Skritter Retreat and Drone Attack

Mystery photo.  Hint: not camping oatmeal, although I’ve eaten camping oatmeal that looked similar.  Answer: end of post:

We had a fun time hosting the Skritter Guys Retreat.   They worked:

They played:

They work/played:

And they feasted:

More Skritter guy photos here:  https://plus.google.com/photos/106916156663153973757/albums/6022654295417079441

Nick stayed an extra weekend.   He survived numerous doggy attacks:

We hiked:

Helen and Jazz presented 3 posters at a Brain mapping conference in Hamburg Germany:

She also enjoyed here visit there with online friend Marina:

Back home, Doggy learned to brush his own teeth … kind of:

These boys are our next door neighbors.  Although you can’t see it, fortunately there is a swimming pool involved here:

Lots more swimming party photos here:

 https://plus.google.com/photos/106916156663153973757/albums/6026728805698051793?authkey=CKPo9JOPte7qNw

 https://plus.google.com/photos/106916156663153973757/albums/6022970396308694145

One of our vacationing visitors brought his Quadra copter:

It has a built in camera … that’s Bantik captaining the blue floater in the pool:

 

His daughter got attacked by giant bubbles:

Abbey visited with her Boss’s older female Shiatsu.  Batik, not interested in her advances, escaped onto his private yacht. 

I’ve been Bonsai-ing a bunch of small backyard evergreens.   Some before and after shots:

I didn’t know there was a rock under the above tree!    I’ve ordered a variety of garden statues to put in the newly open spaces, but I ordered a few too many gargoyles, so I decided to expand, deleting this hard to mow grassy tonsil:

In other projects, I unsuccessfully installed a ceiling fan.   Looks nice, but doesn’t work yet (waiting on parts):

Found a few more things to zoom in on:

Finally, here is a unzoomed shot of the mystery photo:

I got some pine sap on my arm, and then all kinds of interesting things stuck to it!

Bruce

Ammo Box Wi-Fi

I’ll start this month’s post with some friendly bug photos, and end with some scary ones (you spider-phoebes probably will want to skip the last few). 

I don’t know who this guy is, but he posed for me, so I like him:

Bees are trickier, as they are constantly bumbling about, not standing still:

But I found a trick … catch them swimming in water:

Then rescue them.   They are so grateful, they quietly pose for photos while drying off:

Just don’t tell them it was your pool that nearly drowned them … they look like they could hold a grudge:

This guy also stood still for me:

But this guy did not:

The cat was more distressed about this than I was:

I’ve been having fun with the new camera.  One of the new tricks I tried was HDR, High Dynamic Range, photography.   This allows for darker indoor and brighter outdoor objects to be exposed correctly at the same time:

Applied to landscapes, it can give a painting like feel that some people don’t like (not realistic), but viewed as art it can be pretty:

I’ve also been having fun in the yard.   Started pruning our evergreens, with Doggy is a constant ‘helper’:

This tree used to go to the ground.  Now it has room underneath for shade seeking pets, and for a home-brewed weatherized wi-fi extender mounted in a plastic ammo box (to the left of the tree):

We turned the hill next to the kitchen deck into a flower garden and I re-plumbed the sprinkler system for better coverage:

Here is a Helen arrangement starring purple tulips and heart bleed: 

The clematis flowers are in full bloom:

As are our Irises.  Mom, these are some of the ones you planted:

Irena’s garden is really spectacular:

Doggy especially likes their Buda Pond:

And the mountain trails are full of wildflowers:

And butterflies (flying next to the rock cairn):

Back home I found birds eating birdfood:

And Magpies eating cat food:

And dragons and unicorns waiting for Helen to make food in her fancy (but impractical) new cooper pots: 

Skype now allows 3+ way calling, so we conjured up a Utah, Montana, and Australia call:

I’ve been trying to teach a new dog new tricks, here the classic jump through the hoop trick.  He initially was not too keen on the idea:

It was an elaborate setup, as just holding the hoop he would simply do the sensible thing and go around it.

He is MUCH better at stealing bits of clothing, like hats:

But he is so cute, we usually forgive him:

And the cat sometimes comes out of hiding to play with him:

Ok, end of post.   It is spider time!  This guy is somewhat standard size, about 3/8” long:

But this guy is < 1/16” long!

Which allows hundreds of them to crowd together in a couple of cubic inches … about the same size as, oh, I don’t know, how about the cup of an over the ear headphone:  

In this case, they were outside, that is a garden hose in the background.

Zach, you can come out of hiding now.

Bruce