Bug and Chicory

I don't know what kind of cool green bug this is, but he's having a good ol' time with the pollen on these chicory stamens that look like birthday candles.

Captain's Quarters Marina

Harrods Creek, KY.

Maw Maw

Portland, KY.

Snakeskin

It's always exciting to find snakeskins in the woods - except that it reminds you that you're in the woods with snakes.

Scotty's BBQ

I adore Scotty's BBQ in English Station, KY, but damn, this giant HDTV smack dab in the middle of everything drives me up the freakin' wall. I sit at a bar to be hypnotized by tequila, not television.

Someday I will have a bar, and it will either have no TV whatsoever, or it will have one placed inobtrusively that plays nothing but obscure old black-and-white films like The Great Gabbo, The Magic Cloak of Oz, and drive-in theatre intermission films. And when you ask me to turn it to "the game", you will be mocked and ridiculed mercilessly.

NIghtcrawlers For Sale

A faded Neighborhood Watch sign, a stump, a train, and a misspelled cardboard sign hawking night crawlers. Now that's Americana.

Water Tower, Shelbyville

Is a water tower more like a "building" or an "object"? I'm tagging it under buildings, arbitrarily.

Windup Chewbacca

Windup Chewbacca is amused by your folly.

Turtle

Another rescued turtle! This guy was trying to get into Willow Lake by way of one of the piers, but he couldn't fit through the space in the fence. I escorted him down to the water's edge.

Anchorage Trail Kiosk

And three of the notes on its public message board:

Queen Anne's Lace

Big Pink Flowers

What are they?

Drew Estate Ash

An indicator of a well-rolled cigar is just how long its ash can retain the shape of the cigar as it burns. Drew Estate's Natural Dirt, my preferred stogie of choice, never disappoints.

Local Raw Honey

Bluegrass Muffler

Middletown, KY.

Aoibheall

At Third Street Stuff, Lexington, KY.

Silks Lounge

Lexington, KY.

Peastone Driveway

Most of these rocks are about the size of your thumbnail.

Up a Tree

Storm Brewing in Anchorage

Pile of Eggs and Ants

As Sammy Davis Jr. once said, "what is all this shenanigans??" I went into a back room of my art studio (which is actually a turn-of-the-century outbuilding behind my house) that I'd not been in for some time. There, on a shelf, I found a huge honkin' pile of what seem to be insect eggs, larvae, pupae, whatever. Thousands of ants are going nuts trying to frantically haul them all away somewhere. How did this drama come to pass? From whence came the eggs? Are they even ant eggs at all, or eggs of something else that these guys are going "hey, woohoo, free lunch!" over? Mine is not to question why. I closed the door and proceeded to banish this creepy-crawly image from my head.

Except now I've just restimulated it, dammit.

AEGON Center During Storm

The AEGON Center almost completely obscured by clouds during recent rainstorm.

Baby Pine Cones

Weird Kentucky at Kroger

Hmmmm.... I've hit the discount rack at Kroger. Nice to see I'm being displayed alongside John Grisham and Dori Ostermiller. And, uh, Chicken Soup for the Soul books and Eat-Clean Diet books.

Building with Blue Crown

Portland, KY.

Auto Electric Scooter Repair

Portland, KY.

Devil Duck Details

Three close-up details in my brand new "Devil Duck" painting finished this month. (As abstract art, these segments might be more interesting than the actual work!)

Train Engine along Hwy 146

Bat-Moth

Man, it's like Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom out here. Last night I saw this thing dangling from a stack of comic books in my art studio. It's hanging by two massive furry claws, and has weird mantis-like appendages folded up under it.

I nudged it with my finger, and was shocked when it didn't immediately fly away as a moth should. I was also stunned by how thick, solid and furry it felt, as opposed to your common moth that seems flimsily held together. I became convinced that I was in possession of a baby bat, and grabbed the camera. Later it did fly away and I realized it was indeed a moth, but of a kind I ain't never beheld. Any guesses from the peanut gallery?

Storm Clouds Over St. Joseph

The church, I mean.

It'll Take Time To Get Back To Where I Was!

I once had an entire "art" blog devoted to random photos taken off the TV screen, with cryptic captions. Thank God for us all that I quickly got bored of it.

Green Faced Building

I love buildings that have discernable faces. This green one's at the corner of Campbell and Jefferson in Louisville.

Maple Spindle Gall

The experts say that these Spindle Galls on Maple trees (caused by an infestation of Vasates aceriscrumena mites) are actually harmless to the tree's health. I find that rather hard to believe, but there it is.

Maple "Helicopter" Seeds

"Whirlygig" maple seeds from a tree in my yard.

According to NASA, "Autorotation takes place because of the asymmetrical nature of maple seeds (and of paper copies). The center of mass of the seed is shifted well to one end while its center of lift is approximately in the middle. In a complicated process, the forces at work as the seed falls combine to begin a circular rotation of the seed about its center of mass. The rotation actually inscribes a cone around the axis of fall. The shape of the cone will vary depending upon the aerodynamic qualities of the seed's blade (wing). A blade with minimal lift properties will inscribe a steep-side cone while a blade with strong lift properties will inscribe a very flattened cone."

(And hey, there's another bonus bug that wasn't visible when taking the picture! Everybody take a drink!)

Insect Eggs

Of unknown provenance.

Unidentified Insect #1

Perfume Bottle Building

This Jewish Hospital building in Louisville's central business district always reminds me of a bottle of perfume.

A Clearing in the Woods

Anchorage, KY.