New family member

This is Lancelot, the newest member of the clan. He's a rescue; wandered away from his mum. He had an upper respiratory infection and some eye infection and was crawling with fleas. Antibiotics are working on the infections and citronella and careful combing are working on the fleas. The little guy seems to be adapting well to his new digs. The other cats are working him into the pecking order and the dog pretty much gets along with every living creature.

I'm going to play radio for a week or so, and won't be posting while I'm gone. I ran myself out of time, so no auto-posts either.

Thanks to everyone for visiting. I hope a happy kitten photo will do while I'm away!

Skywatch Friday

Hello, Earl.

This is the very leading edge of hurricane Earl, now far south in the Atlantic, hammering the Outer Banks. We are not expected to see much weather due to it aside from clouds. Of course, we're 120 miles north of NY City and the storm isn't expected to come within a hundred miles of there. It takes a pretty big hurricane to get us.

A group of photobloggers post a photo of their skies each Friday - it's called Skywatch Friday. Click the link to see photos from round the world.

Turtle heads

I guess that I'm in touch with the seasons because it was almost exactly a year ago that I posted a photo of these flowers! They are called turtleheads, Latin name Chelone obliqua (chelone meaning tortoise). They start blooming about now, and are native to the area. As usual, few gardens seem to host native species; we seem to have a desire for the exotic.

Anyway, I looked back and noticed that my earlier photo was a close-up. You can imagine that I was all set to post another close-up, but I thought that wouldn't be fair so I went out and took a wider view. There's a bee on the left side, working her way through each flower, one by one.

Theme Day - Open Air Market

I'm getting braver. Photographs of people. Well, sort of. I was hot so I knelt down for a moment and this image simply appeared. It's from the Schenectady Greenmarket. I love going here; everyone is so nice, even when the weather is hot and sticky. It's high season for green vegetables, but the crafters are out in force, too. I love to be able to buy local products and support local artisans and farmers.

For the first of the month, the City Daily Photo community agrees on a theme and we (mostly) post photos interpreting that theme. Click here to view thumbnails for all participants It's a lot of fun, and we get to see some wonderful photos and read lovely stories from all over the world.