According to Wikipedia, the genome of the loblolly pine is seven times as large as that of humans. Make of this what you will.

Five-lined skink. I tried highlighting the tail with blue paint but could not keep the edges clean, so I used the frame to (I hope) evoke the color.

Apparently I have bachelor buttons in my yard! The seed mixes I scattered last year included some perennials that will bloom for the first time this spring… so I really have no idea what a lot of this green stuff is until the blossoms open. Surprises every week.

Today, Haiku Day
The sun rises, the sun sets.
Who decides this stuff?

I was asked recently whether a stool like the one I just posted takes a long time to make. The answer is no and yes. If I have a piece of wood wide enough for a seat (or have already glued one up) I can go from boards to assembly in a fat half a day. But then the glue has to dry overnight before I can trim and level the stool, and there are 2 colors of milk paint with 1-3 coats each, plus 2-3 coats of oil/wax… so if I start work Monday morning I can have a stool-like object by early afternoon that I still may not be able to take to a market on Saturday.

Not to mention my inner sense of how long things take has more to do with effort than with actual time, so I am constantly fooled—in both directions.

Three-legged stool, green over gold layered milk paint.

A little distelfink for your day. I’ve been playing for awhile with carving designs for fraktur-inspired imagery, and also with options for carving and painting contrasting frames… I’m happy with this one.

Brown-headed cowbird at my window feeder. I didn’t take a picture, so you will just have to trust me.

Trying to describe and remember the eclipse of 2017, I wrote this poem but never published it, and today seems like a good time to take it out.

80 percent totality was apparently enough to fool a barred owl in the neighborhood, who called out once about 3:20 and then went back to sleep.