Holidays: The Eye of the Dragon

Komodo dragons are wonderful beasts and I simply love their majesty. I know they’re plain weird, using both venom and biological warfare to hunt. You got to give it to an animal whose hunting strategy is : bite once and wait for a week until it drops dead.

©Giliell, all rights reserved

©Giliell, all rights reserved

©Giliell, all rights reserved

©Giliell, all rights reserved

And as a bonus: self portrait in the eye of a dragon, a close up from the picture above. That’s how I want to go, trying to take a picture of a dragon and then being unexpectedly eaten.

©Giliell, all rights reserved

Holiday: Cute overload

Sorry for basically disappearing on you. Apparently I caught a “summer flu”, a viral infection that is similar in symptoms though less severe than a real flu. If anything it has reinforced my determination to get every single flu shot every single year. It completely knocked me out, I’ve been in bed since Saturday and today is the first day I’m up for more than half an hour apart from doctor’s visit and school run.

Here’s some cuteness to make up for it:

©Giliell, all rights reserved

©Giliell, all rights reserved

Cute? Right? That’s just to ease you into it because nothing says cute like a baby mongoose:

©Giliell, all rights reserved

©Giliell, all rights reserved

Friday Feathers: Hornbill and Friends

As promised, there will be pictures. Lots, though I noticed that I took less pictures this year because after all, I went there before. Let’s start with some from the zoo. A great southern hornbill. I also add some others as to not spam my “own” blog with many different posts.

©Giliell, all rights reserved

©Giliell, all rights reserved

©Giliell, all rights reserved
Probably a breeding female. Or a napping one…

Now for some frogs…

©Giliell, all rights reserved

©Giliell, all rights reserved There was a lot of plants around acting as some sort of natural filter

©Giliell, all rights reserved

And finally a water lily. There be fairies.

©Giliell, all rights reserved Off focus but too pretty

©Giliell, all rights reserved No, absolutely no post production on this one.

Jack’s Walk

Early morning at the park ©voyager, all rights reserved

Tomorrow I’m going to be having my last 6 teeth removed and 2 dental implants inserted. It was supposed to be sleep surgery, but the Dr. won’t take the risk because of the combination of drugs that I take so I’ll be awake, which sucks. I will get nitrous oxide and I have some marijuana oil for before and after which the Dr. says will be fine by him. I’ve been told to expect a few bad days post-op which could mean a bad week or two factoring in my fibro. Why am I telling you all of this?

Well, Jack and I have decided to take a virtual vacation. Starting tomorrow until August 19/19 Jack’s Walk won’t be here. You’ll just have to guess what the Bubba and I are up to. Tree Tuesday will also be absent for the next 2 weeks, but Fungi Friday will be here and so will the daily books. Next week the books will feature a few of Caine’s favourite artists and I know you won’t want to miss that. Giliell will also be back from holiday next week and I know she has lots to share from her vacation in Spain. Those are all good reasons to keep tuning us in.

Jack and old, toothless me will see you soon.

 

Jack’s Walk

Milkweed ©voyager, all rights reserved

Poor Jack didn’t get out for a walk this morning. I turned off the A/C last night and opened the windows and by this morning the house was filled with humidity. I get this weird ataxia that puts me into slow motion and makes it feel like I’m moving through jello and high humidity is one of the things that can set it off. It took me a while just to get out of bed and I couldn’t make my hands work and I was feeling very frustrated. The jello wouldn’t lift even after the A/C cleared the house. I managed to get to pool therapy at noon and that really helped a lot, but by the time I got home it was too hot for Jack to go out. I promised to take him for a nice stroll around the neighbourhood after supper, but he isn’t bothered by the missing morning outing. At least that’s what he says – maybe he’s just being kind.

 

 

Jack’s Walk

Going in circles ©voyager, all rights reserved

The weather’s turned hot and humid again so Jack and I are back to early morning walks and let’s just say that early morning is not my best time. Jack doesn’t care about the time, though, so I decided the river was a good choice because Jack can frolic and I can sit and drink coffee and watch him. That’s what I call win – win. The water was a bit muddy, but Jack came out smelling fine(ish) and the towels were wet, but not dirty so he didn’t even need a hosing down at home. That’s a win – win – win. Not bad for dishwasher of a day.

Jack’s Walk

Queen Anne’s Lace, ©voyager, all rights reserved

Well, call me sleeping beauty because that’s about all I’ve done in the past 24 hours. Yesterday after my injections I lay down. That was around 7 pm and I more or less slept until 2 o’clock this afternoon. That’s 19 hours of sleep, one right after another. I must have gotten up to pee once or twice because I didn’t pee the bed, but I don’t remember. I don’t think I’ve ever slept so long, not even as a slothful teenager.

Since I’ve woken up I’ve managed to take Jack for a walk and… nap. It seems that 19 hours was not quite enough sleep because every time I sit down I conk out. I’m pretty sure if I go to bed now I’ll sleep until morning so that’s exactly what I’m going to do. Night, night.

Jack’s Walk

Stick out your tongue and say aahh ©voyager, all rights reserved

Jack and I were out pretty early this morning because I had an out-of-town doctors appointment that took up most of the rest of my day. About every 3 or 4 weeks I get lidocaine injections along my spine that help control pain and muscle spasms related to scoliosis and fibromyalgia. It’s a bad day in a good way. The injections are exhausting and wipe me out, but that’s partly because I can feel the relief of my muscles relaxing. It’s a bit like breathing out after holding your breath for a really long time. I’m a bit dizzy, a bit light-headed and a bit groggy. That’s with a successful set of injections. Not every set is as good as every other, but I’ve been with this Dr. for a few years now and she’s gotten pretty good at figuring out the twists and dips of my spine. So, now I’m going to toddle off to bed and by morning I hope to have my cheerful back.

Jack’s Walk

Lean on me ©voyager, all rights reserved

Jack and I are enjoying being outside this week. The heat wave has finally broken and so has the high humidity, making it ever so much easier to get out for walks. We don’t have to get up before dawn or go out late at night and even the mid-afternoon is an acceptable time to be outside if there’s a bit of shade around. We’ve also been able to turn the air-conditioning off at home which is the biggest plus of all. I’d much rather have my windows open and tuned to the sounds of my neighbourhood than listen to the droning hum of the A/C unit.