Every year it’s the same story. Mama Raccoons bring the young’uns around for a peanut feast.

It’s bag worm time again. Every year we get this little buggers on our hedges and they wreak havoc. Time to call the exterminator. Here’s one of them up close and personal.

Here’s a bunch of them destroying a section of hedge.

As if the bag worms weren’t trouble enough, we’re still recovering from the damage caused by our recent visit from the cicadas. The cicadas lay their eggs in the thin branches of trees, and then everything from that point on to the end of the branch dies. Trees all over this area have lost virtually all new growth and many have clumps of brown leaves hanging from branches. The more established trees will survive, but the very young trees may not. The new neighborhood near us has dozens of new trees planted and most of them suffered substantial damage. This first tree is in my front yard. Normally at this time of year you can’t see through it. Clearly it has suffered this year.

These are other trees around my yard.You can see the brown leaf clumps everywhere.

Our 5lb coffee can is nearly filled.

Getting better with controlling noise in high ISO shots. This was taken at 6400 ISO.

Ups and Downs of the Week

Red Sox – Last week I was speculating that the Sox might return to their winning ways. Well they have in a big way. They now have a one game lead in the AL East.

Space Shuttle – For 30 years this system has brought astronauts into orbit and back. There have been problems to be sure, but hundreds of flights have enabled countless experiments and supply missions to space stations. And now it’s all coming to an end. Atlantis took off this morning. When it returns, the space shuttle program will be no more. I hope NASA finds a new way into space very soon.

Caught Scotchie in some reflected light. Now there’s a “don’t mess with me” look.

More low light stuff. Ollie shot at ISO 6400, 85mm f1.8 @ 1/100sec.

Ups and Downs of the Week

Red Sox – They lost 1st place to the Yankees and have sunk to 2-1/2 games back. But despite injuries and poor performances from some key players, they’re still showing some signs of life. Once interleague play is over and they get the majority of the starters healthy, they might return to their winning ways.

Poor Timing – Our refrigerator died Thursday night, so we had to grab a floor model from Home Depot in order to have a fridge over the long weekend. We could have saved a bundle by using the discount I get at work from Whirlpool, but that would have meant no fridge for a week or more. Not an option.

New Refrigerator – On the Upside, we now have a very nice 22 cu. ft. LG fridge. Lots of space and very quiet. We need a trip to Trader Joe’s over in Indy to buy stuff to fill it up.

Long Weekend – Happy Fourth of July everyone.