I held an alligator for the first time while in Florida. His belly was as soft as a baby. Notice his rounded snout. Alligator snouts are round on the end and their bottom teeth don’t stick out of their mouth. Crocodiles have v-shaped snouts and their bottom teeth stick out.
I saw this antique candle collection in a store window in the mall and thought it was fascinating. I couldn’t include the whole display in this photo. This is about a third of the candles.
This is my entry for the Fall Frenzy Writing Contest. The rules of the contest included picking one of the provided fall pictures, writing about the picture in under 200 words and posting it to a blog. https://lydialukidis.wordpress.com/fallwritingfrenzy-2022-rules/
Halloween: Credit Selina Wing for Bing
When doors creak open on Halloween,
Some sights can never be unseen.
A hundred pumpkins, maybe more,
Lurk behind that creepy door.
Pumpkins snicker.
Seeds are spit.
None are smashed,
All are lit.
With candy-snatching pumpkin grins,
A jack-o-lantern chant begins:
Tricks or treats.
Surrender your sweets.
No beets. No meats. No Shredded Wheats.
Don’t care if candy rots our teeth.
Give us your chocolate in little wrappers,
your caramel cubes, and sour snappers,
giggling taffy, and waxy lips,
mints, suckers, licorice whips.
Candy corn and sugar rocks,
Hand over every rattlebox.
Feed us fudge and gummi ghosties,
Malted milks and cinnamon toasties.
Surrender the candy?!
Don’t be cray-cray.
Hide your treats and run away.
But, no worries anyway…
The pumpkin gang will soon decay.
This Peter Pan tribute car was parked on my dog-walking route. The lyrics on the car come from a song “Lost Boy” by Canadian singer, Ruth B.
For lost boys and girls
I saw this gal on a trash can in Chicago. Praying mantis is the only insect that can move its’ head from side to side. They eat other insects and could be called “preying” mantis. This is a female which has a large body but no large antennae. The female cannabalizes the male after mating.
Female praying mantis
I found a large cocoon lying on the ground which I later identified as a luna moth cocoon. I kept it for a few months but nothing hatched. I opened it with scissors. The cocoon was made of fibers/silk. Inside was a pupae that had died.
I have not seen a terrestrial (land) snail since I was a kid. We used to call them wood snails. I picked up a board off the ground at my daughter’s home in Arkansas and discovered a Yellow Globelet Snail (Mesodon clausus) on the underside of the wood. The snail was crawling on the board. I placed the snail on a leaf so he/she (most land snails are hemaphrodites) could be seen more easily in the photo. Many snail species are endangered with lots of possible causes which need more study: loss of habitat, pesticides, herbicides, other invasive species, and even salt that we put on the roads during snow/ice storms. I turned this snail over on his back and watched as he/she quickly flipped themselves over.
Yellow Globelet Snail
I saw this at a rest area on I-80 in Iowa.
I saw these mushrooms growing on a dead tree while walking the dog. They are called Dryad’s saddle or pheasant back mushrooms. They are edible. Here are two links to videos:
Foraging for Dryad’s Saddle/Pheasant Back Mushroom
How to cook Pheasant backs & Ramps (Dryads Saddle & Wild leeks)
