Had an interesting wildlife encounter this afternoon here in Atlanta! Background: A friend and I had gone biking down to the Oakland City / West End area in southwest Atlanta, wanting to check out a big cemetery ( here it is on Google Maps ) we'd heard had a large number of Jewish graves. We have a thing for cemeteries and particularly like Jewish graves b/c they always seem to be nicer and more interesting...

I'll probably post something longer tomorrow later, but for now, I wanted to share with this wonderful community, which is has been so helpful and kind and amusing (piggy lips, Bing, etc.) over the years: Dear, sweet Abbie, who I bet a few of you remember from back when I first adopted her in '04, died tonight. She hasn't been well for the past few months and given that just recently she'd wasted...

With everything in bloom, the Atlanta Botanical Garden was a bees' paradise yesterday. A few of the non-blurry bee pics I took yesterday. I don't have a macro lens but still, you can see the furry bees. Oh, and check out this green spider thing I same in the tropical conservatory. What is it? It looked like a spider to me, only neon green!

Yesterday I spent the afternoon at the Atlanta Botanical Garden (highly recommend for Atlantans, Georgians, visitors, worth a day trip...) and shot all kinds of pictures. For the first round of sharing, a few shots I took in the "frog pond" at the "Children's Garden." It was great b/c there were kids there and I was pointing out to them where to see the frogs and showing them the huge bullfrog tadpoles...

This morning after Easter breakfast out and biking back home, a couple of friends and I stopped at a little retaining pond in the Inman Park neighborhood here in Atlanta. My eyes were tracing the shoreline when I spotted a huge bullfrog. The I spotted about ten more frogs, smaller, but green and healthy and enjoying the good weather I was so excited to see frogs, because I keep hearing about how...

A couple of springs ago a friend and I were vacationing in Montreal. We had beautiful weather and, after picking up so pastries and drinks, tramped into wooded spot in Mont Royal park ( clicky for nice interactive map ). It was quiet and isolated until we heard rustling and then, coming down the path, a raccoon. He (or she) was pretty calm until it noticed us, then made a beeline to a tree and climbed...

First and hopefully not last post. A few years back, a friend and I had lunch with some giant pigeons in St. James Park. Each of us wound up with a pigeon perched on us, begging for tuna & corn tea sandwiches. This is my friend having a "conversation" with one of them. I believe these are wood pigeons.

I live in Downtown Atlanta a block off Peachtree so of course I get to see all the parades. Went to the St. Pat's this afternoon and what do I see but... I'm sure this group was the most photographed in the whole parade :) Warming up for this Sept., I guess!

I never thought the day would come, but I have finally decided to retire my Draco default icon: . It has been my default icon since I joined lj in March 2006, and other icon loves have come and gone, but none have tempted me away from my sultry Eneada Draco . Of course, all good things come to an end, and it is hardly a surprise that an artist equally as great as Eneada has tempted me and won...

Title: Break Open the Massive Dark Rating: Adult (language, aruna, references to pelki) Word count: 30,140 Pairings: Aleeme/Azriel, Aleeme/Yazdyar (OC from "Down the Whispering Well"), Azriel/Yazdyar Disclaimer: I remain indebted to Storm Constantine's vivid and eloquent imagination for creating the beautiful, fey hara and the worlds in which they live. I'm gratefully playing in her sandbox...