I OFTEN FEEL LIKE I LIVE IN A CABINET of curiosities; you know, those Renaissance-era rooms full of oddities (a vintage image follows), many of them nature-inspired, that in time evolved into an actual piece of furniture filled with the most fascinating mix of stuff? That’s my life here these days. Curious.
OK, so maybe it isn’t exactly like the vintage image from Wikipedia. But there’s a female wasp with a “tail” several inches long drilling holes into trees to lay eggs; puffed-up frogboys fighting each afternoon at 2, rain or shine, as you saw last week; snakes galore posing on every surface; a cat who collects weasel tails and sticks his tongue out at me when I object (and oh, the endless rain…). So this week I offer up a slideshow of Margaret’s Cabinet of Curiosities.
Happy holiday weekend to all, and may your summer, and all your days, be filled with curiosities, too.
(Click the first thumbnail to start the show, then toggle form slide to slide by using the arrows alongside each caption. Enjoy!)
How cool. This is by far my favorite tour of your place to date. “Curiouser and curiouser!”
The oddities and eccentricities, even the flaws, of our homes and gardens are the most interesting to me. Unbridled beauty and order motivates and drives me, but the curiosities inspire me.
Pure enjoyment!
Loved every single photo! Jack pawing a photo of your papa?! Daily?! What’s that about?
Big green boy whispering into the ear of buddha for an hour. The sad beauty of the broken Cooper’s Hawk. Even the snakes basking on the rocks.
Wow….Beautiful shots!
One my favorite slideshows as well. Love seeing this side of your garden. A garden is so much more than just plants!
Wow, loved the slide show. This is first I heard of someone else’s pet’s paws smelling like popcorn. That’s the precise thing I love about my dog Toby’s paws – that popcorn smell. So weird and endearing.
I have to agree with Keith and Bobster, your best slide show yet.
Hmmm, are you sure that’s popcorn you’re smelling on his paws? I’m just sayin’.
Those are great photos and stories to go with the pictures. I love the yellow frog decorated with the green bits. A contrast in color. Do you think the frog on Buddha’s shoulder was searching for enlightenment?
It’s amazing when you can take a breath and observe the garden, just how much goes on out there every day. I am so glad that the frogboys search out spiritual enrichment from the Buddha — all that fighting had me a bit worried.
Thanks.
I do not know which of these are my favorites, I will revisit them again. The frog kissing Buddha is wonderful. Thank you for sharing your wacky world. This is the best slide show you have done. Bravo!!!!!
I am so glad to awaken and have my tea to the sounds of your encouragement. Thank you all. Lately (as you have noticed) I feel like breaking out of pure-horticulture mode (I think it’s all the cooped-up days of rain!) and just having some fun.
As for popcorn-feet, I think Jack has a microwave in his cabin and is zapping bags of Newman’s (salt AND butter) when I am out. That’s my explanation. His electric bill keeps going up, so that must be it.
As for the frog and the Buddha…in Sanskrit, bheka means frog, and Bhekasana is the asana or posture of the frog (my favorite one of course). I think he is doing some kind of meditation of his own, perhaps to try to counterbalance all my frogs who as you know are doing warrior poses nonstop (Virabhadrasana). I think this frog is the local ambassador of peace. :)
Thank you, thank you, thank you. That was a lovely visit.
Thank you, Margaret. Delightful!!!
Brilliant shots – every one of them…the fascinating thrum of life. Makes your gardens all the more intriguing and beautiful.
I was feeling a little down this morning, as my 8 month old retriever made her second trip to the Vet emergency center last night. (This time for ingesting grapes; the first was eating part of a sweatshirt resulting a abdominal surgery.)
The frog on Budda was a relief, and perhaps a good omen.
Thanks.
This is one of my favorite sites, gardening or otherwise. Often blown away by your thoughtful insights and great photography. Loved the cat paw!
I can’t spend too much time here as i’m supposed to be, umm, hard at work.
Welcome, Walter. That is some hungry (and fearless) retriever. We all wish him well (and of course he is the complement to all those frog poses and warrior poses…right now the down dog, but soon the up dog, here’s hoping). See you soon again, and thank you for your very kind words.
