• Purple Martin sanctuary, Virginia. Purple martins are swallows that are found only in the Americas. They depend on human-made houses to survive. Native Americans hung up gourds for them before Europeans arrived.

    three purple martins perching and flying around human-made purple martin house gourds

    purple martins flying past gourds

    dozens of purple martin gourds hung on racks from poles at a purple martin sanctuary

  • Where Have I Been

    inspired by alexink , Manton, Andreas, Maique

    Sadly, only 3 countries:

    • Canada
    • Germany
    • Greece

    Not counting airport stops. For it to count, I have to have set foot in the country, outside of one of its airports.

    My hope is someday to be able to travel much more outside the U.S.

    42 U.S. States

    • Alabama
    • Alaska
    • Arizona
    • Arkansas
    • California
    • Colorado
    • Connecticut
    • Delaware
    • Florida
    • Georgia
    • Hawaii
    • Idaho
    • Kansas
    • Louisiana
    • Maine
    • Maryland
    • Massachusetts
    • Michigan
    • Mississippi
    • Missouri
    • Montana
    • Nebraska
    • Nevada
    • New Hampshire
    • New Jersey
    • New Mexico
    • New York
    • North Carolina
    • Ohio
    • Oklahoma
    • Oregon
    • Pennsylvania
    • Rhode Island
    • South Carolina
    • Tennessee
    • Texas
    • Utah
    • Vermont
    • Virginia
    • Washington
    • West Virginia
    • Wyoming

    1 U.S. District

    • of Columbia

    I would love to see the sandhill crane migration in Nebraska someday. I saw them in Alaska quite a bit.

  • Occupants continuing to occupy the box I didn’t get around to recycling quickly enough, last November. Happy Caturday. 🐈

    one cat lying on top of another cat, in an old box

  • 📷micro.blog March photo challenge

    Bantam roosters look tiny compared to regular chickens.

    two Bantam roosters in a raised bed garden

  • 📷micro.blog March photo challenge

    analog request for Mom to put in an online order for sea monkeys, 2004

    notebook page in a child's handwriting saying, Mom, buy a sea monkey tank called submarine on the internet

  • Birds of a feather, flocking together, with the neighbor’s wandering turkey hen. 2017.

    two bantam roosters and a turkey hen

  • “Suppose you were an idiot, and suppose you were a member of Congress; but I repeat myself.” - Mark Twain, who was underwhelmed by its members.

    Happy Microblogvember.

  • We find what we are looking for:

    “There aren’t very many toys in the prehistoric archaelogical record. For a long time, archaelogists thought that was because prehistoric kids were somehow fundamentally different from modern kids. But now some scholars think that the toys are missing from the record simply because early archaeologists didn’t recognize them. Whenever they saw objects that could easily be used for children’s play, they categorized them as items used for ritual instead.”

    Meg Conley, Left Behind

  • ”…and in western East Virginia today, a shocking take-down of Santa Claus. A feline washing her face near the scene darted under the coffee table when approached.”

    a Christmas tree ornament of Santa Claus is lying face-down on the floor, underneath a Christmas tree branch

  • I’m sure there’s a reasonable explanation for this….

    on the second story of an old brick building, is a door with no stairwell or balcony attached

  • Hippies Use Side Door

    a vintage sign on a weatherbeaten gate reads hippies use side door

  • Guardian of the Bamboo Forest, issuing a warning, or perhaps making a prophecy. Can’t be sure.

  • Brood X periodic cicada hanging out on my back patio after 17 years underground. I think they are both cool, and creepy. And they fly quite slowly: no wonder the birds love them!

  • My mental DJ this morning has been playing “What Shall We Do with a Drunken Sailor,” which is a song my grandmother taught me. Only now has it occurred to me that this is a weird song to teach little children to sing…

  • Today at Zoom coffee hour, a local historian mentioned that people often hid things in grandfather clocks and mantel clocks. One time, she found a bone fragment: a souvenir from someone’s leg surgery.

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