Keyforge

I finally got to play a couple of nights ago, dad versus daughter. The decks were The Celebrated Architect against G. D. Fangleaf of the Overrated Graveyard. The Architect won, but barely.  

Mud dauber, willow leaf beetle

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Milkweed tiger moth caterpillars

I haven't seen any monarch caterpillars, but these fellas are going to town.

I went out again a short while ago, back to the same spot, and saw the comet again. I figured I should try, since it's so wonderfully clear this evening. Now I've seen it in the morning and I've seen it at night.

Wren

Also, weekend highlight from yesterday: I was sitting on my bed when a house wren landed on my narrow window ledge about two feet from my head. I don't think she could see me through the window. She sat there are squawked for a couple of minutes before darting away again. Since I love watching the wrens in my yard, it was a real joy to see one so close.

NEOWISE

I have my workday alarm set for 5:50. This morning I happened to wake up early, around 4:40, perhaps because I actually went to bed at a reasonable hour for a change. Since I was awake, I decided to go outside to see if I could spot Comet NEOWISE.

I took my binoculars and walked around my yard, but with the trees and the lights from my neighbors' houses, I couldn't see anything. I therefore decided to drive a little way to see if I could find a spot.

I stopped at the back of a cemetery just outside my subdivision. There was still light pollution, but not as many bright lights directly adjacent; and the trees were more manageable. I wasn't sure exactly in which direction or exactly how high to look, so I blundered around for a few minutes. Finally, I made a concentrated effort to determine exactly which way was NE, and focused my effort there. After that, it only took me about ten seconds of scanning the sky with my binoculars to spot it.

Once I knew where it was, I could see it with my naked eyes, but I never would have noticed it, nor been able to tell it was a comet, without first seeing it with binoculars. It was quite cool, though, being only the 3rd (I think) comet I've seen.

Blackberry iris

Bloomed today.

Got in 3 games of Azul on my birthday, which was fun. 

#3

Playing with WC pencils

An eastern black swallowtail enjoying my coneflowers.

Culver's Root

Outing

Ice cream on a very hot Sunday

Azul, this afternoon

Played my daughters; both beat me soundly. Even while Etch-a-Sketching.

More bees

Bee and lavender

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Visiting

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eek

bird, asparagus, yard

I was looking around my back yard this afternoon after work, and paused in the back corner of the yard, under the tree branches. This is a spot under the boughs of numerous trees: The broken (but still alive) arms of a choke cherry, the scraggly limbs of young and crowded hackberry and ash, and, above them all, a towering tulip tree. Immediately after I stopped, I heard bird calls close over my head, and saw movement. I couldn't tell what I saw at first, but a tufted titmouse fluttered down to branches within 7 or 8 feet of me; then a red bellied woodpecker stopped on a dead cherry limb. Then came a hairy woodpecker to the same spot. Other birds, hidden from view in the foliage, weren't far away. It was weird; I spend lots of time looking from my windows, often with binoculars, trying to get a good look. But out there, in that shadowy spot, I was in their world, and they hardly paid attention to me. They were so close. I wonder how close they would have been had I not been wearing a bright white shirt? I should research how to build a bird blind.

I put quite a bit of effort into weeding the asparagus bed, then hauled several bins full of old composted leaf mould to the bed to use as mulch. To get to the leaves, I yanked up tons of ground ivy, wintercreeper, and Virginia creeper. The leaves seemed wonderfully composted; dry, crumbly, rich. Then I weeded a little more in some other spots, then mowed the front yard.

Now I'm going to eat focaccia with kale and garlic scapes and diced tomato on top.