Category Archives: Animals

Hormigas!!!!

Hormigas!!!

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What are these leaves doing scattered over the terrace just hours after Pasiano swept?  I decide to investigate.

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Aha! The evidence is pretty clear when I find a chewed-up leaf.

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Can you see those razor-sharp incisors about to close around this leaf?

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More leaf-cutter compadres ascend my hibiscus, scouting out fodder for the hundreds of ants who will trek here in darkness to strip the bush and carry it away.

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The team work is so incredible that I hate to interfere, but if I don’t, there will be no foliage surrounding my house by the time I get home in two months.

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As above, the “timberjack” ant saws away on yet another leaf,

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I scatter pellets.

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By tomorrow, all the pellets will be gone, carried away by these bearer ants–and hopefully, the ants will be gone, too.

Hormigas, by the way, is Spanish for Leafcutter Ants. (I didn’t want to give away the answer before the question was asked.) They are fascinating to watch, with their generals and slaves, double machete-weilding lumberjacks dropping pieces of leaves to the bearers below, tinier slave ants carrying many times their own weight, some ESP that causes swarms of ants to appear to help any ant who needs help over an obstacle or out of a hole.  I could watch all day as bush after vine is depleted of leaves and flowers, but then–I’d have no bushes or flowers, so I resort to the little pellets that, carried back to the nest, with luck for me and no luck for the ants, will clear it out.  Cruel nature either way.

http://ceenphotography.com/2016/01/13/prompt-stomp-week-14-challenge-things-that-are-small/

 

Not a Baboon, but Sorta Like a Baboon!!! One Word Photo Challenge

Not a Baboon, but Sorta Like a Baboon!!!daily life color111 (1)We saw this mama and baby at the Monkey Palace in Ubud, Bali.  At first I didn’t even notice the baby, it was plastered so close to its mom’s protective body.
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IMG_1073Camera Shy!!!IMG_1094http://jennifernicholewells.com/2016/01/05/one-word-photo-challenge-baboon/

The Moon is Full and Waiting

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The Moon is Full and Waiting

The moon is full and waiting,
but the night is full of chill,
though my true love expects me
over yonder hill.
His ardent calls invite me
to join him for the night,
and yet I dread the cold cold wind
and the night air’s bite.
If I were only twenty
I’d have no choice to make,
but I have guests arriving
and sweet bites yet to bake.

My true love lies waiting
over yonder hill,
but he’ll return another night.
I’m confident he will.
For he has no other
to overlook his flaws:
the roughness of his ardor,
the power of his jaws.
His embrace often bruises,
though this is not his intent.
In the excess of his ardor,
only tenderness is meant.

The warm cave of our meeting
still carves out yonder hill,
but tonight I will not join him.
It may be I never will.
Tomorrow night the full moon
will partially be spent,
and perhaps by next month’s equal,
I will once more not relent.
Perhaps I’ll find another
closer to my kind,
though an equal to his passion
I’m unlikely to find.

A mild wind blows the clouds away
to clear the shrouded moon.
My guests will be arriving.
I know it will be soon.
I stir in leavening powder.
I stir in heavy cream.
Across the hand I stir with
falls the moon’s broad beam.
I drop the spoon and go again
to open up the door.
I hear the gentle song of wind,
my lover’s beckoning roar.

I answer with a beat of blood.
A spasm in my thigh
invites me to be climbing
over distant hill and high.
The crumbs fall from my fingers
as I run into the night.
I do not feel the bruising stones
or the wind’s cold bite.
My lover calls me onward,
and once again I go.
For when the full moon calls me,
not once have I said no.

 

 

IMG_0562Both of these photos were taken on Christmas Eve, 2015, from my sister’s back terrace in Peoria, Arizona.

The Prompt: Earworm––Write whatever you normally write about, and weave in a book quote, film quote, or song lyric that’s been sticking with you this week. (The song lyric I was inspired by was “Baby it’s cold outside,” but when I finished, it had no actual place in the poem other than to be its inspiration.) https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/earworm-2/

Dear Housemates

DEAR HOUSEMATES

Literate for a Day
: Someone or something you can’t communicate with through writing (a baby, a pet, an object) can understand every single word you write today, for one day only. What do you tell them?

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Dear Morrie:
*Do not poop in the house!!!
*Do not poop in your cage!!!
*Do not poop on the terrace!!!
*Do poop in one place in the lower garden where Frida and Diego do!

*But, thanks for finally learning how to go into your cage even before I put a dog biscuit in the far end of it.
*Thanks for being so sweet and cuddly and adorable that I cannot help but forgive you for your numerous sins.

