Leighton, Gerald Rowley, The life-history of British serpents and their local distribution in the British Isles. Publisher Edinburgh and London, W. Blackwood and sons, 1901.
I’m declaring today Snake Sunday. I’ve finally posted the story of my visit to the Reptarium and this vintage book is right on theme.
via: The Internet Archive
Bella, a very friendly Rhino Iguana, ©voyager, all rights reserved
Sorry to be absent the past few days. My adventure to Michigan put me into a crash cycle and it’s been slow climbing out. I’m feeling closer to normal today, but the brain fog is being stubborn and persistent. I hope I can string together a few sentences that make sense to tell you all about my amazing experience.
Content Warning – There are photos of snakes ahead. [Read more…]
Dürer’s young hare is probably one of the best known animal portraits in the world. On our recent trip to the zoo, a rabbit seemed to be imitating the famous drawing pretty well.
See for yourselves:
Dürer’s Young Hare.
Source: Wikimedia Commons
©Giliell, all rights reserved
Or maybe Dürer was just pretty good at painting hares and bunnies.
It’s finally tulip time. © voyager, all rights reserved
Yellow Magnolia, ©voyager, all rights reserved
I’m in the midst of a crash right now so Jack and I didn’t go far this morning, just far enough for Mr. Schnoop to poop. I did find a couple of things worth sharing, though. First, is my neighbours yellow magnolia. It’s still small, but it sure seems happy.
Big yellow blooms, © voyager, all rights reserved
Next, are the daffodils in another neighbours garden. They were peaking today.
A few happy daffies in my neighbour’s garden, voyager, all rights reserved
I apologize for not getting Jack’s Walk up yesterday. Let’s just say it was a bad day. Today the pain is better, but my brain is kinda fucked up and the double gravity won’t lift. Also, my hands won’t do what I want them to.
We had a good trip and I’ll try to get a post up later today.
White Trillium with a virus-like mycoplasma infection causing green stripes. Eventually (it takes a long time) the flower will turn all green and ultimately stop blooming. ©voyager, all rights reserved
I should be on my way home from Michigan today and then live again tomorrow. I didn’t want to leave you without spring flowers, though, so here are a few shots I took in our wee forest on Sunday.
©voyager, all rights reserved
I took Jack to the woods yesterday and we were greeted by masses of brilliant white trilliums covering the forest floor. It’s an incredible sight and so short-lived that I count myself very lucky to have found them at their peak. It was tempting to wander into the forest to take photos, but I stuck to the path so as not to trample any of the other tender young plants. There are Jack-in-the-pulpits popping up all over the place (just look at the area in front of Jack’s back feet) and everywhere you look there are tender, young shoots of false Solomon’s Seal unfurling and trout lilies blooming and beautiful green life coming back to the forest. I tried to take this photo without Jack. We stood here for several minutes and every time I aimed my camera at the trilliums Jack walked into the shot. He was careful not to trample the flowers, but he was determined to be in the picture. I could have put him on leash, but that didn’t feel right so here are 7 brilliant white trilliums and 1 brilliant brown dog.
Happy Mother’s Day. ©voyager, all rights reserved
Jack and I came across this timely bit of graffiti today that we wanted to share. This upcoming Sunday, May 12, is Mother’s Day and whoever left this message obviously wants the world to know that their mom is tops. I think my mom is pretty special, too, so we’ll be spending the afternoon together on Sunday at the nursing home where she lives. Mom is confined to a wheelchair by physical disabilities, but her mind is as sharp as a tack and she loves having visitors. She doesn’t want flowers or gifts because she shares a small room and there isn’t much space. Candy doesn’t appeal to her and she has a closet full of clothes and enough bath stuff and hand cream to last her a long, long time. There’s nothing she wants, except the gift of my time. She loves to hear stories about my life and to look at pictures together. Both things help to make her feel included and to keep her connected to the world outside the institution.
We’ll be taking in Kentucky Fried Chicken with all her favourite fixings and I’ve bought her some new underpants as a surprise. They’re the super soft cotton ones she likes best and they’re pink. She’ll be thrilled. After we eat, I’ll stroll her around the nursing home, outside if it’s nice, inside if it isn’t, and I’ll tell her all about my walks with Jack and the state of my garden and what’s up with my friends. For mom, it really is the simple things that matter most.
It all started with a garter snake ©voyager, all rights reserved
I wasn’t going to tell you about this until I got back, but I could use some encouragement. On Monday I’m off on an adventure with a friend. It’s something that I’ve wanted to do for a very long time and I think (I hope!) I’m finally ready. What could it be? Well, I’m off to make peace with snakes. I’ve written once about my fear of snakes, but I didn’t tell you how I came to be so afraid.
It started as an ordinary summer day when I was about 5 or 6 years old. We were living in the country and I loved to spend my days just wandering, collecting stones and wildflowers and watching the birds and the bees and the bugs. I was restricted to the field and small woodlot behind the house, but as long as I was home for lunch and dinner there weren’t many other rules, except one…don’t bring bugs home. No caterpillars, no crickets, no bugs of any kind. My mother was not an outdoors person and bugs were one of the main reasons why. She hated them. If a spider or some other buggy creature managed to get indoors it was my job to get them back outdoors, most of the time with mom waving her arms and hollering at me to just kill the poor thing.
