Anne Wilder

A newly organized junk drawer! Objects are in rectangular blue trays, small clear ziplock bags, or re-purposed mint tins. A couple of hammers and a roll of blue tape lays atop the front section.

Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair! 😉

A tupperware type plastic tub filled about 3/4 with loose crushed dried green catnip leaves. Nestled in the leaves are two toilet paper tubes and a blue & white carrot shaped catnip toy.

This is a thing I do for my cats: put an empty toilet paper roll in my loose catnip tub to marinate for a week or two, then release it into the wilds of the house. I also have a catnip kicker by Proxima Design Cat Toys getting a re-charge. 😁
#cats #catnip #cattoys

"Well, let me know when they find out it has liquid mercury rain, or whatever."
~My jaded 12 year old daughter.

A healthy heath plant with grass growing in it. Dead fall leaves and a couple of stakes are also visible.

A tiny heath plant by an orange stake, after I cleared away dead leaves and grass.

Incipient buds on the heath, they'll bloom in early spring, maybe even when there is still snow on the ground!

Tiny buds on the bigger heath.

This is a little #gardening experiment. I transplanted some heath (Erica carnea I think) from a plot I started over 20? years ago in zone 5a to a spot in my yard in 5b. The one by the road isn't doing great (salt, I'm sure), but t'other is ok despite the grass!

40 years ago we’d have congressional hearings falsely accusing metal bands of putting backwards messages in their songs that told kids to kill themselves & now we have a planet-killing chatbot that’s all like “bet you won’t commit suicide chickenshit bitch” & the government is like here’s $5 billion

Tiny magenta-purple flower clusters on bright green stems fill most of the picture, with some blurry dead leaves in the background. In the upper right a black & yellow honeybee gathers nectar or pollen from the flowers. Her wings shine white in the autumn light.

One of the victory ladies hard at work on some Sweet Alyssum (Oriental Nights).
#Gardening
#Beekeeping
#Honeybees

Three people wearing orange shirts with a blurred background of trees and blue sky.

Two people wearing orange shirts and purple accessories with green leaves in the background.

National Day for Truth and Reconciliation - Canada.ca share.google/U7k5hzCho6d2...

Two European honey bees forage on blooming goldenrod. The worker on the left is gray, probably a Carniolan, the worker on the right is gold, likely an Italian type.

Lovely ladies on some Goldenrod! 🐝😍
#honeybees
#Carniolan
#Nature
#Wildflowers

Those folks over there. Those people over there. That crew. Those workers, those students, those LEOs,...

Instead of 'guys' we use Friends, gang, y'all, peeps, etc.

My unpopular opinion: "Guys" is as gender neutral as "Mankind" and "he".
We can do better.

Honeybee venom kills breast cancer cells - Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research HomeVenom from honeybees found to kill aggressive breast cancer cells – Australian research published in Nature Precision Oncology  Honeybee venom induces cancer cell death in hard to treat triple-neg...

perkins.org.au/honeybee-ven... Very cool, Especially effective against triple-negative cancers!

It looks a bit like Fizzgig?

New video · Tuesday, Aug 12 🎬 Tap to view!

I don't know what this little bug is, but I thought it was darn cute.
#Maine
#Entomology
photos.app.goo.gl/8wnhCRtrqP7B...
(Vid shows a fluffy white bug crawling on a fragment on green leaf on a blue tarp)

A yellow & pink slender bug with a long yellow antennae and horizontal stripes strikes a pose on a khaki colored fabric.

Tree Cricket! Observed in Kennebunk, #Maine
#entomology

A brown toad blends in pretty well against the brown ground surface. Grass and wood sorrel grown nearby. The whole scene is lit by a high powered flashlight.

Lorge toady friend by our steps last night!

The two "dots" on the lower wings.

A hand gloved in orange holds the corner of a medium frame of capped honey cells. A blue stenciled hive is in the background.

A lovely frame of capped honey my bees made in one of last year's #Bettercomb frames.

#beekeeping
#honey

An orange and black butterfly with partly folded wings rests on a closed queen Anne's lace flower. The background is an out of focus meadow with a dark tree line on the horizon. A clear blue sky crowns the photo.

Male monarch butterfly at Somesville, MDI, #Maine
#Butterfly
#Nature

Two smiling people with a sign that, viewed in full, would say Adventure Awaits!

Helping Jess at the Maine Renaissance Faire!

A white flower spider or goldenrod crab spider (Misumena vatia) lurks above the bumble bee, waiting for me to move along so she can get on with her business lunch.

Perpetrator Revealed!
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Now that I've gathered you all here in the parlor, I can show you... The white Flower Crab Spider! (Misumena vatia) or parts of her, anyway.

Another view of the bumble bee, salvia spire, and plants & clapboards. Wait! What's that hiding in the flowers above!?

A hint:

A bumble bee hangs precariously off the flower spike of a Violet Queen Salvia. The perp lurks in hiding! White vinyl clapboards are the background, along with some green plant leaves.

Murder on the Salvia Express! A classic whodunnit by M. Nature. Witness the violence inherent in the system! Can you solve the mystery!?

A blue eyed, long haired kitten reaches one paw up to touch the leaves on a houseplant. She has dark ears and nose and cream or pale cocoa colored fur, and whiskers and tufty ears.

#FormerFoster #Kitten Taffeta, again! Possibly the most photogenic kitten I've ever fostered. Here she is learning about nature. ;)
#CatsofBlueSky

A black & white shorthaired kitten crouches on the edge of a wooden box. The top half of the kitten is mostly black and the bottom half (underbelly) is mostly white. Their expression is rather startled, and they have a little black freckle on their pink nose.

#FormerFoster #Kitten Phoenix (or Chloe, I don't recall) demonstrates an excellent attempt at a WTF face, which is what I have constantly these days.
#CatsofBlueSky

A tiny black & white tuxedo kitten is held in the palm of one hand. His eyes & ears are still closed, he might be a week old? His head is turned to the left, and in profile you can see the tiniest little whiskers just catching the light. His little white bib is pristine, and one wee white paw is peeking out in back.

For #whiskerWednesday here is #FormerFoster #Kitten Denim with some incipient whiskerlings for your delectation.
#CatsofBluesky

A pale tan and black pen & ink style map showing mostly fields to the east and a wooded area cut by roads and paths. An oval path near the middle has an Observatory labeled in the center, and a rhombus just to the west of it shows more deciduous than coniferous trees in that section, a plantation perhaps. South of the Observatory is another symbol that I think, per LiDAR, is a borrow pit of some sort.

Listening to @benaaronovitch.bsky.social 's Stone & Sky. Here, in case you are also curious, is Drinnie's Wood from the mid-1800s map, courtesy of the Nat'l Library of Scotland.
#RiversofLondon

An orange tuxedo tabby kitten with short hair lays on her side next to a person's leg, clad in lavender pants. The kitten's tummy is toward the person's leg, and her paws are in contact with same. She is getting head scritches and her tail is laying straight and you can see that her tummy is shaved and if you look closely you'll see her spay tattoo and the incision site. You also may notice her pink toe beans and cute pink nose. A blue patterned rug is the background for all of this.

It's been ages since I posted a #FormerFoster #Kitten picture, sorry! It's been a busy few weeks. Here is Bobolink getting some sweet head scritches after surgery day! I don't usually get to keep them after surgery, so this is extra special.
#CatsofBluesky

Trump: the comprehensive Mexican food acronyms

From the new Private Eye, out now.

Steakums for the kids that got hot lunch.