Cliff dwellings, early art, and Child No. 2 in Mesa Verde, CO. Heading for SD.

Far be it from me to criticize another mother. But why the hell is she letting this little one wander alone??

I know, I know. The mom is probably nearby watching me. But I still think she needs to keep close to this fawn, who has defeated my deer fencing twice and clearly requires more adult supervision.

Somewhere in the Southwest.

Canyon and kids. All of them Grand.

Life is good for house cats.

Leaving California and heading East. July 12, 2009. Becca & Lyle.

I didn't kill Bambi!

These are bad pictures but who cares. I'm not a fawn-killer after all. Mom just kept Baby hidden for more than a week. "Stay away from that human who's always skulking around with that camera," she must have instructed Baby. I'm very relieved. Now I can resume my life of cursing at them for eating my plants.

Visited the US Botanical Gardens and the new American Indian Museum yesterday. Am I lucky to live in the DC area or what?

See the Capitol Building poking above that beautiful trellis?

My first green beans. Must plant many more next year. Maybe it's not too late this year?

Balloon flower. I have just one plant but it's reliable, long-lasting, (apparently) deer resistant, and so pretty. Must get more.

A church in Takoma Park. I like the name and the building.

Pretty perfect peas. I have a lot to learn about growing & harvesting peas.

My entire potato crop. And what's left of the potato salad it turned into.

These two kids tried out LA for a year. Then they put their eastern feet back in the Atlantic and said "hmmm, pretty nice."

Now they're back in LA packing up and ready to hit the road in a week. Heading back east. Am I happy? You betcha.

The Letter L: Letters, old.

Letters to and from my grandfather who was stationed in the Philippines in 19-aught-something or other. Note that he tells his sister to "give my 73 to all." A coded message whose meaning is lost to history.

Random summer crop of lettuce that I should thin.

It just occurred to me that I could use this as my L word...lettuce. Not exactly a tchotchke though.

Part of me is still here, on the Delaware shore.

I've missed the L day in the Tchotchke Challenge but I think I'll get to it soon.

Ever need a laugh?

Here's where I can always count on one. This is the blog of a Black Cat in Lower Manhattan whose name is Don Estorbo della Bodega Dominicana.

This entry is particularly notable. For those who don't speak Cat, Don Estobo is saying "This is a good example of Buddhism: rejected comfort."

Summer Solstice on the Delaware Shore.

Surprise radish. Found behind a nasturtium. I didn't plant radishes this year. THAT'S what was popping up all over my garden and got weeded away.

Hungarian hot wax peppers.

Evidence of how cheap and lazy I am. My most comfortable gardening shoes.

I'm worse than the hunter in the movie "Bambi."

I hadn't seen the fawn since Sunday. On Thursday I was poking around at the back of my yard, and was surprised to flush out Bambi. She was inside my deer-proof fence! No mom in sight. She panicked and tried to knock down the fence and eventually either slithered out under a place where I didn't have the mesh firmly staked to the ground, OR she went through the carport to escape. I didn't see the actual moment of escape because I was also panicked. A few minutes later a grown deer came by and the fawn started to approach her, but they soon parted and the fawn trotted toward me! Poor thing. Thinking I could help her maybe. Eventually she wandered off. Later in the day I saw what might have been mom and the now-almost-grown 1-yr-old twins but no fawn. I've read that I should do nothing. No trying to feed the fawn, no trying to catch her if I see her. But I don't know how long she was trapped in my back yard --- seems unlikely that it was more than 24 hrs. I've read that even at these young ages the mom will leave the fawn for hours at a time. Supposedly, the mom can smell her way back to the fawn. But I'm very pessimistic. I messed with mother nature by putting up that fence. I feel like a fawn-killer. Reports as or if they become available.

Spotted near my back-up library in Wheaton. Odd mound. Religious symbol maybe?

Blogs come and blogs go. (First tomato!)

Interesting article about blogging.
"According to a 2008 survey by Technorati, which runs a search engine for blogs, only 7.4 million out of the 133 million blogs the company tracks had been updated in the past 120 days. That translates to 95 percent of blogs being essentially abandoned, left to lie fallow on the Web, where they become public remnants of a dream — or at least an ambition — unfulfilled."

This is very tempting, but I think I have to boycott it on grammatical grounds. "Historical"???

Pretty! I wonder what he is?

Can this poor azalea be saved? It belongs to a friend and I was asked to help.

This is one of those azaleas sold as an indoor plant, or maybe a "patio" plant. I'll give it TLC but I don't have much hope. I DO have some hope for our health care system, however. All it would take is for everyone in the country to read this article and then all the policy-makers should act upon the obvious (to me) solutions spelled out in the article. I may be able to sum it up in one sentence: Our health care system is f'd up because too many doctors have become businesspeople and are no longer physicians (defined as "people skilled in the art of healing"). Combining the desire to make big bucks with the availability of expensive imaging tests was too much for the system to bear. We don't need to socialize medicine but maybe we should draft all new physicians, pay off their medical school bills, make them federal employees on a fixed salary with a decent retirement package, and tell them to practice medicine and forget about becoming multimillionaires.

Awwww.

Rust dyed fabric. I feel an obsession coming on.

Image from: northernlightsconcepts.com/

Rust dyeing:
by Kimberly Baxter Packwood © 2001 (prairiefabrics.com)

Rust dyeing is a surface design method that adds dimension to your fabrics and fibers. I use the technique predominately on cotton or silk fabrics. Natural fibers take the rust colors better than synthetic fibers.

You can place rusty objects next to wet fabric and acquire rust patterning over time. However, vinegar will speed up the rusting process, it aids in breaking the rust particles free from the object that is rusting. Rusting occurs normally due to oxidation, i.e. contact with the air. Be patient. Rust dyeing with water takes about a week. Using vinegar produces color in less time usually twenty-four hours.