Here's a bit of fluff to balance my op-ed piece from yesterday.
It was a little disconcerting to sense some commenter's surprise at the fact that I had strong opinions on current issues.
Pretty funny, we used to have a couple of black cockers that loved it when the grass was getting cut. Stirred up all the moths and butterflies for them to chase. It always made me think of "The Dog and the Butterfly" by Heart. Good song. As for yesterday, you got to unload now and then, or you'd go looney tunes. That's all folks.
Wow, lots of frogs in the background.
After the above comment about the frogs, I had to listen again with the sounds way up. I couldn't tell you what frogs those were, but I heard a Great-creasted Flycatcher several times... cool!
Great frogs. Nice lep. Is that a phlox?
Well, I'm now a father -- sort of.
The Paracheirodon axelrodi in my community blackwater tank here in the office apparently spawned a while back, and now there are a few tiny little Cardinals darting about eating flake food. No doubt most of the fry were eaten. The eggs are phototonic, and I've never heard of such a thing in a well lit display tank. I remember reading, as a teen, about how difficult they were to breed in captivity, and in fact, most for sale in local pet stores are wild caught. Tried to get pictures, but the buggers are impossible to focus on, and move too fast -- all I've gotten are tiny fluorescent blurs. I mention this only because you're the only person I know who is aware of who Herbert Axelrod is. What a burden to bear, eh?
I love Heart. I've passed that on to my son also. The Wilson sisters rock ... still.
Between treefrogs and cicadas at PFHQ, there is no quiet.
I went back to the primal gator pool and captured a mezozoic movie.
Those flycatchers never shut up!
Well, you are two paragraphs ahead of me ... I cut a blue million of 39 inch wainscoting panel boards yesterday.
Thank you for the encouragement and challenge too.
Sometimes I feel fairly evolved, other times, the 90% of my genes that are supposed to be just place holders from the past kick in and I get all Neanderthally.
It's a dianthus still waiting to be planted in the ground.
Very cool that your tetras spawned! My aquaculture ambitions have been thwarted lately by remodeling finances.
I even have the old Innes book of tropical fishes around here somewhere from my boyhood.
Do try not to get pregnant.
Thunder asked if you fired off any fireworks? Well, did you? Or do you automatically take off running through the swamp when you do that ;-) Yep, I know the story!
Tell the family I said hello.
Dogs look great...not to mention very funny! We used to have a pup that liked to chase them til she caught a cabbage white and ate it...kind of lost interest after that.
It rained pretty steady and we just let it go this year.
I guess cabbage whites don't taste good?
That was actually worthy of waiting-to-load a second time. I see Gumbo is the braver heart... and he has learned to stop and smell the dianthuseses. Dianthi?
Without using Google, was Axelrod the person who did a lot of photos and writing for various animals-in-captivity books? His name sounds familiar from photo credits in a tarantula "ownership manual" book I had when I was a kid. Yes, I kept tarantulas - and still would if the Wife wasn't so creeped ou tby them.
thingfish23, Axelrod was a photographer from NY who traipsed around the world, an ichthyologist, and the founder of TFH Publications (Tropical Fish Hobbiest). Published a lot of duplicative, entry level oddball pet care books commonly sold at K-Mart, Arlans and pet stores, as well as more serious tomes.
And yes, FC, I had the Innes book as well, replete with color plates rather than photographs. It was the cat's meow back when. It's now ashes underneath a restaurant in some scuzzy little backwater in GA.
Oops, NJ, not NY. Bad memory.
I don't blame the puppies. Palamedes swallowtails can be pretty scary.
I do not think people were surprised that you had such strong opinions, but that you aired them here. We have gotten a bit used to the peace and calm of your blog. That said, anyone who loves our state and the natural world as you and the people who love your blog do also must see that we are headed in the wrong direction and should be sounding the cry of alarm. So keep up the preaching inter mingled with your delightful prose and photography.
As for the book, as Anne LaMott teaches in her book, Bird By Bird, writing a novel is just a process of getting one inch at a time. When I was writing my novel (which is taking much longer to edit than it took to create), I kept a picture frame nearby with a one inch square in it. Just one inch is all you have to write, then, one more inch. You'll get it done, and we will all be glad for it.
I tried to keep this one short for we dialuppers.
Doc answered it pretty well. I'm with your wife on the tarantula thing.
Wait til they meet their first hickory horned devil!