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Prairie

Prairies are a part of Indiana’s natural heritage, I’ve been told, according to this rest stop sign anyway.

The girls were inside and I was walking the whippets.  I noticed from afar, across the manicured expanse of Kentucky bluegrass, what appeared to be an informational board for the casual passerby.  Naturally curious (and myself being a casual passerby), I trekked through the grass to read this beacon of knowledge.

Perhaps the sign itself was a victim of fire?  Or maybe it’s yet one more icon of yesterday, fallen into disrepair.  Judging from the number of toll roads I had to pay to get through Chicago, it’s apparent that the national Interstate budget isn’t sufficient anymore.  Sad, although it was kind of amusing to see that this sign still remained, all the way out in what is obviously not native prairie.

The field was also littered with structural foundations, but I couldn’t figure out for what.  Another mystery lost to time.

–Simon

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Chicago

Last week we had an unexpected Wisconsin revisit.  This time, it was under less jovial terms, as Liz’s grandfather had passed.  Godspeed on your journey, Mr. Hintz.

As for our own far less spiritual journey, we opted to pass through Chicago this time.  While most likely a benign experience for locals, I enjoyed it, and made note of landmark buildings.

The Skyway–Chicago sure has a lot of toll roads
The Sears Tower (formerly), or the Willis Tower now–once upon a time the tallest building in the world
A passing shot of the skyline
The John Hancock Center–important to me because I watched it collapse in an episode of Life After People

–Simon

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I’m a Tumor I’m a Tumor

I was picking tomatoes, as I’ve been know to do, and recoiled at this unpleasant sight:

It looks like it had an aborted twin.  Yuck.  Naturally, I took to the Internet for information.  Unfortunately, the seconds I spent on this avenue of research did not yield any scientific articles on this phenomenon (Google thought I wanted to know about tomatoes being used in cancer research), but I did successfully establish the commonality of this scenario among gardeners.  One gentleman had posted this:

He even went so far as to make it an annual event, and posts the winning tomato’s picture from his self-hosted contest.  Funny people, bloggers.

But all I could think about was the “I’m a tumor I’m a tumor” song.

–Simon

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Mantis (Part 2)

I noted recently that my jalapeño has a guardian.  Then, while making my regular rounds, I noticed that my mustard plant too has one of these garden sprites.

Its abdomen looks like a mustard seed pod

Its not very big, and I had to fight my phone’s auto-focus to get that picture, and by then it was growing weary of my presence and had started to crawl away.  Hopefully he’s off to eat mosquitoes.

–Simon

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Caterpillar

Who doesn’t like a fuzzy little caterpillar, even if they might have small amounts of toxin in their barbs?  I noticed this on my rain barrel as I was tending to my pumpkins:

Acronicta americana

It would appear to be an American dagger moth.  I reviewed a number of sites, but the general consensus is that it’s pretty benign, content to simply munch on a few tree leaves.  Very well, young moth.  You may stay, but I shall not extend such courtesies to your hornworm cousins.

–Simon