Clematis, by the front door


Note of May 4th: I took several shots of the clematis over several days, using the trial-and-error method of learning how to use my digital SLR camera. In the picture below, I manipulated some raw file settings in a photo editing program called Darktable, trying to improve one of those pictures.

Another shot taken about the same time (added 6/19/2012):

Magnolias finished

We still have one or two left . . .
 

 
. . . but after their glorious peak, it’s only a few days until most of the petals look like this:
 

 
Still, we shouldn’t shed a tear. With a little luck, there’ll be even more next year.
 

Tomato Cage


Elspeth designed this tomato cage for Sandy’s birthday, and I helped her and Tim put it up last weekend, though not quite all the chicken wire is up yet, and it still needs a door at the back. Maybe next year some of the tomatoes will come to us instead of the squirrels.

Famous last words

This is the creature which fell out of my shoe this morning after I got back to the house with the paper, aware of a growing pain on the top of my right foot. Its body is only two or three millimeters wide, but the sore spot on my foot is about an inch wide, where the skin is red and feels clammy. The soreness reminds me of severe sunburn I had on the tops of my feet at the beach once, years ago, but the entire foot has an ache also. Initially I thought it was a spider, but now I think maybe not. Perhaps it got into my shoe from the compost heap, where I had been to dump lawn clippings Thursday evening. [Update, Sunday morning: I added the third photo, since I was still alive, and the insect is still dead. My foot seems to be recovering — less red, less achy, less itchy, and the very minor swelling has now gone.]