June 25th, 2017

Well, I am garbage at keeping up with my posts.....


My Dad's 70th birthday is on June 26th, I wanted to go spend time with him, and my uncles that were coming into town. I left Boise earlyish, and stopped to get gas for my car in Mountain Home, only 46 miles away. When I started up my car, Google told me to go right--the opposite direction of the freeway-- and I went along with it. I haven't driven back to Wyoming for many years, so I just went along with the GPS......

Little did I know, this was the start of my week long adventure.

I soon found myself in an unfamiliar landscape. At first glance I thought  a terrible fire swept through the prairie turning it all black, but I was wrong. Volcanic rock covered the plains; somehow I stumbled into Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve.  I will have to go back for another visit. The landscape is incredible, and not so easy to photograph in the bright sun. I will have to plan a trip to go back during the early morning light, or the evening light. (On a personal side note, I LOVE volcanoes......This is super cool.)

Taken with 50D

Taken with 50D

Taken with Samsung Galaxy S6

It is amazing to me how much life is out there in such a harsh landscape! Flowers, plant, insects, arachnids, birds, mammals, and reptiles, all going about there business of survival.

Taken with Canon 50D

 There is so much more life there then in the perfectly manicured lawns of my apartment complex....

There is very little cellphone service in the back roads of Idaho, I texted my folks to let them know where I was. Dad sent a message back to me telling me how to get home. He told me to stay on Highway 20 when it split from Highway 26.

This is one of my favorite things about driving on the plains, does the road fall off the end of the earth? who know!
Taken with Samsung Galaxy 6s

I didn't actually read it correctly...... and I ended  up in Blackfoot, Idaho instead of Idaho Falls.... which is no big deal.... I just added more time to my already longer trip.

Outside of Idaho Falls there is wonderful farmland. All the times I have driven though the area I don't ever remember it being in bloom.

Taken with Canon 50D

Taken with Canon 50D

Taken with Canon 50D

Taken with Canon 50D

I believe this is a canola field, one of many along the highway. Potato farmers have started using canola in their crop rotations. The canola helps enrich the soil for the potatoes and provides the farmers a good crop.

I still had two mountain passes to drive over before I got home so I stopped taking photos along the way.... my 8.5 hour drive was quickly turning into 11 hours.....

I made it all the way to Riverton,  and got to see this cute guy, IGGY POP! (and my parents)

Take Care!!

There is more Wyoming Adventure on the way!

April 11th, 2016

Today I found lots of little tiny spider webs.

I was really excited when I found one teeny tiny little spider in residence!

Just for size reference, here is my index finger, next to the spider. (I know it is out of focus... but is is just for reference....)

So Tiny!!!!

I hope you have a great night!

October 17th, 2015

I guess they call Portland the Rose City for a reason..... there are still rose blooming now!

That is all of the loveliness in my blog today..... stop now or you will see a LARGE SPIDER. Not kidding it was huge!






***************Spider**************Spider************Spider**************************







I am pretty sure, 90% sure this is a Giant House Spider and not a Hobo Spider. I didn't get the chance to pick it up and look at it sternum, I am not an arachnologist, and I don't have a microscope so, I can't be 100% certain......

Joel in his infinite wisdom decided he wanted to poke the spider with a leaf stem. I told him not to do it, because the spider would probably run on to my foot. He poked it anyway, this caused the super fast spider to run UNDER MY ARCH. It was looking for a nice safe place to hide and under my foot looked pretty awesome. Here is the spider on my flipflop for a good size reference. Some how I got it off and didn't hurt the spider.

Inky comforted me.... I was pretty upset from Joel's betrayal....

Just kidding. It was pretty funny.

Hope you have a great night!

August 19th, 2015

Tonight's blog is dedicated to Rosie, the Araneus diasematus, or Cross Orb Weaver, who lives in our kitchen. She, at least I think, Rosie is an immature female, is a SPIDER. Please don't look if you are at all nervous about spiders. You have been warned.

Look! She is just tiny!

Rosie was a good sport about getting her photo taken. I did mess up her web a tiny bit, but I fed her some of the frogs fruit flies as a peace offering.

(Rosie was named by Maddie, my niece who isn't so fond of spiders or insects, we am trying to change her  mind out them.

June 16th, 2015

We bought a mango.

We didn't look t see how to cut it up properly.... we just went for it.....

It became a mostly mangled mango....

Joel still thought it was good.

One last thing to share: (SPIDER WARNING)

This morning I took a shirt out of my drawer and put it on my bed. I turned to put it on and found this friend:

I like that even the spiders have cat hairs on them....

I believe this is a female mouse spider. She wasn't quite as big as a mouse (pretty close though! okay not really, her abdomen was about 7mm to 9 mm long though). She might be gravid, meaning she is going to lay eggs soon. Mouse spiders are hunting spiders so they don't build webs, they run around and catch their prey. They are called mouse spiders because they are fuzzy and brown, like a mouse. This is a non-native species, accidentally introduced through trade. Thanks spiders.us for all the great information.

I am super glad I am not phobic of spiders. I will admit she made me squeal. I wasn't ready to find such a large spider on my shirt that to just took out of my drawer.

Hope you have a great night!

March 28th, 2015

Some spring flowers!

Other new growth!

A dead leaf and mushrooms!

A little bug on the window!

The spider that builds the weird dome webs.... check out how it hangs on to the web! (It isn't the best photo but I thought seeing it hang  upside down was pretty cool.....)

Hope you have a great night.