Bark Scorpion – In my Closet in Arizona

Bark Scorpions are usually 2 – 3 inches long, are nocturnal, and eat crickets, roaches and other insects. Scorpions hibernate in the winter.

This one was lurking in my broom closet, and unfortunately met an untimely ‘death by swiffer sweeper’. Scorpions glow in the dark if you shine a Black UV light on them, as you can see in this photo. Most local hardware stories around here carry Black light flashlights. We, of course, have one. It has good entertainment value for visitors. I  don’t go around  shining the flashlight in dark closets – live and let live. Except when I find one inside the house, and it doesn’t hide fast enough.

Bug Bits
Common Name: Arizona Bark Scorpion
Scientific Name: Centruroides sculpturatus
Native to: Baja California del Norte, northern Sonora, southeastern California, southeastern Utah, Arizona and southwestern New Mexico.
Date Seen: April 24, 2017
Location: North of Fountain Hills, Arizona

Where is the Letter ‘C’?

Can you find the shape of the Letter ‘C’ or ‘c’ in the photos below? (Hint for the flower photo – the ‘C’ is green, not pink or yellow.)

The letter ‘C’ is used as an abbreviation for:

C – Century
C – Celsius
©- Inside a circle as a Copyright Symbol
C – Music Note
C – Bra cup size
C – School Grade
C – Shoe Width
C – Roman Numeral for 100

Have I missed any other famous uses for ‘C’?

Did you find a ‘C’ in each of the photos? I’ve posted the answers at Photos Containing the Letter ‘C’.

Many Rocks and a Lot of Hardscape

Earth – the substance of the land surface – in my part of Arizona it reminds me of the saying ‘Between a Rock and a Hard Place’! Landscaping strategies here include generous numbers of Rocks and plenty of gravel Hardscape.

Big River

Our yard consists of a gravel mulch that covers soil that is a course reddish material with large sections of impenetrable caliche (soil particles that have been cemented together by calcium carbonate.)

Meandering from one end of the yard to the other is a stone feature I call ‘Big River’.

‘Big River’ is a make believe creek bed that only gets wet when it rains.

‘Big River’ begins in a spiral rock feature I call ‘The Maze’.

A large stone lizard slithers towards the patio and breaks the monotony of yet some more gravel (the maze area is in the distance.)

In contrast, Earth at our Alberta house is a rich black soil. A carpet of green grass (sometimes a blanket of dead yellow grass if we don’t get enough rain) circles flower beds and stone walkways.

The Arizona yard and the Alberta yard, though on different ends of a spectrum of what Earth has to offer, are in just two of the many ecosystems that the Earth’s surface can support.  What kind of land surface do you call home?

 

It Takes One to Know One Department

Do you read the comments that come after Internet news articles? Some commenters (usually anonymous) are extremely mean and abusive! Their attacks seem like the online version of a school yard bully.

Here  are a few comments I read at the end of just one Canadian news story this morning:

…You are a fool.
…Hope you idiots are pleased with yourselves.
…You don’t have a clue yourself.
…BS… espoused by utter MORONS
…And we still have an idiot at the helm.
…One by one the poor saps who were taken in
…greasy, sleazy, slimy selfie king
…Nuth’n finer than a far left nutter sputtering
…another leftwing(confused) doofus of questionable mental acuity
…The big, stammering idiot with the dumb expression

When we were kids, we would respond to a verbal bully by saying, “Sticks and stones will break our bones, but names will never hurt us.” (But the names still hurt…) Or we would taunt back, “It takes one to know one!”

These responses have no effect on the cyberbully. They carry a shield of anonymity:  ‘you don’t know me’; ‘you can’t see me’; and ‘I won’t be there to hear what your response is’! Freedom of speech without fear of consequence!

Have you ever had a cyberbully leave comments on your blog?

Where is the Letter ‘B’?

Can you find the shape of the Letter ‘B’ or ‘b’ in the photos below? (Hint: You might have to look for pairs of circles!)

Some famous ‘B’s
Bubble and Bobbin (3 out of 6 letters are b’s)
Plan B
Hepatitis B
Vitamin B
Type B Blood
B Musical Note
B Boron
B Shoe Size
B Bra Size
B-2 Stealth Bomber
B-29 Superfortress
B-52 Bomber
B Movies

Have I missed any important ‘B’ designations?
Did you find an ‘B’ in each of the photos? I’ve posted the answers at Photos Containing the Letter ‘B’.

Saguaro Cactus – Slow Growing Giants

Plant Profile
Common Name: Saguaro Cactus
Scientific Name: Carnegiea gigantea
Native to: Sonoran desert – limited to southern Arizona
Growth: all growth occurs at the tip of the cactus. The rate of growth is very slow.
Under natural conditions it may take 20 years to attain one foot in height. By age 50 it could be seven feet tall. By age 100 it could be 25 feet tall. It usually starts to grow arms between 50 to 100 years of age (average 70), and it may live for 200 years or more
Blooms: first blooms between 40 and 75 (average 55) years old.
Comment: Some saguaros have dozens of arms, while others never produce arms. Growth rate, size and number of arms are likely affected by the amount of moisture.

Saguaro Cactus – 2 ft (61 cm) tall

Saguaro Cactus – low, mid and upper arms

Saguaro Cactus – more arms than you can count!

Saguaro Cactus buds and bloom

Saguaro Cactus near the Superstition Mountains, Arizona

Where is the Letter ‘A’?

I have been sorting through photos, both the paper ones in boxes and the digital ones on my computer. It has been a big task that makes me wish I had developed a file naming or sorting system that was more descriptive than, for example, ‘UK’ – which has 79 sub-folders. It will take some time to sort through over 1500 folders and move them into more suitable descriptive locations. It has been fun, though, to revisit the past and in the process I’ve stumbled upon the fact that there are Letters of the Alphabet  in many of my photos.

Can you find the shape of the Letter ‘A’ in the photos below?

Stolen Church, Windermere, British Columbia

Hint: – look at the three windows, and the front door!

Fun Facts about the Letter ‘A’:

Which common English words have the most “a’s” in them?
The 6 letter word ‘banana’ and the 8 letter word ‘caragana’ can both boast being 50% ‘a’.

If plan A doesn’t work, the alphabet has 25 more letters.
― Original Author Unknown –

Did you find an ‘A’ in each of the photos? I’ve posted the answers at Photos Containing the Letter ‘A’.