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Dear Frida:

*Do not bark incessantly every time the garage door goes up!!!
*Do not bark incessantly every time I come to feed you!!!
*But, thanks for never coming into the house without being asked.
*Thanks for never (hardly ever) getting into the organic garbage I save for Yolanda’s pig.

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Dear Diego:
*Give this constant tussling and growling with Morrie a rest!!!
*Do not head straight for the organic garbage can every time you enter the house!!!
*Never ever again eat six raw pork chops from the skillet on a night guests are coming for dinner.
*Never ever again grab an entire cooked chicken off the counter top and head for the door on a night there is a guest for dinner!!!
*Never ever again grab and consume three-quarters of a cooked loin roast off the kitchen counter top.

*But, thanks for taking Morrie down for a potty break in the garden every night at midnight.
*Thanks for training Morrie not to come into the house until asked.

To all Three Perros:

*I’m sorry for all the nights I’ve gotten home late to feed you.
*I’m sorry for all the times I’ve embarrassed you (and Larry) in front of the neighbors by yelling louder than you to “STOP BARKING!!!!”
*I’m sorry for never taking you on walks anymore (because you disjointed my arm the last time I did.)

I guess, like most disfunctional families, we will put up with each other in spite of our drawbacks of character and performance.

––Love, Mother

 

 

 

Soft Focus: A Photo a Week Challenge

 

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Version 2

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The intent of this challenge was to encourage us to soften focus.  I enjoyed playing around with the in-the-dark image of these two white burros, but the results are perhaps too bizarre.

https://nadiamerrillphotography.wordpress.com/2015/11/19/a-photo-a-week-challenge-soft/

In and Out

In and Out

 

The Lapdog

Dogs that stand outside and seek admittance to within
overlook the worth of what they’ve seen and where they’ve been.
Those of us sealed fast inside yearn to see the world
that we have been deprived of as we lie securely curled
in the safety of our houses, away from chasing cars
and other fun activities kept from us by bars.
We would feel such ecstasy racing after squirrels,
other dogs and cats and lizards, skunks and boys and girls.
We seek to flee the rules that those street dogs seem to flout.
We would have such wild adventures if we only could get out!!

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The Street Dog

Lucky little dogs with collars sit there looking out
as though they do not know what life for street dogs is about.
We’d love to have their pampering and their daily feeding.
What they seek escape from is exactly what we’re needing!

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The Prompt: Tell us about a time you were on the outside looking in. https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/the-outsiders/

Hugh’s Photo Challenge, Week 5––Pair

Pairs

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http://hughsviewsandnews.com/2015/11/07/hughs-photo-challenge-week-5-pair/

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Sound Bites

When the daylight takes its bite
eating up the dark of night
I begin my daily rite
of finding all the words to cite
that serve to bring my thoughts to light.

I write and write and write and write–
filling up my blogging site
until my dogs begin to fight,
and finally I know it’s quite
necessary to do what’s right.

And this is when I find I might
secure my laptop lid up tight
and give my brain a small respite.
It is my  second day’s delight
for they have tried to be polite

lest they disturb me or incite
words that in their haste are trite.
With an open door, I now invite
their appetites–now at their height.
Each jumps and spins–high as a kite,
and comes to have his morning bite.

In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “Forward Drive.” https://judydykstrabrown.com/2015/09/04/from-the-back-a-photo-a-week-challenge/ What is the one thing that drives you to wake up in the morning and do whatever it is you do? Is it writing, family, friends, or something else entirely?

And that’s two, Morrie (at least for today.)

Wish I’d gotten a picture of the cute and durable doggie toy I got you today, Morrie! IMG_2607 (1)

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IMG_2618IMG_2604IMG_2612New house record.  Fifteen minutes from gift presentation to disembowelment.  His job is done.

What Did You Do, Morrie???

What Did You Do, Morrie?

When Morrie got into his cage the minute I came into the room, I suspected something was wrong.

IMG_1562Is something wrong, Morrie?

IMG_1563Did you do something naughty?

IMG_1564Have you been a bad boy?

IMG_1566Oh, oh, oh.  What did you do, Morrie?

IMG_1565Did you make a mess?

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Did you chew up a roll of toilet paper?

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Did you open up the closet door and chew up thirty rolls of toilet paper?

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Bye, Morrie!

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Before he decided to leave the room for awhile, Morrie taught me some lessons. This is what I learned:

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Always secure the closet doors before you leave the room.

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Put everything up high!

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Especially toilet paper!

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And be sure to put your shoes away.  This is my favorite pair.
I wonder where the other one is?  Oh, that’s right.  Morrie ate it!

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Morrie?  Going out again?