Life begins at 40

textless: Spittlebugs are pests, sucking the sap from garden...

Fri, 17 May 2013 21:54:33 -0400

Spittlebugs are pests, sucking the sap from garden plants and using it to make their protective, slimy froth. Eventually they grow into froghoppers. But while they are in their nymph form, if you gently scoop one out of its foam, you’ll find that it’s weirdly adorable and almost invisibly small.

omg

mainenaturediary: Prayers for the Earth: Drew, Lady Flame, and...

Fri, 17 May 2013 21:20:39 -0400

mainenaturediary:

Prayers for the Earth: Drew, Lady Flame, and I took a walk along Summer St., in Topsham, this afternoon. We came upon this beautiful tribute to Earth created by a lovely couple within the last year. This really struck a chord with me…tranquility is difficult to find in this busy world… (Click on the first photo to enter the slide show for a larger veiw.)

textless replied to your photoset: There’s a wetlands preserve very close to work. I… What a...

Fri, 17 May 2013 21:19:38 -0400

textless replied to your photoset: There’s a wetlands preserve very close to work. I…

What a cool spot! And it looks like it should be full of dragonflies and damselflies before long.

I’ll have to keep my eye when I go. Unfortunately, I don’t really have the kind of camera to do them any justice. (I have my point and shoot and my cell phone)

toughpigs: Remembering Jim.September 24, 1936 — May 16, 1990

Fri, 17 May 2013 15:53:16 -0400

toughpigs:

Remembering Jim.

September 24, 1936 — May 16, 1990

If you are going to be on a teleconference using the speakerphone, shut your damn door!

Fri, 17 May 2013 15:28:22 -0400

If you are going to be on a teleconference using the speakerphone, shut your damn door!

There’s a wetlands preserve very close to work. I had...

Fri, 17 May 2013 13:14:55 -0400

There’s a wetlands preserve very close to work. I had walked back there a bit in February but it was cold and I was so out of shape. I finaly went back there again today. I need to do this more often to escape my windowless office where I sit for my job all day.

This place has been there about 4 years. It took me long enough.

"I thought it would be easier to just leave a voicemail instead of replying to your email."

Fri, 17 May 2013 11:18:03 -0400

cowboykhaleesi:

NO.

NO.

NO.

I have a couple of people who always call me when I send them an email. I sent you an email for a reason!

mirrormaskcamera: Sakaiminato is the hometown of manga...

Fri, 17 May 2013 10:37:02 -0400

mirrormaskcamera:

Sakaiminato is the hometown of manga cartoonist Shigeru Mizuki. A street of the town is dedicated to the ghosts, monsters and characters that appear in his stories, a hundred of bronze statues are on the both sides of the road. There is also a dedicated museum.

(via Sakaiminato, Tottori | random index)

"It’s a terrible thing, I think, in life to wait until you’re ready. I have this feeling now that..."

Fri, 17 May 2013 09:37:23 -0400

“It’s a terrible thing, I think, in life to wait until you’re ready. I have this feeling now that actually no one is ever ready to do anything. There is almost no such thing as ready. There is only now. And you may as well do it now. Generally speaking, now is as good a time as any.”

- Hugh Laurie (via mirnah)

I need an illustration to vent about the people who visit my...

Thu, 16 May 2013 21:35:50 -0400

I need an illustration to vent about the people who visit my neighbor (A). I have a bit of a ditch (red) on the side of my yard. The neighbor’s driveway sits right next to it. Occasionally when someone visits (and I think it’s usually one of her son’s friends), they occasionally back too far and go a bit in the ditch. Then they proceed to spin their tires trying to get out. It has happened on more than one occasion. You would think they’d learn. More likely, they’re impatient drivers who back out too fast.

kelsium: Still a guinea pig, guys. Hahaha!

Thu, 16 May 2013 21:28:47 -0400

kelsium:

Still a guinea pig, guys.

Hahaha!

fatchance: Hermit thrush (Catharus guttatus), at Magee Marsh...

Thu, 16 May 2013 20:24:03 -0400

fatchance:

Hermit thrush (Catharus guttatus), at Magee Marsh Wildlife Area.

Please click photo to enlarge.

all-things-bright-and-beyootiful: By Ellen Granter

Thu, 16 May 2013 19:36:50 -0400

all-things-bright-and-beyootiful:

By Ellen Granter

sinobug: Lasiocampid Moth Caterpillar (Lasiocampidae) by...

Thu, 16 May 2013 18:09:01 -0400

Lasiocampid Moth Caterpillar (Lasiocampidae)

Lasiocampid Moth Caterpillar (Lasiocampidae)

sinobug:

Lasiocampid Moth Caterpillar (Lasiocampidae)

by Sinobug (itchydogimages) on Flickr.
Pu’er, Yunnan, China

See more Chinese caterpillars on my Flickr site HERE…..

Dead and fallen trees in the Great Smoky Mountains National...

Wed, 15 May 2013 21:47:00 -0400

Dead and fallen trees in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

dendroica: Carolina allspice on Flickr. That’s what that...