@Dawn: Get back to work, you bad girl. :)
I enjoyed your cabinet of curiosities.
I LOVE the way you were able to capture those weasel tails!
I enjoyed this so much Margaret! We always say our dogs’ paws smell like corn chips…don’t think I’ve ever noticed the cats’ paws smelling like much. Here in Oklahoma we have skinks that sun themselves on the low stone windowsills behind the shrubs, at the perfect height for the cats to sit and watch from inside. If they were allowed out, I’m sure we’d have a collection of skink tails like Jack’s weasel tails (especially since the tails break off when caught)!
Very weird. Very wonderful. Thank you, M!
I’ve always thought my dog’s paws smell like Doritos so the popcorn reference made me laugh!
I too have come across more snakes than usual this year, probably because I am spreading a lot of hay in my half acre vegetable garden in Maryland. I often find snakes like to sleep within and between the bales.
Fantastic! I should be working too, but I’m going back for a second look. It is going to be hard to top this tour.
This collection of images is a wonderful way to start my holiday weekend, thankyou for these lovely moments in time. Your blog is a daily must for me. Christine
Welcome, Andrew’s Mother. Are you *the* Andrew’s mother, as in the Michigan-based one with a special event coming up? Happy birthday, Shirley, and I am glad you said hello. You made my day. I just called *him* and he could not stop laughing that Shirley and Margaret are now conspiring online.
Welcome, Diana. I think we have some skinks, too, but I haven’t seen them except in books. (Skunks, yes, but Jack and I both avoid their tail ends.) And yes, you could say corn chips (Linley, who commented just after you, thinks Dorito’s, so apparently you think alike).
Welcome, Christine. How sweet of you to visit regularly and say such nice things. Yes, moments in time: We miss so many of them, but this last year or so I am trying to pay attention a little more closely. Happy to share.
Thank you for the curiosity tour. I keep laughing – these very nurturing images coming from a computer screen of all places…..
I can only imagine the secrets frogboy and Buddha might have shared. My family teases me over what a hard time I have deleting almost anything I snap a shot of out around our garden beds. I do love to linger and look. Now I will pretend I am taking pictures to “share with Margaret”.
A rich visual symphony and such divine nourishment for heart, mind and soul. Frog on the buddha is like a zen koan. In gratitude and awe, Namaste.
Welcome, Deborah, and namaste in return. Funny, isn’t it, how much is going on when we are usually too busy to look, or see? See you soon, and thanks.
Look at the serene look on Buddas face. Perchance “frogboy” has told him a secret. Or just a comical quip!
Margaret, I have no problem with the moody self portrait, the pictures of the frogs, Buddah, hearts, houseplant, and bowl of fruit. Even the mounted tails are fine. BUT having snakes by the house is YUCKY!!!!!!!! I am glad I live in the BURBS, not way out in the woods. I would rather put up with voles, moles, mice, chipmunks and squirrels, than things that SLITHER around. Both of my Grandmothers had country homes, and NEITHER would let snakes live CLOSE to the house. To me, a dry stacked stone wall, in the country, says SNAKE BAIT!
@Charlotte: I just cannot imagine what would motivate the frog to climb all the way up there. Curiosity? A scent? The slugs stuck to Buddha’s face? Fascinating.
@Fred: I know, I am bothered by them, too…but…
Snakes (and frogs), both of whom are very susceptible to ecological hazards of many kinds, are the sign of a healthy ecosystem and a long food chain that’s somehow miraculously intact…so I am happy they are here. Means that I am doing something right by not using chemicals and by providing habitat.
That said, I do irrationally fear the snakes as mentioned, but I am working on it. In a year like this, the fact that they eat slugs (among other things) is a blessing.
The fact that I have so many frogs and toads, and that I make water available, means I will have snakes, walls or not. Snakes (none of whom eat plants, interestingly…all snakes are carnivores) love to live where there is good food, including insects, worms, frogs, smaller snakes, salamanders, small mammals, etc. Sounds like my garden!
