The Magic Bucket doesn’t differentiate

The other night I checked out the waste can outside the door to Walkabout Studios, otherwise known as the Magic Bucket of Variety (the can, not the studios,) to find that it had snagged yet another capture. This one was a small-ish wolf spider (Genus Lycosidae) and I noticed as I tipped it out that it looked a little odd. A closer inspection told me why, and once again I got the camera in hand.


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Magic bucket of variety

I could have saved this one for the weekly topic, but I’m counting on getting something better before then, plus this is just too odd a story not to post immediately.

So, let me paint this picture. Walkabout Studios is a basement office half below grade, meaning my windows look out right at ground level and the outside door is sunk down a few steps. Right outside this door is a small wastebasket, read more

And a crayfish, briefly

National Wildlife Day, which was yesterday, was actually a pretty nice day for February, nicer than February actually deserves because it’s in winter and also spelled stupidly. And since I had a photo outing scheduled, I succeeded in getting plenty of photos of wildlife, if by ‘wildlife’ you mean ‘birds,’ with one exception. A moderate variety of birds too, at least read more

Neuse stuff


One of the exploring trips we took while my brother was here was the Falls of the Neuse area, where Falls Lake empties its excess into the head of the Neuse River, which then tries to pretend it really has no interest in the ocean by taking the most circuitous route possible, passing through Virginia and Wisconsin to get there. Okay, it’s not that bad, but seriously, read more