Animals and the humans who love them
Clearly someone Up There loves me and wants me to be happy, because my silent pleas for Geraldine/Harry Vicar of Dibley fluff have been answered: Blessed and Fifteen. Okay, they're both really short and the author tends to have Geraldine think of Harry as "her man" and Harry to think of Geraldine as "his woman," but there is a shameful lack of VoD fic in general - these are the only 2 fics in the entire VoD category on FF.net, though there are a couple of others buried somewhere in the British Comedy category - and I am so happy to have found something that's just what I was looking for and I didn't have to write myself. I'm still working on my own Geraldine/Harry fic, mind, but it's good to know I'm not a lone voice crying out in the wilderness.
So, anyway, if you are so inclined, please leave her a review and encourage her to write more. :-)
It occurred to me yesterday afternoon that it's been a while since I last posted about encounters with the local wildlife, so here I am rectifying that.
We have lightning bugs! Only a few, because it's been an unusually mild/cool spring (and it's been raining a lot lately), but I saw a dozen or so when I took the dog out last night. I love lightning bugs, especially when one gets into your bedroom at night and you have this little winking light to go to sleep by. Interestingly, these lightning bugs seem to emit a white or very pale yellow light, whereas I'm used to something more yellowish-green. I wonder if the weather is a factor, or if they're a different species.
I was also serenaded by the Mormon Tabernacle Frog Symphony last night. There's a wider range of voices now than last time I posted about them - the sopranos and countertenors are there for sure, but I detected some lower tones mixed in with them. Several weeks ago I was also privileged to hear the deep bellowing of a bullfrog barbershop quartet.
On another evening outing with the dog, I discovered a possum in the basement, probably helping itself to cat food. Fortunately the dog didn't twig to its being there, otherwise she probably would have dislocated my arm trying to get to it.
Here's a story the Goblin hates for me to tell: a while back we were going somewhere, to Richmond I think, and taking back roads as we often do. We passed a field with a herd of either llamas or alpacas - I can't tell the difference between them, so every time I see one I say, "Oh, a llama! or an alpaca!" So I did my llamas-or-alpacas thing, and Gobs, who wasn't paying attention, sat up, looked around, and said, "Hot Pockets?" This led into a goofy riff on orchards with Hot Pockets growing as fruit on the trees. So now every time I see llamas-or-alpacas in a field - which happens once or twice a week, as one of our regular routes home from school takes us past such a field - I'll shout out, "Hey look, it's a field of Hot Pockets!"
As we like to say, I'm not going to let that one go, not even when he's 64.
We also frequently pass by a farmhouse where several gaggles of geese live. There are domestic geese - white, grey, some others with distinctive markings that I haven't been able to identify yet - and several of the ubiquitous Canada geese. The Canadas have goslings now, and the other day I narrowly averted tragedy when I came around the bend just before the farmhouse and found the roadway entirely taken over by goslings! Fortunately I managed to stop in time and the parents were able to herd everyone to safety. Watching those little goslings waddle away as fast as they could, little fuzzy wing stubs flapping back and forth, was the high point of my day. That, and knowing I hadn't turned any of them into road grease. (I can't help it, I have a thing for geese, and goslings just slay me with their cuteness. If it weren't for the dog, I'd like to have a goose for a pet.)
No snapping turtle sightings since that memorable one last month. Gobs and I have, however, learned of a fox den about 1/4 mile up the road from us. The first time we saw one scurrying across the road at 6:30 am, we thought it was a cat. The next time we got a better look and realized it was really a fox. Then, on Monday, we saw three of them, all clearly from the same den. Probably a mother and 2 kits, as one had a small critter in its mouth and the other two were just scampering around (they really need to learn road safety, because there are people around here who'd run them over without a second thought.) Judging from what I've seen of their size and coloring, I think they're grey foxes.
We haven't had to deal with any mouse corpses (or mouse entrails!) courtesy of Sophie since I last posted about it, thank goodness. However, we've had to wrangle some big-ass spiders - and by "big-ass," I mean, legs extended, they're as big as my hand with my fingers spread. Big-ass.
Okay, I know - intellectually - that the little spiders are the ones you have to be wary of. I also know that spiders are good pest control. But when you're lying on a bed in a dark room - and it gets hella dark at night here, being out in the boonies - and you look up and see an enormous dark blob on the white wall above your head, it's pretty much a guarantee you won't be sleeping restfully that night. Gobs and I have both observed that we wake up with a start just as they're about to pounce and start nomming on our faces and sucking our brains out through our eyeballs, almost as if they're giving off tiny alarm signals at the last second. Maybe it's because they'd rather chase us and hunt us down like proper prey. Some of them even jump out at us. (Which reminds me of a long-cherished favorite cartoon from "The Far Side," in which one spider sneaks up on another and the victim drops his load, so to speak. I'd link to an image, but apparently Gary Larson has been pretty successful in keeping his stuff from being distributed online. Alas.)
Anyway, a few weeks ago I bought some plug-in sonic repellents from Lowe's for mine and the Goblin's bedrooms, and we haven't seen any of the big-ass spiders since. I don't know if this means the repellents are working or if the spider army is plotting a major assault. Stay tuned.
