminded me of the view from a spot on the shore in Hyde Park, but it wasn’t quite right — the relationship of the Sears Tower to JH was off. -
@HoraceZontal yah, you must be thinking of promontory point, a famous park there that juts out into the lake with beautiful views!
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Today's photo is of the Baltimore Orioles that migrate through and stopped for a drink.
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Today's photo is of a couple of the many sago palms that I planted 18 years ago. They produce new fronds each year and lose the bottom tier, so in essence you get a larger part of the trunk above ground and the new growth produces a taller plant. I cover these in the winter with tarps but a couple leaves got a bit frost bitten, but in all the 9 I have left survived. Most of them are in the ground but there are some in pots that make it easier to move. During the freeze in 2021 I lost dozens of them along with the tall Washitonian palms, like down in South Padre, and many Windmill palms. As houseplants, sago palms make excellent long-lived specimens. They are very slow growing, so be prepared to wait for at least a decade to see much of a trunk develop. Most plants grow considerably broader than tall.
#RCJH GO KU
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@RockChalkinTexas-0 Are sago palms and sago cacti the same thing? We had to give our 3 near our patio away to our neighbors because apparently the "fruits" they produce are poisonous to dogs. They have grown nice and lush ever since, but, to be honest, we found the dog to be more fun...
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@mayjay Do you mean "saguaro" cactus? I don't think there is a sago cactus. Mine don't have fruit.
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Loons at Stormy Lake, WI
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@wissox83 I love loons. When I see one, I say in Katherine Hepburn voice, Oh look Norman, the loons!
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Your first sentence included:
"...the many sago cactus that I planted..."
and then later, you said palms.So I guess it was inadvertent, but I sure had my Master Gardener wife stumped for awhile when I asked her what the difference was! She says the fruits are little berry-like things. Might be a variety only found here in ante-bellum SC--like so many other things.
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@mayjay DUH I just figured out it was my mistake. Sorry for the confusion. I have been working on protesting my taxes
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@RockChalkinTexas-0 Yes, been privileged to be on a lake with loons and even northern lights since the early 80's. Hearing the loons and looking at ten quadzillion stars and seeing the northern lights is magical.
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Just home from run to town. We saw a lot of these red flowers, known as Indian Blankets, along the right-of-way going and coming. These are in the back yard. Lady Bird
Johnson was instrumental in beautifying the highway systems. From here all the way down to South Padre, these flourish.
I will drink a toast
to Sir David Attenborough tonight. He turned 100 
today 
. I've grown more fond of him as the years have gone by and deeply appreciate all that he has done to awaken our senses when it comes to Life on Earth 
!
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This is absolutely amazing
https://x.com/i/status/2052632108401590525 -
@RockChalkinTexas-0 Incredible!
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Today's photo is a varigated form of the Helianthus annuus "Ring of Fire" (Common Sunflower). It's a striking sunflower variety, with large flowers, 5 inches across, boasting a unique pattern of fiery red and gold petals surrounding a dark center. Ideal for adding bold contrast to gardens, it reaches maturity in about 70-80 days and is a magnet for pollinators. They grow in a raised bed in the corner of my garden.
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HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY
!! My heart 
is filled with love from the girls and all you Bucketeers! No better way to celebrate than to show you our first fawn of the season. Her mom took a drink and then the fawn laid down by the stack of firewood while she went away. Fawn stayed there the rest of the day and I came in from the she shed at 8PM and we were making coffee and saw the mom come back but the fawn didn't get up and we were wondering what if Hattie came. Next thing we see is the mom take off running and she drove Hattie wide around the fawn and just stood there. I went to get feeders and when I was heading into the house I walked over to the west side and looked around the corner and there was Hattie on the sidewalk by the back gate waiting for me. Figured we could give her the crusts from our pizza earlier and get her mind off the fawn. We had a similar incident last year with the male fox kinda nipping at a fawn. I put out the crusts and she would take a crust, jump down from the bench, eat it behind the bench, and then get back up and take another. I looked for the fawn this morning but didn't see it. There have been 6 deer that I could count laying in the front yard close to the road in the high grass all morning.
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Bob Marley left us on this date 45 years ago. His music lives on and will for eternity. Woke up to this little ditty in my head after ferocious storm last night that knocked out our electricity. There were 50+ mph winds and had to pick up limbs and the tomato cages that I recycled to block the deer from the front porch. Whew. Lots of lightning and another 1/2 inch of badly needed rain. People in Austin had trees crash on top of cars as the storm gained strength after leaving us. We didn't have the hail that some had so this song has been my mantra for 50 years.
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Today's photo is a rare visitor to my bird bath. A Scarlet Tanager stopped by to take a bath! Prior to this, I finally spotted the male Painted Bunting at the bath but wasn't quick enough with my phone. We've seen the Scarlet Tanager the last couple of years. However, a pair of Painted Buntings and their chicks have been around for a dozen or so years. I know where they nest on one of my lots. I always look forward to be able to see one.
