Thursday, October 21, 2010

a) The Devil… b) more fall stuff… c) a public service announcement.

Our washing machine is
possessed by the Devil.

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It moved here all by itself.

If you wade through the rest of this post, you can learn the secret of washing machine possession and exorcism. But first, you’ll have to have a nature experience, as per usual.  Which brings us to…

More fall stuff

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One last hurrah from the asters. You might recall I bitched about how the purple doesn’t typically come out well on my otherwise perfect and unimpeachable camera. But I think I got it this time. You’re welcome.

Around here, maple leaves typically steal the show with their bright color…

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And I’m all for bright color.

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Such as the Euonymous outside our kitchen window (fringe tree on the left, euonymous on the right). When the sun’s bright – which was not the case here – you see how it got its name. Fiery red!

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And such pretty orange berries! Although they do appear to be a bit past their prime.

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So’s this lily-of-the-valley berry. And its leaves are practically translucent as they start their journey to decomposition.  But the prizewinner for translucent leaves goes to the hosta outside the front door.

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It looks like it should be slimy, but I didn’t think to check. I should mention, at this point, that it took a heroic feat of willpower to get me out the door today. The cooler weather has all my hibernation instincts kicking in, and all I really want to do is generate a stream of baked goods, eat them, and pass out in food coma.

But I knew there would be hell to pay from my (ahem) loyal and vocal readers, so I dragged myself out.

Aren’t you glad?

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Our neighbor’s cosmos. OK, enough bright color. Let’s get on to the muted colors part.

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Crazy fungus activity on a tree stump. Gotta zoom in.

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And, in keeping with an earlier post, have you ever wondered what the underside of a shelf mushroom looks like? No? Are you sure?

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It looks like this. But bonus, see the spider?

Another tree, another shelf mushroom. This one is called turkey tail, and it apparently has loads of heavy-duty medicinal uses.

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Okay, on to the Public Service Announcement.

You probably know how to recognize poison ivy, right? Leaves of three, let it be?

poison-ivy 

(Thanks, internet, for the picture.)

Well, here’s some poison ivy for you.

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Yep, this vine is poison ivy.

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White berries.

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Little rootlets attaching the vine to the tree.

Yep, that’s all poison ivy, and it’s just as nasty as the leaves, so don’t touch it! Oh, and don’t burn any firewood that has this growing on it. Or you will be very, very sorry.

machine possession and exorcism

OK, so our washing machine isn’t actually possessed by evil spirits. It just doesn’t like having to deal with an unbalanced load. Which occurs when you take your cat to the vet to have a post-operative check-up, and he poops on the towel, and then you wash the …oh, I’m sorry, that’s too much information. Sorry.

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