my cat has an aura

This morning the cats kept me company while I checked email, and I thought I’d take a picture for the all-consuming-blog-project that is my life (not really.) Only later, did I see the weird thing so evident in the resulting picture.

What is that glowing shape hovering over Charlie’s derriere? Is that his aura? I’m not the only seeing this, right? Maggie’s even looking at it. I know this camera is … mature. And I know I don’t always keep the lens clean, and my pictures consequently get splotchy. But seriously, this isn’t the normal splotchy. What do you think?

Onwards and upwards. This is the fringe tree (Chionanthus virginicus) in back of the house, outside the kitchen window. It smells heavenly.

This lichen covered rock nearby is a universe unto itself.

Praise be to the gardeners of yore, we have a couple of these near the fire pit – Digitalis purpurea, or foxglove. The heart medication digitalis comes from this plant and guess what? It’s super, super poisonous. Let’s hope the cats aren’t tempted by it.

  Apparently we have yellow lillies over by the compost bin. In contrast to the foxglove, these flowers are edible. NONE of the other day lillies has a flower stalk – should I be worried? Are they upset over having been moved about last year? Or maybe they don’t get going for another month or two? I don’t know. Stay tuned, I guess.

And now for my favorite part. It rained heavily this afternoon – actually, this morning, as well, stopping only for the first part of my run today – more on that in a second – and at one point, I noticed that all the various containers on the deck were just soaked. So I lifted all the pots off their bases so they wouldn’t drown. I emptied out all the bottoms, but they filled up again in a later downpour.

And lo and behold…

Can you even see that? Lemme crop it…

That.Is.A.Ruby.Throated.Hummingbird. WAAAGGHHHH!!!

Blurry! I don’t know why…he was utterly still. I must have been trembling from the excitement.

Oh. In other news. I ran just about ten miles today. I’m not going to celebrate big-time, because I’m not sure I made my goal. I did my normal five mile loop, intending to do it twice. On the way back, it started to rain again (it had been raining when I first got up). I thought about just swapping out water bottles at the mailbox (where I’d stashed the second one) and continuing with the second loop. But then thought of the warm, cozy living room…complete with warm, cozy treadmill. So I ran home. That’s a little over a third of a mile. Hopped on the treadmill. Did about 2.5 miles. Hopped off the treadmill to swap out iPods, as the battery on the little one was dying. And I accidentally pulled the plug on the safety key as I hopped off, meaning the whole thing reset itself. ARGH. Ran another two miles. Since I lost the data on how much I’d done on the first part of the treadmill effort, I’m not sure I got all the way to ten miles total. Close enough.

I am AMAZED at how I can run ten miles. Apparently, if you just sorta slog along, you can do just about anything. Hm. This resembles Life.  I don’t run with an iPod outside – I prefer to use my ears for the birds, and for the errant pickup doing 60 on a back road posted at 30. Plus, I can concentrate better on such happenings as the red efts.

Wha’?!

These guys. Red efts. They’re a type of newt. This is NOT my picture, I stole it off the internet. I stole this particular picture of many available, because it’s tagged with a description of how it’s from the Laurel Highlands, in western PA, which is where I first saw these little guys myself, on high school backpacking trips. (Go, Trailblazers!) Around here, they like to take their time crossing roads, and I – in my role as Goddess of the Red Efts – pick them up and help them along. Because I have seen FAR TOO MANY squished efts in the road. A sight I’ll spare you.