Salamander
Fire Walking

I've taken hundreds of pictures over the past few weeks in the Preserve. I've become absorbed in identifying everything as accurately as possible. I'm glad I'm doing this, as I've discovered that I have been a veritable warehouse of half-facts and out-and-out misinformation about some things (especially the smaller wildflowers). I'm discovering that some identifications are up for grabs; for example, different authoritative sources on the web identify the same plant as hensbane or heals all, then then berate the other authorities for getting it wrong. (At this point I have to confess that I'd mixed this same plant up with gill-pver-ground, so I was wrong regardless of who was right). I'm left with a handful of things that I do not know how to identify at all. In spite of the difficulty in definitively naming what I've seen, I'm in my glory with this.

To tide things over, I'm posting a picture of a recent present we recieved from one of The Prof's relatives, who happens to be an artist. The multi-colored glass on the left of the picture was something I purchased for The Prof for his birthday a year ago (two years ago? I've lost track). It is two rainbow panes one in front of the other that you can slide back and forth to get different colors and effects. The gorgeous pane in shades of green on the right is the gift we recieved. It matched a wrought-iron candle holder/vase that I've had in the dining room so well that I moved it to the mantel. Besides, the cats can't get on the mantel, so maybe the idiots will stop abusing the fake futuristic frond I have in the vase!

I'm returning to my Preserve pictures now. I need to identify a really cool purple flower I found that I've never seen before.