So those are the highlights of my critter adventures of the past few months, beyond the daily dog-and-cow show. Tonight I'll be watching the last 2 installments of "Strike Back," just as soon as I can get my hands on a torrent. I hear there's to be a wet T-shirt contest this week:
What? That totally counts as a wildlife encounter. He certainly makes me RAWR.
:-P
Have a good rest of the week, y'all!
So, anyway, if you are so inclined, please leave her a review and encourage her to write more. :-)
It occurred to me yesterday afternoon that it's been a while since I last posted about encounters with the local wildlife, so here I am rectifying that.
We have lightning bugs! Only a few, because it's been an unusually mild/cool spring (and it's been raining a lot lately), but I saw a dozen or so when I took the dog out last night. I love lightning bugs, especially when one gets into your bedroom at night and you have this little winking light to go to sleep by. Interestingly, these lightning bugs seem to emit a white or very pale yellow light, whereas I'm used to something more yellowish-green. I wonder if the weather is a factor, or if they're a different species.
I was also serenaded by the Mormon Tabernacle Frog Symphony last night. There's a wider range of voices now than last time I posted about them - the sopranos and countertenors are there for sure, but I detected some lower tones mixed in with them. Several weeks ago I was also privileged to hear the deep bellowing of a bullfrog barbershop quartet.
On another evening outing with the dog, I discovered a possum in the basement, probably helping itself to cat food. Fortunately the dog didn't twig to its being there, otherwise she probably would have dislocated my arm trying to get to it.
Here's a story the Goblin hates for me to tell: a while back we were going somewhere, to Richmond I think, and taking back roads as we often do. We passed a field with a herd of either llamas or alpacas - I can't tell the difference between them, so every time I see one I say, "Oh, a llama! or an alpaca!" So I did my llamas-or-alpacas thing, and Gobs, who wasn't paying attention, sat up, looked around, and said, "Hot Pockets?" This led into a goofy riff on orchards with Hot Pockets growing as fruit on the trees. So now every time I see llamas-or-alpacas in a field - which happens once or twice a week, as one of our regular routes home from school takes us past such a field - I'll shout out, "Hey look, it's a field of Hot Pockets!"
As we like to say, I'm not going to let that one go, not even when he's 64.
We also frequently pass by a farmhouse where several gaggles of geese live. There are domestic geese - white, grey, some others with distinctive markings that I haven't been able to identify yet - and several of the ubiquitous Canada geese. The Canadas have goslings now, and the other day I narrowly averted tragedy when I came around the bend just before the farmhouse and found the roadway entirely taken over by goslings! Fortunately I managed to stop in time and the parents were able to herd everyone to safety. Watching those little goslings waddle away as fast as they could, little fuzzy wing stubs flapping back and forth, was the high point of my day. That, and knowing I hadn't turned any of them into road grease. (I can't help it, I have a thing for geese, and goslings just slay me with their cuteness. If it weren't for the dog, I'd like to have a goose for a pet.)
No snapping turtle sightings since that memorable one last month. Gobs and I have, however, learned of a fox den about 1/4 mile up the road from us. The first time we saw one scurrying across the road at 6:30 am, we thought it was a cat. The next time we got a better look and realized it was really a fox. Then, on Monday, we saw three of them, all clearly from the same den. Probably a mother and 2 kits, as one had a small critter in its mouth and the other two were just scampering around (they really need to learn road safety, because there are people around here who'd run them over without a second thought.) Judging from what I've seen of their size and coloring, I think they're grey foxes.
We haven't had to deal with any mouse corpses (or mouse entrails!) courtesy of Sophie since I last posted about it, thank goodness. However, we've had to wrangle some big-ass spiders - and by "big-ass," I mean, legs extended, they're as big as my hand with my fingers spread. Big-ass.
Okay, I know - intellectually - that the little spiders are the ones you have to be wary of. I also know that spiders are good pest control. But when you're lying on a bed in a dark room - and it gets hella dark at night here, being out in the boonies - and you look up and see an enormous dark blob on the white wall above your head, it's pretty much a guarantee you won't be sleeping restfully that night. Gobs and I have both observed that we wake up with a start just as they're about to pounce and start nomming on our faces and sucking our brains out through our eyeballs, almost as if they're giving off tiny alarm signals at the last second. Maybe it's because they'd rather chase us and hunt us down like proper prey. Some of them even jump out at us. (Which reminds me of a long-cherished favorite cartoon from "The Far Side," in which one spider sneaks up on another and the victim drops his load, so to speak. I'd link to an image, but apparently Gary Larson has been pretty successful in keeping his stuff from being distributed online. Alas.)
Anyway, a few weeks ago I bought some plug-in sonic repellents from Lowe's for mine and the Goblin's bedrooms, and we haven't seen any of the big-ass spiders since. I don't know if this means the repellents are working or if the spider army is plotting a major assault. Stay tuned.
So those are the highlights of my critter adventures of the past few months, beyond the daily dog-and-cow show. Tonight I'll be watching the last 2 installments of "Strike Back," just as soon as I can get my hands on a torrent. I hear there's to be a wet T-shirt contest this week:
What? That totally counts as a wildlife encounter. He certainly makes me RAWR.
:-P
Have a good rest of the week, y'all!