#but i've watched a lot snake discovery which has helped a lot

[fauville]

thinking abt dima introducing nate to his snakes. that is all

[weabooweedwitch]

There a YouTube channel called snake discovery. That really interesting and lots of helpful information.

Yes, I've actually been watching a ton of their videos, along with Wicken's Wicked Reptiles, Clint's Reptiles, Chris Hardwick, and Reptilian Garden 🥰 Snake Discovery actually has their educational center here in Minnesota and it's actually only like, 30 minutes away from where I live, and I think they live in MN too? But yeah I love their channel (even though I'm. Hgggfh. Kind of against snake racks, which they use, but they're at least a little better than people who just put in mulch and a water dish and nothing else. I understand that it's the most space efficient but... they're in a dark box all day... it's so sad...)

The reptile expo i really wanted to buy my first snake at is on Sunday, and when I look online, apparently the next reptile expo in Minnesota isnt until November, so part of me wonders if I'll see Emily and Ed while I'm there :) but they just went to an expo in Eau Claire a few weeks ago so they might not.

Still, I'm looking forward to seeing all kinds of cool animals and cool people! I'll take lots of pictures on my phone to show you guys the cool stuff 😍

[mielikki-austin]

11262021

Happy day after Thanksgiving! Yesterday was a lovely day with friends and lots of food; we did a pot luck where we ordered all the meat from a local place because people mostly care about the sides, and everyone brought their favorite sides. I'm the cranberry girl so I did a traditional cranberry relish with orange zest, and also a cranberry dip that Bro gave me that has sour cream and onions and sugar, and it's an alarming Pepto-Bismol pink, but it's very tasty.  We ate, watched TV and napped as we digested, then played board games.  Today I'm working a short shift but thankfully calls are light.  How about some pics? 1.  Mylo and the tiny Christmas tree - Grandma had one of these little ceramic Christmas trees with the little lights in it and I always wanted one.  A couple of years ago Bro got me an unfired ceramic one that I finally took to a ceramic studio and painted.  It gives me all sorts of nostalgia and I love it dearly.  This is a picture that I ran through a filter called 'oil painting' so it looks all classy.

2.  Ceres, maybe? - So last week there was an almost-total lunar eclipse and I tried to take pictures of it.  Phone cameras have not gotten to the point where they can take any kind of photo of the Moon that isn't super washed out yet, but they can capture faint things that are not visible to the eye, and I remembered that the asteroid Ceres was supposed to be in the area so I pulled out some charts, and am almost certain that I managed to get a picture of our biggest asteroid which was thought to be a planet until other asteroids were discovered in the same region.  I have been waiting for a clear night to verify that it is in fact Ceres, but haven't had much luck there.  Even still...

3.  Uranus, maybe? - The same charts I got from an astronomy magazine that helped me find Ceres also mentioned that our 7th planet Uranus is visible (to binoculars or a telescope) nearby, so I tried to get a picture of that last night.  Like many nights in the last few days it's been partly cloudy and hazy, so the best pic I was able to get was this one, and the planet's position is right at the edge of where the clouds are- but this is supposed to be considerably brighter than Ceres (though still unable to be seen with the naked eye unless you're in an absolutely lightless area with perfectly clear skies) and I'm pretty sure that I caught it.  Neither of these are particularly impressive pictures by themselves, but considering that I'm taking pictures of things with my little cell phone that Galileo never dreamed of seeing with the best telescope he had available is astonishing to me.  It's supposed to clear up on Sunday night so I'm hoping I'll be able to confirm these 'discoveries' then.

4.  Mushrooms and peppers - here's my chili pequin plant, though I think some folks are saying it might be a close relative, the chiltepin.  I've collected some of the peppers but left a lot for the birds, and nearby we've had some mushrooms pop up that I think I have identified as jack-o'-lantern mushrooms.  They grow on decaying stumps, which makes sense because these are in the area where a couple of our old live oaks died some years ago during a severe drought.  They're not edible, sadly, (well, as the old saying goes, every mushroom is edible at least once, but eating these will involve a lot of barfing, so no thanks) but I'm told they are bio-luminescent- which is to say, they glow in the dark. I haven't verified this because it's only the underside, and that part of our yard is lit up with a very bright street light so I don't think I could see it anyway.  But hey, it's there!

5.  Rough earth snake - latest in this week's nature-heavy photo set is this tiny snake I found in a compost bin.  Since he was in danger of being squashed by compost getting dumped on him, I grabbed him up and relocated him.  It looks like he's had a rough life, someone seems to have bitten off his tail, and I briefly considered keeping him but I don't really have the means to so I put him under a tarp in the side yard where hopefully he'll find a place to hibernate for the winter.

More next week!  My love to you both!