Thursday, June 14, 2012

Last Week I Ruined the Lives of Thousands of Ants

I imagine that most megalomaniacal dictators with delusions of world domination start out this way. They get tired of mowing a tiny, awkward spot of lawn and decide to put a potting patio (hereafter known as a pottio) there. They dig a foundation. They cackle evilly as ants scurry to and fro with eggs on their backs. The pour sand. They notice that they're getting a sunburn on their back. They lay bricks. They realize that the space they are attempting to civilize does not have parallel lines or right angles. They contemplate what madness made them start this project in the first place. Out of sheer bloodymindedness, they perservere. Put down weed block. Lay bricks. Even cut some to make them fit. Pour more sand. Viola! It looks... like an amateur layed brick. Oh well. At least my peas are coming up happily and my Portulaca are finally looking like I put them there on purpose.



After I got done ruining the lives of so many ants and deciding that world domination is probably too much work, Abe and I got ready for an adventure. We had to put on pants and boots because in between us and the pond is a series of fields. And in that series of fields grows 75% of the poison ivy in the world. That's where the adventure part came in. So we braved the wilds to make it to the pond. Every dragonfly in the world was there, and most of them were mating. I didn't take any pictures of that, even though one of the apple green ones was mating with one of the icy blue ones, and I had to wonder what color the babies would be. In fact, I wasn't able to photograph most of the different colors because, as it turns out, dragonflies won't sit still when a black lab is splashing back and forth through the cat tails. But I did get some of them. 
 Plants are better at sitting still for photos, and kids do okay too, so here are some of those.

 

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