Wed, 15 May 2013 20:35:59 -0400

dendroica:

Carolina allspice on Flickr.

That’s what that is! I have seen that in Tennessee when I’ve been there and never bothered to look it up.

sdotmarymartha: We accidentally did some major gardening today....

Wed, 15 May 2013 20:34:16 -0400

sdotmarymartha:

We accidentally did some major gardening today. I realized the peonies were coming back after a tough year or two and was inspired to rip out all the weeds in the bed. The weeds filled every inch of space and smell like lemon verbena? Anyway, then Lawrence helped me lay the edging, we put down mulch, then grass seed, then decided the little sunny corner of the back stoop needed something. Carnations and lilies, two flowers I hate, but are perennials and colorful.
Lawrence is building a privacy fence for the side yard, it’s 75% complete, once that’s done, he’s going to lay a concrete patio.
My MIL spent the day with us, helped garden and treated us to breakfast and dinner!

Beautiful!

I have been such a lazy gardener. Last year was so beastly hot and I never got out and the weeds were out of control. My mom has been here and we started pulling some weeds tonight that we weren’t planning on doing (accidental gardening is not an isolated thing). The woman who runs my dog daycare is going to let me borrow her cultivator to make the bigger beds a bit easier to deal with.

"One of the greatest difficulties the left faces in reaching out to masses of people in America is..."

Wed, 15 May 2013 13:45:47 -0400

“One of the greatest difficulties the left faces in reaching out to masses of people in America is its profound disrespect of spirituality and religious life. Books like Stephen Carter’s The Culture of Disbelief remind us that more than 80 percent of the people in this nation lay claim to religious faith, whether it be Islam, Judeo-Christian faith, Buddhist faith. People on the left need to acknowledge—we need to grapple with—the question of religion.”

- bell hooks (via readyokaygo)

in particular we need to stop treating people with devout religious faith as if they are somehow unintelligent or delusional

a prof of mine pointed this out about conservative Christians who don’t want their children reading Harry Potter because they believe witchcraft is the province of Satan

instead of approaching this from the perspective of religious tolerance and arguing that it’s wrong to stereotype people who practice magic as devil-worshippers, a lot of people come at it like LOL WITCHES AREN’T REAL U SO STUPID

this might be a problem for more people than just the Christians in question, if you get my drift.

(via cumaeansibyl)

YES. Stop assuming that when you meet someone who’s not a foaming-at-the-mouth weirdo and who shares your liberal values that they must be also be atheists. The only explanation I can think of for why people assume they can bond with relative strangers over their disdain for people of faith is that they don’t expect to be able to hold a rational, adult conversation with someone who IDs as religious, so they think “We get along because this person is intelligent [like me]” and project all their other beliefs onto that stranger and is shocked and dismayed when they’re like, “Shut up, no. You’re being an asshole.”

Let’s be clear, i’m not saying atheists are assholes. I’m saying you’re an asshole if you assume the only reason I’m capable of having a normal conversation with you is because I’m a right-thinking person like you so I can’t possibly believe in anything silly, like a god. If you think it’s impossible for someone who disagrees with you on fundamental issues to be sane, you’re the problem. Grow up.

Here’s the thing: religious people with liberal ideas are actually not uncommon. At all. You just don’t notice them because they allow their voices to be subsumed into the broader progressive movement rather than shrieking about the way their religious views support their liberalism because they know their religious views are irrelevant to anyone outside their religious community, whereas people with crap social ideas also like to be super loud about how you should care about how their crap social ideas are interwoven with their faith. Many of their coreligionists despise them as much as you do, if not more, because they keep having to explain that they aren’t representative of them.

This post is brought to you by someone who was raised with a bizzaro-world approach to Christianity (which is the kind most people seem to be thinking of when they mock it) and can tell you that other Christians dismiss my parents as weirdos. Related: this is also why when I tell people why I’m no longer Christian, I’m super specific about which problems I had with which forms of it.
(via enjoli)
Yes.

malebeautyinart: Actor Ichikawa Yaozô as a woodcutter, Utagawa...

Wed, 15 May 2013 09:41:53 -0400

malebeautyinart:

Actor Ichikawa Yaozô as a woodcutter, Utagawa Kunimasa (1773 - 1810)

sinobug: Flat-headed Leafhopper Nymph (Tituria sp., Ledrinae,...

Wed, 15 May 2013 00:04:10 -0400

Flat-headed Leafhopper Nymph (Ledrinae, Cicadellidae, Hemiptera)

Flat-headed Leafhopper Nymph (Ledrinae, Cicadellidae, Hemiptera)

sinobug:

Flat-headed Leafhopper Nymph (Tituria sp., Ledrinae, Cicadellidae, Hemiptera)

Adult Leafhopper

by Sinobug (itchydogimages) on Flickr.
Pu’er, Yunnan, China

See more Chinese true bugs and hoppers on my Flickr site HERE…..

This bug is a member of the ‘give up and lie on the floor’ team.