Wow, amazing photos of the eclipse, Orion!

Great eclipse photos!

Got to see partial eclipse in Tampa and loved the shadows it cast on the sidewalks.

A tiger swallowtail butterfly
visited the blooming tree at our common area:

Today I found Sakura trees. A sign said they were gifted from Japan. And they're in my little town? Huh!



Too bad they aren't in a nicer area, like one of the two parks in town. They'd go beautifully with the water gardens. They ended up on a street corner in what's admittedly a bit of a shady area. They're still very pretty though!

Those trees are pretty TK.

Check out this huge staghorn fern at a local nursery. It isn't for sale.

holy staghorn, Batman

Even poor people deserve nice things, TK .
Cherry blossom trees included.

Me, not such a fan of white blossoms (remind me of snow). I am biased towards the double-blossom pink Kansan ones which are yet to bloom around these parts. Someone I know found a seedling under a Kansan one day, rescued it before the park grass cutters got it and nursed it at home for 5 years.

It just bloomed. But it is a seedling from the crab-apple round the corner! 5 year wait for nothing.
Turns out Kansan are mostly sterile, anyhow. A true seedling would be a big deal.
They decided to keep it anyhow as it is their baby. I am reminded of a cuckoo

plasko20 said: Even poor people deserve nice things, TK .

I think she was saying that if it were in a nicer area you could enjoy it more. For example, if one sees a pretty tree in the disgusting downtown streets of San Francisco, they'd understandably be thinking about how much prettier the tree would look in an ordered, not-so-dirty area of society.

Would you rather enjoy ocean scenery by going to a trash-ridden beach, or by going to a clean beach? In each case, the ocean itself may look the same, but what's surrounding it has a big impact on its beauty.

And I think we have to be careful with how much we presuppose in people's sentences, because I didn't see anywhere in TK's post where she said or indicated that poor people don't deserve nice things.

You are right.
Sorry, TK.
I might have misinterpreted the "nicer area" versus "shady area" comments.
There are not many "shady" areas in rich neighborhoods. Aside from literal ones from fancy big trees.

I think today being Earth Day got to me. So many articles about poor people being deprived of parks and shading trees, resulting in an intolerable temperature increase and making their neighborhoods even worse to live in.
E.g.
https://blog.nature.org/2021/0...

This was in the back of my mind when I read the comment from TK.

On a hike last weekend, a random mushroom with its own droplets.
Looks small, but the mushroom was as big as my head.



And a "brain" mushroom.

Very cool

Helping in the garden

...then a cat nap

Thanks for the acorn.
You orange cat is adorable.
I am new to social media as of a few weeks ago. But I discovered orange cats have a universal meme of not being so smart. It is said they all share a collective brain cell.
This leads to some very funny cat videos, which I binge.

In real life 2 weeks ago, a massive orange cat approached the stray cat I feed who was terrified and warning hissed/swatted out. But the orange cat did not seem to understand what was going on and kept coming closer. I rescued the stray cat by shooting the orange one in the butt with the hose that was in my hand (just a tiny burst, less than a second ). It jumped 3 feet backwards. But then it looked perplexed at the stray cat wondering "how the heck did you manage THAT?!".

Then it sauntered off with a few backward in-awe glances to the stray one, still trying to figure out how it could shoot water.

I haven't seen too many memes myself- I didn't pick up 'dumb' from memes as much as 'so lazy' and usually Chonky (chubby)
did you see the one in Lighten Up, with an orange cat as 'loaf of bread'?

Just took this out by my greenhouse. Baby fawn newborn. Trying its best to be invisible. Mom was nearby

Do you see where its eyes are looking? They're pointed at your garden already!

one of his ''smarter'' looks

Great mushroom pics, Orion! And very cute fawn, Gina.

I love the tabby's eyes! They're very golden.

oh Cinda