It’s gonna be a windy Christmas…

Okay, so it’s not Christmas yet, but it’s the Christmas season so, you know, close enough.

While other parts of the midwest are being hit with snow, we’ve got high winds. The winds are supposed to be about as strong as the remnants of Hurricane Ike that we went through last year.

The news media is already warning of potential power outages which, combined with the cold temperatures moving in, would not be good. Windstorm Ike gave us power outages that last for days in some areas around here. And, given that my confidence in the local power company is pretty low (seriously, I think we’ve had more power outages in the past couple years since this company bought out the previous power company, than we had power outages in the prior 20 or so years), I’d be surprised if there weren’t power outages.

I still hope they won’t be, especially for all those who might end up stuck in the cold.

At any rate, if you don’t hear from me for a couple days, you’ll know why. Not that anyone would really notice but, just in case, now you know.

This past spring, I posted a photo of my hibiscus from two years ago.

Well, it’s in bloom again! I took the above photo before work Tuesday morning.

You know what’s interesting? Look at the current photo and the two year old picture. Can you see what is in both pictures? Not planned at all, by the way. Just a happy coincidence. Might be hard to see, but it’s there. Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?

Lame, I know. If there had been bricks around, I would have titled it, “Silly Rabbit, Bricks are for Kids.” Still lame, but would rhyme.

So, anyway, there you go. Rabbit. Tree bark peeling off the tree. You add the two together and see what you come up with.

You may remember last Tuesday’s “Dramatic Flowers” post.

Well, here they are today in full color!

Enjoy!

Note: They do look fake or painted, but they are absolutely real.

Yes, there probably ought to be mulch…

Maybe not. But, it sounded more catchy than “Ant Walking on Brick Wall.”

Maybe I should have used a Spiderman reference. But, Spiderman doesn’t have a belfry. Does he?

At any rate, ants have an almost single-minded focus. Probably. Bear with me. Let’s pretend because I don’t feel like looking it up to confirm or deny it. I’m busy.

Let’s go again…

Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!

Sorry. My bad. Got distracted. Let’s go again…

Ants have an almost single-minded focus. (Probably.) They serve the queen. (Probably.) Gather food for the hive, defend the hive, do battle with foreign ants from other hives. Kind of like bees.

Maybe I’m talking about bees?

Anyway, ants have a single-minded focus. They don’t get distracted from their jobs, except if there is a crumb of food. Then they must decide whether to eat it or drag it back to the nest. Or eat at as they drag it back to the nest. So, what’s the point of dragging it back to the nest if you’re just going to eat it anyway? So, they just eat it and conserve energy by not dragging it back to the nest. No sense wasting efforts.

Wait! Why is that other ant from the nest eyeing my food? She wants to take it back to the nest? That’s my bread crumb! I’ve already determined that it’s a waste of my efforts to take it back to the nest, and that it is better for the collective for me to just eat it now and not waste energy dragging it back, consuming it along the way. As such, I build strength and energy, which is for the benefit of the hive. She wants to drag it back to the nest! That is not in the best interests of the nest! I’d tell her that, but she’s an ant and we can’t talk, except by primitive means of communication which cannot accurately get my point across, which is very nuanced and well-thought out. The only solution is that she must die!

Hey, ant tastes kind of good and I feel so energized. I believe it is to the benefit of the nest that I grow stronger and more energized. As such, more ants must sacrifice their lives to feed me! I will eat hearty tonight! And, so I go on my quest! Since we all smell alike, they won’t suspect a thing!

And, so the ant goes on her merry way, plundering her nest and feasting.

Holy heck, I just ate the queen! Oy. What will I do now?

And, with the same level of determination and single-minded focus, but without the carnage and high death toll, I have been focusing on my eBook (and three client websites, and work, and, oy.) Anyway, hopefully, I will have it finished very soon now.

So, there is much to be learned from our friends, the ants! Well, maybe fictional ants.

Sorry. Too tired to think of a more clever title.

