This first one was a mistake, but since it's not just of my feet or completely black, I'll share this shot of the side of the house. Tilt your head. Yesterday a male hummingbird hit the window, and I couldn't tell if he was dead or stunned, so I put him on a little tree stump, and later he was gone. Something could have eaten it, but I didn't see any potential predators around, so maybe he recovered.



This is a GIANT puffball mushroom that is the size of a watermelon. It must have a billion spores in it. I wish I'd noticed it when it was new and white.



This morning at 5:30 I heard a big ruckus out on the river - geese honking. Was it a flock flying overhead? They don't usually come this far west. I got up and turned out it was 4 Canadian geese, two mating pairs, having a big row out on the river. Picture a double date and someone takes a wrong turn and then they get into a pitched yelling argument and can't get out of it.

I was standing on the bridge watching them, and they flew past me down to where we used to take Quackers swimming, and started to mate. I was wondering if they plan to stick around and raise their young ones here. It would be a first, because that kind of goose usually stays out on the plains pooping up golf courses. Wild geese would not be as much fun as having our own tame goose, but they'd be something to look at.



This past weekend there was an auction in town that included several coffins.



This 1909 Burial Shroud is a front-only suit of clothes that would be whisked off the body before the casket was closed and lowered into the ground.





There are no legs to the suit, it's more of a skirt, so it will tug away easier.

No, I didn't attend this auction.

I cleaned some things out of my back garage. I'm giving this daylily poster to charity unless you want it. Looking at it now, I can't imagine why I thought it was so wonderful back in 1981 when I acquired it.



I have two of these Seald Pep fruit crate art plaques. I bought one to give my dad because he had his own airplane and you know how hard it is to think of gifts for people sometimes. He used to fly a Stearman bi-plane, so there was also that element of it. Why I have two of them is a mystery, because the crate art I collected for myself had animals or people in it (they are hung in the kitchen of the rental cabin).



Here's a photo of the second one. Hah! Kidding.



See that plastic bag of stuff in the background? For many years the contents of that bag constituted our entire Christmas decorating effort. If it didn't fit in that bag, we didn't bother putting it out, and our time limit on holiday decorating is 15 minutes maximum.

Mostly, the bag contains clear plastic stars, an advent calendar, and a cardboard Christmas tree that folds flat. We hung the stars on a fake ficus tree. What I don't understand is why I brought it here from Las Vegas, and maybe I'll go to the trouble of taking it back there this fall. Our current effort involves getting a fiber optic tree out of a box. The ends of the branches glow and change color. Maybe the stars would look good on it. But be careful: we don't want to run over the time limit.

Those green cushions are the old ones from the patio furniture. Last summer I bought some new custom cushions online that worked out very well. These old ones are at least 40 years old, and they held up well considering. We'll get rid of them once we figure out there is no other good use for them such as on one of the loungers.