Today a gray fox crossed the road in front of me. It wasn’t far from where the turkey crossed yesterday, but there was grass growing all the way to the pavement, so I didn’t see any point of getting out to look for tracks.

I sent an email to Stephan Pastis today. He writes Pearls Before Swine which, IMO, is one of the best comics in the newspaper these days. The strip ended with Rat asking ‘Does anything rhyme with “drunken hobo”?’ I thought of three things:

Sunken Oboe
Shrunken Dobro
Dunkin’ Lobo

So I sent them to Pastis. Not that he really wanted to know. To my surprise, he answered, and wanted to know where I read Pearls. So I told him, and let him know that David is a huge fan, and that I really liked the strip from July 1. He answered again! Cool. So, now that we’re buds, maybe I’ll crash at his place sometime. If he’d only tell me where he lives.

David didn’t believe me when I told him about it, so I produced the evidence, and he was convinced.

Another bright yellow slime mold appeared on the burned stump. I guess it’ll be creamy yellow tomorrow. No need to post a photo though, since I’ve already done that. I also took several pictures of some Monotropa uniflora, but again… no need to post.

The Chimaphila umbellata‎ (Pipsissewa) finally bloomed today. I have been watching a patch of it every day for about two weeks now, thinking each day that it would bloom. The wait is over. When I looked up the scientific name, I was able to id a mystery plant I noticed this week, as it was on the same page – Pyrola. Not sure of the species though, as there are about 30 of them and they’re all pretty similar.

The plant I’m waiting for now is Gaultheria procumbens (Wintergreen). Some of the plants have little tiny flower buds on them, which I just noticed for the first time today.