Leannderthal

This is a batfish, also known as a platefish, sea chicken, sea-bat and sea swallow.  Pretty strange bunch of names.  The young are very highly colored, but as they age they lose their color and luster.  They are very lazy fish, often motionless.  This one’s pretty big, about 25 inches, and his name is Adam.

This is a South American tinamou.  They only fly short distances, and  only when forced.  I understand, I am capable of running short distances, and only do so when I am chased.  It is said that they have poor muscular and nervous coordination, and a frightened tinamou is likely to run into a tree and kill itself trying to escape.  I’m feeling more and more like a tinamou.  The one thing they are good at is holding perfectly still and blending in.  Not a bad talent.  This is Jessica.  She looks like she is about to fall down, but that isn’t her fault, it is the fault of the artist.

This is a common woodchuck.  We had woodchucks living in a garage behind one of our houses.  The upstairs tenants were designing a woodchuck chucker, but it never materialized, and we tore down the garage.  The garage was missing most of its roof, so the tenants wanted to catapult the woodchucks off the deck through the holes in the roof.  They like to burrow, one reason we were not happy to have them as neighbors.  This one is named Egbert, a very intelligent woodchuck.

I don’t know about you, but I would hate to see them delay the digital transition until June.  I’m so tired of hearing about it, it will be nice when it’s over.

jiggly lines

painted lines

I live in a wonderful town.  I was out dealing with the snow yesterday, and decided I’d use one of the snow blowers, I knew it needed gas so I took my gas can and set out for the house that had the snow blower.   Plymouth is a train town.  I looked ahead and saw that a train was stopped across the tracks, not moving forward or backward.  Do I keep walking toward the train and hope it moves by the time I get there, or do I go home and wait a while?  Well, I happened to be in front of Matt and Kristi’s house, so I decided to sit on their porch swing for a few minutes and see if the train moved.  Their  faithful dog Louis alerted Matt and Kristie to my existence, so I was invited in for a cup of blueberry coffee.  I found that odd, as I had just read about the wonders of blueberry coffee on Missy’s blog.  Blueberry coffee is wonderful, as are Matt and Kristi, it made for a great start to my day.  Go visit a neighbor today.

I did mention on Sunday that I was going to the ice festival, and so I did.  It was cold.  Yeah, I know, big surprise.  But, man, it was cold!

I saw a galloping giraffe.

I saw a dragon bearing her teeth.

I saw the thinker.  He’s thinking he should have dressed warmer.

I saw creatures playing in the waves.

I did keep reminding myself, that as cold as I was, these guys were a lot colder.  They do some amazing work.

This is the booth I was helping man.  Paul from Bluefish Music had a couple of musicians come by and play.  They did a great job, played a lot of blues, and managed to keep guitar and vocal chords in tune.  There was a little heater in the tent, but in wasn’t helping the guitar player’s fingers.

The Ice Princess came by for a visit.  If you didn’t get down there, you missed some great carvings.  You also managed to stay warm and got to see pictures anyway, so staying home wasn’t a bad move.

With my feet under an irritated cat.  I’m trying to store up some warmth, I’ll be visiting the Plymouth Ice Festival later today.

Where I Stand Sunday is an ongoing photo essay examining the different places Lynn Krawczyk spends her life standing. Too often we take for granted the everyday places we spend our lives walking on. If you’d like to join her by posting a photo on Sunday of places you’ve been on your blog/photo hosting site/website, leave a comment on her Sunday posts telling her where she can find you/your photo and she’ll add a link to her sidebar so others can find you. I am one of those that Lynn has badgered into joining her, I have changed it to “where I stood”, because right now I’m sitting in front of the computer, not standing anywhere.

I’ve been working on some stuff, but none of it is ready to make an appearance here yet, so I’ll show you what Mark has been working on.

Mark is trying to straighten out all our electronics.

This is Mark’s scowly  face while he tries to straighten everything out.

This is how neat and tidy it will look when it’s done.  You don’t believe me, do you?  You’re quite right not to believe.

This little guy is a mantella.  When I say little, I mean little.  Most these paintings you have to imagine the animal much bigger than what you see on your screen, but not this guy.  He is only about an inch and a quarter long.  This is Lucky, he lives in Madagascar.  I think Lucky might be misnamed, for such a beautiful bright frog, he tends to be a little grumpy.  Maybe he is worried about being stepped on.  If you visit Madagascar, walk carefully and look out for bright colored small frogs.

Though there is no pear tree around, this is a partridge.  A chukar partridge, to be exact.  These guys live all over Asia, around the Mediterranean Sea, and even in the Alps.  This guy lives in China, he is very sociable and has many friends.  His name is Peter.  Yep, Peter Partridge.  His folks had a sense of alliteration.

This is a solenodon, the best description would be they look like a very large shrew, though they are not related.  Not even second cousins.  Solenodons move pretty slow, and they often look like they are drunk when they walk.  In the case of Betsy, here, I think she really is drunk.  She looks a little too happy to be a solenodon.  These guys are very similar to their prehistoric relatives, they are not far evolved.  They look unkempt, they are about a foot long (not counting the tail), and they are nocturnal.  If you meet one, please know that they have poisonous saliva.  Stay away.  You can find solenodons in Cuba and Haiti.  I like to think that if you are visiting Cuba or Haiti you are being very careful anyway.  Another interesting fact about Betsy here, is that she has only two teats, and they are so far back they are nearly on her butt.  Don’t look, though, remember, she has poison salivia.  I would drink, too, if my teats were on my butt.

In my new hand knit sox, made by my friend Jerry Lee.  Pretty cool, huh?  He obviously understands my need to mismatch.  I made him a thank you card: