Random Thursday: The [Mostly] Photos Edition

Anything worthy seeing is worth photographing.
Photo: Panorama of the view from our back porch
"...doo doo doo, lookin' out my back door..."

Hi, folks. Before we get started, I just want to give you a reminder that humanity is doomed. Happy Thursday!

Not AI. Real steel.

Bluebonnet season is almost over, but that simply means that other wildflowers are stepping up their game. The deep blues are giving way to the increasing wavelengths of reds, oranges, and yellows. Prickly pears are starting to bloom, and Indian blankets (aka firewheels) are showing off. Deer, being red-green colorblind, don’t care.

Photo: Whitetail deer standing in a field of Indian blanket wildflowers

Bluebonnets haven’t yet entirely disappeared. They’re pretty hardy and persistent, and refuse to respond to directions as to where they should and should not sprout.

Photo: Bluebonnet springing up out of a crack in a large flat rock
“…life, uh…finds a way” — Dr. Ian Malcolm, Jurassic Park

We’ve had some good rainfall lately, hence the spectacular wildflowers. The fungi have been pretty happy as well.

Photo: Unknown mushroom growing in a vacant lot
Here today; gone tomorrow. I never knew your name.
I DO know these ones, though: Puffball fungi (Calvatia cyathiformis)

Debbie and I are puzzled by a new (to us) phenomenon: squirrels have been foraging in great numbers in our front yard. Now, if they were limiting themselves to the lawn, we could see how they were perhaps looking for acorns, but they also spend an inordinate amount of time appearing to eat something on or among the pavers of our driveway. They’re occasionally accompanied by a few doves.

Well, as it turns out, Sciurus niger has been known to feast on pollen, and this time of year, we have more of that than Carter has pills (OK, I’m dating myself with that reference; but don’t try to tell me that you don’t get it yourself).

Six squirrels and a dove form the makings of a Christmas song.

Moving on to the world of inanimate objects, here’s a circuit board…a non-corroded one at that. I can’t remember where I got it, but I do know that some device succumbed to my toolkit to give it up.

Photo of a circuit board
Was this as a result of a post-mortem investigation, or a vivisection? I’ll never tell.

I do know where the following image originated. My decade-old gasoline-powered weedeater began to annoy me to a sufficient degree that I retired it in favor of a new battery-powered model. And, as I am wont to do, I had an overwhelming urge to dismantle it. The following photo is a heavily-manipulated image of the engine, but I’m sure you knew that.

Photo: a stylized image of an engine from a string trimmer (seedeater)
That thang don’t got a hemi.

Last, and possibly least, here are a couple of armature windings from…something. I don’t know; this stuff just seems to magically appear in our garage. But look at the expressions on their little faces! I don’t know what they were up to, but whatever it was, they were surprised to be caught in the act.

Photo: Two armature winding discs
Feel free to use your imagination, but don’t share it with me.

In conclusion: More nature…

Meme: Google result showing that snails sleep 48-72 hours in a day
On one of Jupiter’s moons, perhaps…

But also…

Too much is never enough.

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