Love this Tom Turkey!!! He was very responsive to gobbling back at me when I gobbled to him!!!  

Turkeys at the egg-farm, 5-19-05 

Lord of the Flies Deer Skull

Lord of the Flies Deer Skull, waiting for the maggots to do their work. It was already too far gone to boil with soda. The stake through the eye is to keep predators from hauling it away.

Blue Violet sent at 420 pix, from our yard. 

all those fives!

I loved 5/5/05! I guess we won't be around for 5/5/55! But we will hopefully be here for 6/6/06 and 7/7/07 and 8/8/08 and 9/9/09 and 10/10/10!!! I hope the 0 in 06 will keep it from being the sign of the beast!

A Magnolia Rain

This year, the opening magnolias were the lushest, thickest, fullest and most perfect I’ve ever seen. When they were still in early bud, Keith said that it is rare for the magnolia blossoms to survive. “Rain,” he said, glumly, “usually comes and destroys them.” Yesterday I walked and cycled around admiring the magnolias. They were almost completely open. Gorgeous. Today, they would have reached the apex of perfection. Last night, it rained. Not a nurturing, nourishing female rain, but a raging male rain with lightning and thunder. Downpours. This morning, the sky is black and the magnolias ragged.

Did someone already say this? Probably. It seems like everything has been said before.

But--would a "Magnolia Rain" be a soft female rain that allowed the magnolias to survive? Or was it this male rain that tortured them?

Mary Stebbins

For Keith

Rachel playing in the ivy earlier tonight. 

Rachel with Grandpa Keith at our house tonight. 

Rachel in the ivy tonight. 

"The Rest of the Story"

I was upset earlier today because we were expecting company--Neil, Laura and Rachel--at 6:00 PM. I did not know if we were supposed to serve them dinner and I did not understand why they had not called to accept or decline our invitation and did not know what to do. It turned out that they had called twice to accept and both times had given messages to Graham and he had neglected to pass them on and as a result, I had to run around attempting to create a dinner for company AFTER they arrived. I thought I did a reasonably good job (made shrimp (yum) and Italian friend zucchini (yum) and molasses cookies, but it was obvious we were unprepared. And because of this, I missed much of the company and was unable to play with Rachel who then shunned me and refused me kisses. I did not want her to be forced to kiss me because I hated that when I was a child. No one should force kisses on anyone.

Here are a couple of other opinions: people who wash their driveways have no lives and are wasting precious resources and probably should be shot (except that would be a waste of a good bullet).