Sunday splurge
Sunday, December 7th, 2008I love it when folks tell me that they enjoy reading this humble blog while they’re having their morning cup of joe. I love it even more when some readers confess that they have sprayed coffee all over their computer screens because of something clever I’ve said. But I think it will love it most of all when someone tells me that he or she has shot coffee through the nose because of my posting. (Pictures would be great!)
No, of course that wasn’t a real alligator in the photo last Sunday. This blog has a long history of readers who are skeptical about the reptiles I display here. Generally I’m coy about the truth, but I’ll fess up about that alligator. Actually, what I liked best about that photo was the reflection of the leaves on the water.
I’ve mentioned the growing problem of Missouri’s feral pigs here before. One solution being suggested is to make hunting of feral pigs illegal in the state. That seemingly counterintuitive suggestion, it is believed, will cause fewer people to release hogs intentionally in order to build up a population that would attract those paying for the chance to hunt them. Allison has more about it over at her blog Ozark Highlands of Missouri. (Also, check out her post on a man who died of rabies from a bat bite. Bad media attention is worse than no attention at all.)
I figured out how to extract the photos from that uncooperative game camera I have, but when I looked at them, none seemed worth keeping, much less worth posting. I got some passing shots of those two interloper trucks and some bleached out shots of a couple of deer. That’s such a clever hiding spot for the camera, but I’m not sure it’s a good spot for getting photos. At this time of the year, without leaves on the trees, it gets the afternoon sun mostly full on. Maybe it will work better there in the summer.
It was two years ago today that I embarked on my ill-starred trip to Kenya. Lost luggage, bad plumbing, heart bypass surgery. What a short, strange trip that was.
As you may have realized, this month’s host of the Festival of the Trees had some technical difficulties and couldn’t get the edition up until late in the week. (The satellite dish that provided internet connectivity to her community in Panama was broken.) The good news is that the latest edition of the Festival of the Trees is now online, so hurry over to A Neotropical Savanna and have a nice, long look.
The next edition will be hosted by Rock Paper Lizard. The deadline for submissions in December 28, so send your links (they don’t even have to be your own creations) to talba [at] shaw [dot] ca. Be sure to put “Festival of the Trees” or “FOTT” in the subject line so your contribution isn’t overlooked.
What’s Pablo reading now? I’m still on Nuns and Soldiers. This is week three and I’m only about half way through it, but I’m savoring every difficult sentence and eerie little bit of plot.
Missouri calendar:
- Raccoons den up during snow and ice storms.
Today in Missouri history:
- The first Territorial General Assembly meets in St. Louis on this date in 1812.
- George Whiteman, the first American airman killed at Pearl Harbor on this date in 1941, was born in Missouri and has a strategic air command base in his home state named for him.