...Something Completely Different

Summer music.  Almost makes you want to go to the beach.
Almost.  ;o) 

Autumn Preview & Outdoor Oddities

Our weather over the weekend was beautiful-- cooler and drier than usual for August, with pleasant little breezes that made it feel cooler yet-- and for a couple of nights it was cool and dry enough for us to turn off the air conditioning and open a few windows.

Ahh... There's nothing like that first taste of autumn! Of course, it was only temporary. Heat and humidity have already begun to creep back up the scale, but we did our best to enjoy paradise while it lasted! ;o) (And there's supposed to another slight cool spell early next week!)

We took advantage of the nice weather and did some yard work. There's still much to do (I'm making a list of work to accomplish before spring/summer 2010), but it's a start.

After clearing a portion of a vastly overgrown flowerbed, I noticed a bunch of what looked like tiny white eggs.

I'm not sure yet what they contain(ed). A little later on, only a yard or two from the eggs, I saw a teensy baby green anole (a common lizard around here-- the type in my photos on Flickr). A quick look online suggests that maybe lizard eggs are larger than these were, but what else could they be? I wouldn't expect a garter snake to lay so many eggs, and I don't know if they'd be this tiny, either... Actually, I wouldn't expect a lizard to lay so many eggs. They don't strike me as insect eggs, but that would explain the number.

Speaking of insects, I found several of these strange-looking caterpillars in some rosebushes:

I think I've identified them as white-marked tussock moth caterpillars. If so, they apparently sting and are commonly found munching on trees.

Well, I had planned to write a slightly longer, coherent entry, but trying to write while I watch TV isn't working. (Weird, huh?)

There are some more photos from our nice-weather weekend on my Flickr photostream, including several pictures of Trixie chasing soap bubbles.

Take5 Tuesday

Prompt from Take5 Tuesday:

1. 5 things you like about spring.

• The first days of warm sunshine. (It's one of the few times of the year when I actually enjoy sunshine, because it's not yet too hot.)
  
• The smell of freshly cut grass and honeysuckle.
• Feeling excited (for a few weeks, maybe?) about the yard. (This is when I make big plans that I later fail to carry through to completion. ;o))
• Gentle springtime breezes.
• Birds building nests all over the place (even on our back porch).
  

2. 5 things you plan to do this summer.

• Work on at least a couple of yard projects. (Pump house, patio, maybe more. . .)
• Keep alive the tomato plants we've purchased. (I hope!)
• Keep an eye open for an ad for Eskie puppies. (There aren't many available, but I'd really love to have another Eskie, one of these days.)
• Do a better job than last year at keeping the yard in order.
• Avoid snakes.
  

3. 5 of your favorite sports to play.
Ha ha ha. You're joking, right? I'm not that sporty.

• Badminton
  
• Bowling (It's been a while. . .)
  
• Bocce (Just the two of us, around the yard-- nothing fancy.)
  
• Volleyball? (It's been so many years, though!)
• Softball (Again, years and years and years!)
  

4. 5 board games you like to play, (or played as a kid.)
I don't play that many board games these days. Not because I don't like to, but because most of the time it's just the two of us, and there aren't many board games (that we like) that work with two people. We need to invite some people over to play board games, sometime. . .

• Scrabble (We do play this one fairly often. Neither of us are champion level, but it's nice for a change from the other games we play.)
  
• Trivial Pursuit (Another one the just the two of us can play.)
  
• Clue (I used to play this a lot as a kid.)
• Pay Day (Same as above. . .)
• Parcheesi (Just to name one more-- we had a lot of games I liked just about as much as this one. I think I like Pit better, but I don't think of that as a board game. . .)

5. 5 sites you visited today.

• Flickr (More specifically, I visited my "home" on the site, with recent photos from my contacts, recent activity on my own photos, etc.)
  
• Google Reader (which helps me keep track of blogs I read)
• Blogger (this blog and my clay blog)
• Google (Almost every search starts with the little Google search bar built into my browser. I end up here several times a day, usually.)
• The Daily Meme's list of Tuesday memes (where I found this one)