I won’t be showing up to run you through with a pitchfork. I’ve always considered laws against desecration of the flag to be ironically antithetical to the foundations of our country. Analogous to laws of the past (and present) allowing slavery. I think it would be very difficult to convict you as you seem to have no contempt for the flag. It’s my experience it’s difficult to “cast” something that doesn’t exist.
Moss phlox plugs taking hold. May have to fill in some gaps. Also got red and candy stripe. May have to zoom in.
This is the shade garden in our back yard, with the Hosta bed my wife planted in the foreground. We planted everything back there except the Yuccas (and the forest in the background ). Now that it's the middle of the Summer and it's 90 degrees every day this is my oasis if I want to go outside and chill out. Gotta be careful at night though, we saw an adolescent Copperhead back there a couple nights ago. Fortunately for everyone it was a docile snake and allowed me to escort it back into the woods...
My wife actually took this one a few years ago but it’s too cute not to share. One of the cutest animals in North America in my opinion.
It happens from time to time. I’ve pulled quills out of several cows and a couple dogs over the years. Never the same animal twice though! Most of the cattle have been yearling heifers. They are typically nosy and careless (like teenage girls I suppose). Most people hate porcupines because of the quills in animals thing. I find it a minor inconvenience and well worth it having them as a part of a healthy diverse ecosystem. We see more now that we have more eastern red cedars.
Kinda make you wanna give it a great big hug, eh? That's one critter I haven't had the privilege of meeting in person....
Not my photo at all but worth sharing. This was in London yesterday. The wildlife must be suffering here. The UK all time record (since records began) was broken before midday and has been broken again at least twice since. It's not just one isolated location either. At least 29 different parts of the country have broken the previous record and that was with a couple of hours heating still to come. Muck heaps have been spontaneously combusting and starting farm fires burning whole fields full of crops.
I hate fire ants. These took me by surprise the other day. On both legs! That same day I was stung by 2 wasps. One on each foot!
They are sometimes curious and sometimes ambivalent or shy. But I’ve never seen one aggressive at all. Once years ago I was out irrigating with my father-in-law. He decided he needed to check the corn for spider mites that appear first very low down on the stalk. So he disappeared down the corn rows. He came back a few minutes later and told me he was crawling along on all fours looking off to the side for mites when he heard scuffling right in front of his nose. Apparently a porcupine was headed up the row not paying any more attention than my father-in-law and they almost collided. They both backed up, turned around and ran. LOL Out in the pastures they learn where we put out salt for the cows. They love salt. We put salt chips broken off of 50lb blocks well away from the salt blocks and tubs of mineral intended for the cows. That way the porcupines can have the chips and they don’t go close to the cows, greatly reducing the chances of quills in noses. Someday I’d like a pet porcupine. We’ve raised orphan coons, skunks, and foxes, but so far never come across an orphan porcupine.
I am thankful we don’t have fire ants. They sound evil. We bought some hay out of southern Oklahoma back in 2012 when it was so dry here and we were short of feed. I piled it all in one place when it arrived in the winter. That spring I checked all over that area for unfamiliar looking ants. I don’t know if a colony would come in a big round bale of hay or not but I wasn’t taking any chances. LOL. I think it’s too cold here but I really don’t know much about them. Except people that have them hate them.
I heard you were supposed to set records. I looked it up and I can’t believe you’ve never seen 40°C before. I suppose your asphalt and everything is formulated for lower temps.
Wow - 104.4 degrees F at Heathrow. We've got 100 degree temps headed our way in Virginia but that's not unheard of in these parts. What hurts is when the heat is accompanied by drought, but we've been lucky in that regard. We got 6" of rain last weekend but the next few days are gonna be dry....
I've always wanted a pet crow. Or at least get one friendly enough to come and visit and follow me around the farm. I spend a lot of time watching the crows and they're hilarious. Really, really smart too.
We're supposed to be a temperate nation. We live in a temperate zone on a small island surrounded by water. We avoid the large ranges in temperature that large landmasses get because water doesn't hold or lose heat as much as land. It's abnormal to get to 40 degrees. It's getting hotter than average more regularly too. Plus it's going up fast. 10 of the hottest days since records began in the last 20 years so on average the record is getting broken every other year. This heatwave is weather. Conditions have created a huge mass of hot air from the Sahara to move north at a very slow speed breaking temperature records all over Europe as is goes. The regularity and severity of these weather conditions is climate change though. It's not comforting (or comfortable) sitting here thinking about it.
Yeah, we've had no rain of any significance for 2 months and an abnormally dry spring. Add to that the excess rain during and after the time the wheat was drilled in winter leading to it getting a poor start (yerng whit dun't like gittin it's feet wit as they like to say around here) and this years yield is going to be terrible. Fortunately the heatwave is due to break tonight with a massive thunderstorm which hopefully will reach us here in Suffolk and give us some well needed rain.
I’ve heard they make good pets. Crows seem to have a well developed sense of humor from what little time I’ve spent observing them.