penny at five months

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snippets, 6-27-2014

The middle-aged, who have lived through their strongest emotions, but are yet in the time when memory is still half passionate and not merely contemplative, should surely be a sort of natural priesthood, whom life has disciplined and consecrated to be the refuge and rescue of early stumblers and victims of self-despair.

- George Eliot, The Mill on the Floss, 1860

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in the company of...

Skipped out at lunchtime today to visit the Blanton's new exhibit, In the Company of Cats and Dogs. Terrific exhibit - if you're in the area and you like critters (as this blog's proprietors do), you must go see it.

A 2,600-year-old cat is standing by to greet you when you first walk in.

 

Many of the pieces in the show are really moving; there is a photograph of a mother with a baby and a cat lying in bed on a sunny morning that's just stunning. I also particularly enjoyed an etching that featured a sheepdog looking fearfully at the shepherd as the flock scampered away, and a photograph by Lewis Carroll of his brother's hunting dog.

There are a couple pieces (in the "Morality" gallery, I think) that are astonishing in their portrayal of man's cruelty, both to animals and to one another. I didn't expect that, but it does gives the exhibit a bit more depth.

A couple of the pieces are laugh-out-loud funny:

 

The gallery was crowded today. I should know better than to go during any show's opening week. The exhibit runs through September 21, so I'll go and linger a little longer before the fall semester starts, maybe with a better camera next time.

snippets, 6-25-2014

Read to your kids, says the American Academy of Pediatrics.

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mike and penny, mmxiv-vi-xxiii

yea the force is strong with this one

bananas

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b&w penny, mmxiv-vi-xiv

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cool as a...

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Texas spiny lizards are cool. And fast. I once saw one jump four feet in the air to snatch a bumblebee mid-flight. This was about as close as I was going to get with a 100mm lens...about six feet. (We saw a skink yesterday but it got away from us.)

black-eyed susans

mostly

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I took these two pictures without moving my feet. The four or five does in this group were indifferent to us; Ondine is always polite to deer. We spotted a fawn a half mile later but its mother was giving us the stink eye so we moved along.

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hummingbird

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