Headed out to the park, and the clouds rolled in.  Didn't walk my mile today -- I'm off this morning, and I was going to try to walk more than a mile.  Then, of course, once I got home, the sun came out ( Read more... )

I'm sitting here listening to Carl Orff's Carmina Burana, parts of which are in medieval German, and I'm understanding it.  (Bartok really wasn't working this morning ( Read more... )

Today is the day I finally go in to get my legs repaired.  So of course, the forecast high is minus 3, with a wind chill of minus 31.  (I don't know how they figure the high temperature for the day -- right now it's 1, dropping to -3 by 9 am -- of course -- but the official high is -3.)  And there's once again about a foot of snow on the ground.  ( Read more... )

The weather service is predicting another 4-7 inches. (Oops -- just checked again: it's now 3-5, which is marginally better, I guess.) I can't guess how much is already on the ground -- it's been sporadically windy, so there are drifts and hollows. And high temperatures will stay in the teens until Saturday, when we get one of those spikes -- 32 ( Read more... )

I managed to break off the flower stalk on my Colmanara "Wildcat." Just being clumsy and not paying attention. I've got to get some focus back ( Read more... )

The time change caught me flat. I didn't even think about it until I'd been up for an hour and happened to glance at the time on the computer. So I was up an hour early. Ah, well -- I'll take a nap later, if it seems warranted. Fortunately, I wasn't up in the middle of the night with cramps in my shins, for a change. (You know how cramps hurt ( Read more... )

Even on the cloudiest days, they seem to gather all the light and throw it back out. They really do glow.

I promised an update, and here it is.

First at Sleeping Hedgehog, a reprint of a review of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein -- the one that started the whole franchise. And another reprint of another classic, of sorts -- from science fiction's ( Read more... )

I had a mouse Tuesday. Inside, I mean. I kept seeing this tail disappearing into dark little corners, and finally caught a look -- yep: mouse ( Read more... )

that raccoons purr?

At least, it sounded like purring. Sort of squeaky, but purring.

And no, I wasn't rubbing its tummy.

In other news, starlings walk, this strange, awkward dinosaur walk; pigeons walk, like clockwork toys; robins walk -- well, they run actually, in spurts; even gulls walk, very smoothly and rapidly.

Sparrows bounce.

A fly got in. This, in my place, is not unusual, but at least I no longer have the massive invasions that I had to deal with a couple times during every summer when I first moved in here -- citronella oil does wonders. Anyway, this guy is really tiny, and very pretty: sort of coppery highlights to his wings, and an overall coppery cast ( Read more... )