Anyway, these are the critters I found while planting flowers over the weekend. First, I found one. I put him (or her) in an empty flower pot, where he (or she) kept trying to escape through the drainage holes.

After I emptied out a second flower pot, I put him in it, then it in the other, then turned it so the drainage holes were mostly blocked.

And then I found a second grub. So, I had two grubs in two, then three, empty flower pots.

So then I had to go and get my camera while hoping that (a) they wouldn’t escape the flower pots and (b) nothing would come by and eat them.

Camera in hand, I posed them in the soil, as seen. Took a few shots. This is one of the better ones. Not real easy taking these close-up shots on my camera. Don’t have the lens for it, plus it can be difficult to tell on the screen if something is in focus. Sometimes, I think it’s focused, and it turns out later, when I upload to the computer, that it was not.

After taking the photos, I dug up some soil (away from the flowers!), released them and gently covered them up. So, hopefully, they got a fair shot at digging down deeper where ever they wanted to go and avoiding any predators.

On the eBook front, working on formatting and proofreading. Was up late last night, finishing a section, only to find a problem this afternoon, which caused changes, which obliterated much of last night’s work. So, that was a time-consuming setback. At least it’s all written. But, getting it all prepared and ready takes a while too!

And, I’m also working on two client websites too. Make that three–one called with an update yesterday and is supposed to be eMailing me stuff.

Yesterday, I played with black and white imagery. At the same time, I played with another flower image as well.

I started with the Tiger Lily photo from Sunday. You may remember I mentioned I couldn’t find any old pictures of them. Well, the black and white got me thinking… At first, I tried a black and white image, but I didn’t care for it. So, I started with the color photo again. This time, instead of removing all of the color, I just removed a good portion of it. This way, it sort of looks like a photo that’s faded over time. Maybe this is how my old photos of them would look today, if I could find my old photos and if I had taken them sixty years ago.

I think I used a touch of sepia on it as well, so Speedy should be happy, though he can’t claim credit because I had already finished this image before he left his comment yesterday.

Also, I finished writing my eBook yesterday. So, now I have to proofread it…

So, yesterday, I planted some flowers that I didn’t get a chance to plant over the weekend.

That meant first finding a place to put them. That meant cutting down some other flowers that had gone to seed so the new flowers can be seen. (I only cut off the seed stalks; the leaves remain so the flowers will be back next year!) That also meant moving a tree. And then digging holes. And, then in the midst of doing this, it started to rain.

Fortunately, it only sprinkled a bit and then gave up. Not even enough rain to create a rainbow. The sun was shining and I looked for a rainbow, but none was to be seen!

Must remember to water the tree in the morning.

Anyway, finally got the flowers planted and, once done, I naturally took pictures. Also took pictures of some critters I found, but will save those for another day this week.

These particular flowers are pretty in color (maybe I’ll post the color photo on another day) but yesterday evening, I decided to play around with black and white a little bit, and came up with the photo above. I’m thinking it’s kind of 1950’s-ish. Maybe that’s because of the old black and white photos in my family’s photo albums. But, this image turned out real nice in black and white; it almost looks like an illustration.

On the eBook front, I am down to a handful of things left to do!

So, you thought people invented farming and domesticating animals for our own needs?

Think again!

Ants have had their own dairy farms for who knows how long. See the little aphids? They produce a “milk” which is called honeydew. Ants love this stuff. So, they farm the little aphids so they can have it!

The ants “milk” the aphids by stroking them with their antennae, which gets the aphids to release their honeydew, kind of like how farmers milk cows by, well, you know.

You may recall that I posted about my tiger lilies earlier this year, the lilies that I had thought had been lost but now were found!

Well, as you can see above, they are currently blooming!

There are only three or four plants now, though. I think there used to be many more. At any rate, after experiencing their near-loss, I’ve been working on propagating them. I moved one indoors earlier this year; unfortunately, it didn’t make it. I planted some of the fresh bulbils from the lilies in another patch outside, but none appear to have taken yet and it doesn’t look promising there. I have another batch of bulbils indoors and some of those are starting to root, so I will keep my fingers cross on that batch!