Yeah, apology, I posted this picture previously.  It is one of the parents to a nest of baby American Kestrels in a tree by our house.  Full moon and hawklet chick ~

Below, puppy Jake at 5 months.  This a.m. he (and the other dogs) ran in a 5-mile trail race.

A somewhat rare Betty afternoon nap with feline foot “book-ends.”

WHAT HAVOC A BAKER’S DOZEN OF ESCARGOT HATH WROUGHT:

Twelve years ago, both my parents died a few weeks apart.  They lived in the same town as I, and it took my siblings and myself months to sort, sell, donate, etc. what we could, continue to maintain the premises, and finally, sell the property.  One day I got out of my car and walked down the sidewalk to check on the place.  The weather was damp, drizzling, the ground was wet.  My next foot-step went “CRUNCH” on the walk and I looked down to see what it was.

The remnants of a big fat juicy snail!  I was surprised, as I didn’t remember ever seeing snails in our area before.  There were many more, and when I left, on what must have been a misguided weird impulse, I plucked up 13 and put them in a jar.  I released them in a garden area below our house which stays irrigated and watered consistently during growing season.  The very next day, walking on a sidewalk, my foot (again) went CRUNCH!  Down to 12 snails …

Years later (well, 11 or 12) those 12 snails have re-populated, exploded, even, quite well.  Betty is not amused.  They have spread from the original garden plot to encircle the house, and have continued the territorial expansion from there.  Betty wishes I had never conducted this transplant.  Below, Annie peruses …

and decides to saunter on.

BRUCE is a featured attraction at the Children’s Nature Center (presently in Fruita, Colorado — soon to move to Grand Junction), and

can violate some of the rules there.

A mushroom (a pretty strange one!) pokes up through a leaf.

One morning I looked out my daughter’s kitchen window and it seemed the house was almost surrounded by huge spider webs ~