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Trying to keep it in line

6/20/2021

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I have been having a hard time keeping my ducks in a row due to extended work hours. Extended work hours is the nice way of saying mandatory overtime. If I wrote what I really thought about mandatory overtime, this post would need to be censored.
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While I try to keep my animals and life in line, a mama mallard showed up at the neighbor's pond with quite a handful to deal with herself. Two years ago she had a nest full of eggs by the pond's edge. Even though I diligently kept my dogs away from it, a wild predator raided it.
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I was both happy and a little stressed about the ducklings' appearance. While I was overjoyed that they had hatched, I now had to be ever vigilant make sure the dogs avoided the feathered family. 
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I was already trying to make sure Sadie doesn't eat a frog.
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The frogs are very good at avoiding her. It doesn't hurt that she's not very good at hunting them either.
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While I try to keep the dogs in line and on the path for the most part, they did manage to spook the neighborhood fawn. The dogs got cursed at and the fawn was big enough and fast enough to have gotten a very large lead on them.
I have a love-hate relationship with spring baby season.
​I love seeing the little ones. However, making sure the dogs aren't chasing the tiny ones can be a bit overwhelming at times and doesn't make my nature walk very relaxing. 
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I  have enough trouble trying to keep three dogs and two goats together for a walk. I haven't ever attempted bringing the six cats along for a trek, well, because it would be like herding cats. I can't get them all together when they are confined to the house.
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Although, I did try to take Lil' Bit on a walk in a special "cat backpack" that included a window and all. However, Bits' motion sickness got the best of him and he threw up with less than an acre under our belts. I should have known from other car sickness episodes that Bits doesn't like moving unless it's under his own power. 
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Nonetheless, some things did line up for me.

My flowers are coming along. The ever striking gazanias never fail to disappointed with their striped blossoms.
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Some dirt leftover from a garage excavation has lead to a hill of foxglove flowers.
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I have been enjoying all the colors and textures their blooms provide. Plus, it doesn't hurt that the bees like them too.
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Other flower photos were aided by some mood lighting. A shaft of sunlight one evening just beautifully backlit some flea-bane that was growing in the flower garden.
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Colorful blossoms meant some butterfly visitors as well. The swallowtails have been feeding.
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I was able to capture a hummingbird clearwing moth feeding on flowers. That one didn't line up so well. It kind of turned out to be a fuzzy butt shot.
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I was thrilled to capture a viceroy butterfly. It wasn't as good of a photo as I would have liked it to be, but the orange winged-one was up in a tree.
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However, a blue-headed vireo was polite enough to pose for a photo. It was very vocal the whole photo shoot. I don't know if it was a protest or if it was making fun of my large beach hat I wear to keep the bugs away.
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Other photos that seemed to line up were a female hummingbird perched on the feeder. They usually hide from me on the other side.
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A red squirrel that was on its usually perch upside down on the bird feeder.
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At the neighbor's pond, a bluet damselfly was still long enough for a photo.
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Although, I did have a chalk-fronted corporal dragonfly cast a shadow on a least skipper butterfly that I was trying to photograph.
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Several wood satyr butterflies have been sighted. I was photographing one with its wings open. However, it seemed like every time the shutter snapped, it snapped its wings shut.
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While some things line up and some things don't (namely Kennedy and Kyle), I will always try to make a straight line toward nature. It might be difficult to do as I try to maintain the shifting line between work-life balance.

​However, that's just the nature of things 'round here.
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Fifty Shades of Green

6/9/2021

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Green is the color of growth.  I am always so amazed by how many shades of green are in nature.
All the plants are green, but yet seem to have their own hue that makes them stand out among the rest.
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There are so many idioms and meanings for green.
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Green means go. It also denotes a newbie at a task. It signifies that one is concerned about the earth and environment.
I was reminded that my grandfather liked green. He had a green house, green tiles in the kitchen, green trucks and wore green shirts. He was also a lover of nature and walks in the woods.
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My grandfather wasn't the only fan of green. There were several quotes on the internet that echoed the same thought.
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  Quotes like,  "Nature in her green, tranquil woods heals and soothes all afflictions,'  by  John Muir.
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“For still there are so many things that I have never seen: in every wood in every spring there is a different green.” by  J. R. R. Tolkien, is another.
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Another favorite is, "Green is the prime color of the world, and that from which its loveliness arises," from  Pedro Calderon de la Barca.
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However, all this talk about green made me think of a song Kermit the frog used to sing titled  "Bein' Green". Joe Raposo is listed as the songwriter with lyrics licensed by Jonico Music.
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"It's not that easy bein' green, Having to spend each day, the color of the leaves,"  the lyrics stated.
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However, the songwriter turn it around with these prose, " But green's the color of spring; And green can be cool and friendly like; And green can be big like an ocean; Or important like a mountain or tall like a tree
When green is all there is to be."
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Is it easy being green? That answer depends on who you are.
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Are you a frog just trying to blend in with your surroundings or a fern that found a greenhouse-like environment in a glass bottle?
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Are you a hawk that stopped by for a drink at the neighbor's pond? Either way it seems that green is the go-to color for growth and the environment. That's just the nature of things 'round here.
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Time of growth

6/3/2021

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Spring is a time of new growth. This is clearly evident on the trail cameras. 
​One of the trail cameras was quite busy over the past week or two taking photos. The card was filled with photos of young bucks in velvet.
It also appeared to document an assault on one of those bucks. One frame shows a blurry image of larger buck moving toward a smaller buck.
Later frames show the smaller buck with a bloody horn.
It appears like one was broken off, but honestly I couldn't bring myself to look closely at it. It just seemed a shame that this little buck would become a "uni-horn" before his horns even really started to grow. However, that's just the nature of things.
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Meanwhile in other deer news, as I lamented the loss of two fawns I was able to get a grainy photo of one mama doe with one fawn. Hopefully she will bring it closer to one of the trail cameras for a better photo.
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While the honeysuckles and wild azaleas are pretty much done blooming,

​I managed to photograph one that was a darker shade of pink that was growing in a reclaimed strip mine.
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I am still a little confused as to whether the shrubs I knew as honeysuckles are in fact wild azaleas.

Adding to the my uncertainty is the fact that there are several kinds of wild azaleas.

​I believe the lighter wild azalea I see a lot of is the pinxterbloom azalea while the darker one would be the roseshell azalea.
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Meanwhile, the rhododendron in my yard has had a colorful awakening.
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​The bush was a draw for dogs and butterflies.
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Nonetheless, the yard around the Applegate estate has seen the appearance of irises and columbine.
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Meanwhile,  neighbor's pond has been visited by a mallard couple
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The pond was also the scene of a steamy May morning.
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Spring is usually the season of new life. However, there are times like with the lost fawns that it become a time of loss as well.

​That's just the nature of things 'round here.

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    Author

    "The Nature of Things" features the writings and photographs of Anna Applegate, who is a lifelong resident of Pinegrove Township, Venango County. She is a graduate of Cranberry High School and Clarion University. After a 15-year career in the local news industry, she made a change and now works at a steel finishing plant in Sandycreek Township. She is a avid lover of animals and nature, and a gifted photographer.

    ​Very happy to be able to share Anna's great "The Nature of Things" blog.

    Check out Anna's other artwork here!
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