When I lived in NYC not long ago, in the Bronx, I had snakes, too (though no walls). They weren’t as liable to show themselves as here, where it is quieter, but they were there (I would regularly find skins and sometimes see adults).
Just one big long food chain, and I am fascinated at how it all works, slightly scary and sometimes gruesome as it is.
Beautiful! there is so much to “see” in the garden if one looks, like you have shown us with your beautiful pictures.
Thank you!
Hey! I have those wasps, too! I wasn’t quite sure what they were until you mentioned the behavior that I have witnessed for the past two summers. It’s especially cool to watch the newly emerging offspring sunning themselves prior to their maiden flights. I often wondered whether they were beneficial insects or bad boys to be destroyed, but now I see they are pretty much benign. Thanks for the treasure trove of information you always provide.
Look at your cat’s paw, at the pad, to see a bear face! Cool, huh?
Welcome, KinKStar. Hilarious! Thanks for seeing even more curiosities in my curiosities. Hope to see you soon again, and happy Fourth.
Amazing photos!
Thats why we love frogs so, because they do the best stuff!!!
Margaret…Three snake stories…My Grandmother, who lived by the canal had a climbing rose, that grew up onto a trellis. She was at it’s base one day weeding it. For some reason, while on her hands and knees, she looked up, and saw that a snake was UP on a branch (cane), OVER her head. That freaked her out, and that rose was trimmed back REALLY far… Story two..My Mother lives in the center of a city, and had a neighbor that only cut the grass in front of his house. The back yard was a JUNGLE of weed, and volunteer trees. Young boys from the neighborhood would find snakes, and bring them home, and their Mothers would tell them to get rid of them. The kids would throw them into my Mother’s neighbors yard. In that wood land setting they would have a place to live. I was outside one day, helping her replant the iris plants, As I was digging up the iris plants, I must have disturbed a bunch of young snakes, they started slithering out from, (around the iris ryzones), all along the foundation of her house…. That was it for them! Luckily for US, the man’s daughters own the house now, and have bulldozed the back yard, where there now is a PERFECT lawn, and NO snakes live any more. Story three… I know this SOCIALITE lady up in Saratoga, that has a house in Kentucky. She was at her Old Kentucky Home, one day, outdoors, looking at the house. The house had large vines that grew up on in. She happened to notice a movement, up by the second floor of the house in the vines. It was a snake. She stood there, and saw that the snake went into an air conditioner, in one of the second floor bed rooms. She went into the house, ran upstairs, turned on the air conditiones, and that was it for the snake. The next day work men came , and took ALL of the vines off of the house.
Nice show! We have kestrels here, and fortunately haven’t witnessed any calamities. Some exciting midair pigeon attacks when they’re on the nest, though. The female is fearless.
Maybe Jack’s trying to demonstrate his usefulness around the house. I had a black and white cat who had to subdue anything that seemed out of place or, failing that, draw my attention to it. I don’t think “curious” really does them justice — they’re vigilant.
I remember being about seven and finding a garter snake out by the black raspberries in my grandmother’s garden. She clearly didn’t have a fondness, but was determined that they had a place in the garden and that it be respected. I miss that garden, I miss her and finding a snake in my garden takes me right back to that moment so many years ago.
Loved your shots Marg~but I don’t want the snakes getting your frogs :>(!! I know, its part of it but doesn’t mean I must like it, ha! Going to see what you and your Sis have been up to now, later! Maggie2day :)
Welcome, Margaret Rothauge. Nice to see you here. I know, but the food chain is the foundation of all life, so I have to try not to object to whom eats what here. Hard to watch, but I am getting more philosophical as I age. See you soon again.
What a fun mosaic of photos. The frog caught my attention and I’m glad I clicked to see more. I’m always on the lookout for photographic inspiration so this was a nice browse.
Enjoy the day.
Just puttering around your website looking for winter aconite and cats. I had to comment b/c my sister and I used to swear that our childhood dog’s feet smelled like popcorn and my mom said we were crazy. I must show her this!
Welcome, Sarahsuemagoo. They do smell like popcorn (dogs’ even more than cats’ paws I think). They do! Hilarious, right? Nice to “meet” you and do stop in again soon.