On this particular summer’s day I had found a great big worm with stripes and I was so excited that I ran home to show my mom. I’d never seen one of these before and mom always said that worms were good for the garden so I knew she’d pleased that I’d found a nice big one. I ran into the house with my treasure calling out “look what I found, Mom.” My mom was standing at the sink and she turned around, wiping her hands on her apron and for a moment she just stood there with her jaw hanging down and then she started to scream. It was a blood curdling scream and I’d never heard anything like it. Mom tended to be dramatic, but nothing like this. This was the Queen of All Conniptions. She picked up the broom beside her and started waving it at me and finally there were words, “Get it out of here. Get it out. Get it out.” I was a bit stunned so it took me a moment, but I finally headed toward the door. She practically pushed me out with the broom and as I was about to set it down she hollered “Not there. Not by the house. Get it out of here. Oh God… help… help…” Like I said, mom was dramatic. I had no clue why a worm would cause a reaction like that. I mean, it seemed OK to me. A little wiggly maybe, but I was obviously missing something. So I ran down to the mailbox and throw it in the grass with my mom yelling at me the whole time at me. When I got back in the house she made me take a bath. In the daytime and baths were only ever at night! This really was serious. For hours afterward my mom kept up the histrionics. I learned that snakes were dangerous and wanted to bite you and that this bite would hurt and it would make you sick. Also, snakes were dirty and slimy and carried disease. Oh yes, and they wanted to eat my cat. Well, I won’t ever do that again I remember thinking and I haven’t, but the story proves that I haven’t always been afraid of snakes.
Now, I want to undo that trauma and make peace with snakes so we are going to a place in Michigan with a small reptile zoo. The fellow who operates it has a you-tube channel that I started following at the beginning of this quest about 2 years ago. I wanted to desensitize myself and his channel appealed to me because he has a snake named Lucy and Lucy was the name of our first lab. This fellow is also quite personable with a great attitude toward life so it was easy to keep watching. In the process of all this watching and desensitizing, I began to trust this man as I watched him help other people get over their fear of snakes. I began to think that I could do that too, so here I am getting ready to pack myself off to meet a snake or two. My girlfriend has no fear of snakes so she’s the perfect companion for this adventure and if I can’t actually touch a snake I’ll still have fun with the other animals. I’m not afraid of Iguanas or turtles or even baby alligators.
So the big question is Will I or Won’t I conquer my fear. You’ll have to tune in on Wednesday next week to find out. Jack’s Walk will be here Monday and Tuesday, but for a change they won’t be actual photos from that day. I’m not sure what they will be yet so that’ll be a surprise too. Wish me luck. I know for sure that I won’t be touching Lucy because she’s 20 feet long and gravid so not in such a good mood right now. That’s fine, something smaller is good with me. Size doesn’t matter does it?
A trio of beauties, ©voyager, all rights reserved
Pink! ©voyager, all rights reserved
It is a dreary, rainy day here and tomorrow is scheduled to be the same. Overall, this has been a much wetter spring than we’re used to and at this point I think the growing things would rather have sunshine. I would, too. Jack and I did manage to get to the park before the heavy rain started and we saw our first goslings of the year, but mamas and papas were closely on guard so we kept our distance. It wasn’t all doom and gloom, though. We did find these beautiful trees in blossom and they lit up my day. I’m not sure what they are. They look like cherry blossoms, but I couldn’t find anything to identify them. They were planted a few years ago and this is the first time I’ve seen flowers. To be honest, I’ve mostly ignored them until now. The light in the photos is grim, but I haven’t got the energy to play around and try to fix it. Even in bad light, though, they’re beautiful. I like the way the willows in the background accent the pink. I suppose this is what the parks department had in mind when they were planted and they just needed time to grow up a bit.
©voyager, all rights reserved
©voyager, all rights reserved
It’s leaf day! Around our house that means that the baby leaves are finally big enough to camouflage the highschool up the street. There’s nothing wrong with the highschool, they keep it well maintained, but I prefer to look at leaves. The city where I live plants a lot of trees free of charge. Technically they sit on city land (which is about 5 meters in from the center of the street), but they become the property and responsibility of the homeowner. About 20 years ago they planted red maples down my street and I happened to be home when they got to my house. It was near 5 pm and it had obviously been along day for the lads. There were only 2 trees left in their trailer and they were about to plant one of them in my side yard when I decided to ask if I could have them both. One fellow looked at the trees, looked at my yard, looked back at the trees again and shrugged. “Sure, why not” he said as he grabbed his shovel and started to dig. For once, I was in the right spot at the right time and was bold enough to open my mouth and ask for what I wanted. And it worked. Those 2 trees are now big and strong and shade my house all day long. Lucky me.
Andrew Lang. The Animal Storybook. New York [etc.] Longmans, Green, and co. 1904
Via: The Internet Archive
Can you find Jack? ©voyager, all rights reserved
For you, rq. ©voyager, all rights reserved
The trout lilies are open! Everywhere you look the forest floor is speckled with their bright and cheerful yellow flowers. I’m sorry to report, though, that the white trilliums are still not open. There are lots of them around, but I couldn’t find a single one with an open bloom. Just out of curiosity I looked back to last year’s spring photos and on May 7 (a year ago today) I shot quite a few open white trilliums. I hope that means that this year’s flowers will present themselves soon.