Turtle Creation

After lunch and Rita's I regrouped and drove on over to J. and J.'s to have a visit with She-J. and the boyos. S. asked me to make a turtle out of this clay stuff (I forget what it's called) based on the picture of a turtle on the product's packaging. He made the black markings while I did most of the body work.
N. enjoyed making balls and then putting marker stuff all over them.
I forget what S. said this was, though it had part of his name on it (the rest was on the other side).

A nice afternoon visit.

A Truly, Truly Unique Dining Experience

I can't imagine being an actor whose gig is murder mysteries during dinner...on a train going 10 miles per hour. They sound like it's great...but I bet they have despair in their hearts. On Tuesday my parents left for Maryland (the Preakness is today people) and I stayed put. I have been suffering from late in the day headaches and I thought that it might be a lack of fresh air/walking. So I went and took a walk. The headache didn't really go away but I did find this guy...and took him home with me (I know). Then we played the dance of taking a picture of a turtle with its head out before it runs away. I lost the game.

Turtle Tornado! (Warning)

The day of the tornado excitement I slept in. Well compared to my mother I always sleep in. She saw this turtle and took a photograph of it. I told her she should have woken me up. I love seeing turtles. Not snapping turtles though, those things scare the shit out of me. Then we had a few hours of tornado warnings. It rained and thundered and lightning was present but no hail stone, brimstone or scary funnels of wind, air, dirt, horse trailers and the like.

I Have Turtle Eagle Eyes

On one of my last days in Tennessee I was checking my email. The computer room looks out into woods and has a hummingbird feeder on it. These features make it a lovely spot to just look out at and stare. Some times I've seen birds and twice I've seen grey foxes. On this particular day I stared out and suddenly a certain kind of movement --many, many yards away-- caught my eye. I looked back and, in the far distance of trees and dry, brown leaves, I saw a little box turtle turtling its box towards one thing or another (is it actually toward? or can I use either). I got up and quickly ran in my nearly barely feet out to say hello to the turtle. It stuck its head in its shell very quickly. I took a few photographs of him (or her) on the rock and then put him (it or her) by the tomato plant. Then I went back to computer world but got up every five to ten minutes to check on the turtle. First three times he was by the tomato plant but with his head very much not in view. But on the fourth...which admittedly had a longer interval of time...I went out and that sucker had scooted on. Scooted to some place that I could not see. I tried using my turtle eagle eyes and my not entirely shabby ears and looked. And looked. And looked. And I would like to be able to say I found it again and got to take a photograph of its turtly little head and it was awesome. Unfortunately even turtle eagle eyes have limitations.

Sexy Tortoise? No.

Other things were eaten and seen and done. Like croquet, gin and tonics and gazpacho. But I thought I'd fast forward to this here photograph of me with a gopher tortoise and then start trying to be more up to date. We'll see how that goes.