here comes the rain

pileated woodpecker

Night~blooming Cirrus

Oh, the weather has finally changed. Gone are the oppresive 90 degree days, with their wretched humidity. In their place today, we have cool breezes, and a wonderful mix of sunshine( for the soccer game), and rain,( for immediatley after). I reaaly do love summer, but cannot tolerate the humidity that makes me feel like I'm wearing a blanket on my chest.

These woodpeckers were hanging out at our house for a couple days last week. As I was pulling in the driveway, they flew up in front of me, so I grabbed the camera that I luckily happened to have in the car, and managed to get a couple of shots before they got too far away.

The flower is one of about eight or so from my night-blooming Cirrus, which is truly the world's ugliest plant. Being as it's actually a climbing, vining type of tropical plant, its really not suprising that its so sprawly. It just grows all over the place, no symmetry or anything, but once a year, usually late August, early September, the flowers show up. They are fabulous. They really do bloom at night, and each one only opens once, and then that's it. But, they smell amazing. If you are lucky, and get out of bed early enough, you can see them in the morning, before they wilt, but by then the scent has gone. The funny thing is, I've had this plant for about 20 years, and it never did much of anything. It's not a typical houseplant that one sees in New England, but one year I decided to put it outside for the summer. That did it, so now every May, out it goes...

I'm back at school these days, actually taking Nursing now, instead of hoping I get in. A bit different than last year, certainly more work. ( which is funny, considering its only 6 credits, last year I was doing 10) Our first exam is in 2 weeks(!), I'm determined to get an "A".As my Anatomy proffessor said last year, " Study what you don't know". Makes sense to me. But first its a nap, as this awful cold I have found somewhere along the way kept me up all of last night. Me no likey. Even the dog is sneezing, maybe its in the air. Cheers!