Tag Archives: Blondie

Dogs, dog fennel, longleaf, beggarticks, chiggers 2022-09-18

Ah, fall flowers, dogs frolicking in the dog fennel, and mysterious molds, all on a morning walk.

And chiggers. Most likely Trombicula alfreddugesi, aka Eutrombicula alfreddugesi, in the genus Trombicula, family Trombiculidae.

Whichever species of arachnids, cousins of ticks and spiders, these ones will make you itch for days. They can raise red welts and send you to the doctor seeking steroids. You don’t want to see pictures of that.

[Common sneezeweed, Helenium autumnale]
Common sneezeweed, Helenium autumnale

Continue reading →

Snake of the other day 2022-08-17

Mark it on the calendar: first time Gretchen ever saw a snake first.

[Canebrake rattlesnake]
Canebrake rattlesnake

All the dogs and I walked right past this timber rattler in the front driveway.

She didn’t think I should pick up this Crotalus horridus. I don’t know why.

-jsq

Grapes, beaver pond, sycamore, beggarticks, bananas, cypress swamp, dogs 2022-08-10

A walk in the woods one summer day.

[Grapes, sycamore, banana, cypress swamp]
Grapes, sycamore, banana, cypress swamp

Those grapes were ripe and tasty. Muscadine, Vitis rotundifolia. This is down by a beaver pond. Continue reading →

Maypop, bananas, Arrow in bathtub 2022-06-27

A late June day.

[Maypop, bananas, cypress swamp, Arrow in bathtub]
Maypop, bananas, cypress swamp, Arrow in bathtub

A month later, the Passiflora incarnata are still blooming, there are more banana bunches now, there are puddles in the cypress swamp, and Arrow still likes to cool off in her bathtub. Continue reading →

Turpentine cup on fallen cat face 2022-01-06

Update 2022-03-20: McCoy turpentine cup 2022-03-20.

It’s been 80 or 90 years since turpentining paid off the farm during the Great Depression. Yet we still find turpentine cups, and sometimes cat faces.

[Downed catface with Carolina dog, closeup of turpentine cup]
Downed catface with Carolina dog, closeup of turpentine cup

Blondie is a Carolina Dog, which is a native landrace breed, as in they bred themselves. Carolina Dogs were discovered in South Carolina in the 1970s, thus the name. They were living in longleaf pine forests and cypress swamps, just like where Blondie and Arrow (and Honeybun) live now in Georgia. Continue reading →