Salt water flour topography

Just where is Bermuda anyway? Definitely not where I thought! Maybe the triangle has drifted since I was making gloopy salt flour maps and watching filmstrips in the dozey chalk dust classroom afternoons. 

Those filmstrips could put anyone to sleep. My son and his dear wife of three years will relax and snooze on the beach, or else go sightseeing in shorts. 

Once upon a time changes bubbled up so slowly as to be captured in the World Book Encyclopedia sold door-to-door, or even the Golden Home and High School Encyclopedia redeemed at the Safeway grocery store on Cotner Boulevard with savings stamps. You could loll around on the living room wall-to-wall carpet browsing the encyclopedia and listening to Herb Alpert, totally up-to-date, and wondering about whipped cream.

© 2013 Nancy L. Ruder

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

The word of the day is Bombyliidae. Say it three times fast!  It means bee fly, an interesting group of flies that have fuzzy bodies resembling bees and feed on nectar as adults. Bee fly larva are parasitic on solitary bee larva.

Odd bee or not bee

Yesterday I didn't even know bee flies existed. I still don't know if I have correctly identified the insect I watched yesterday at Oak Point Nature Preserve. Of course last week I'd never heard of picture wing flies. Until a couple months ago I didn't know about solitary bees.

The bees below look more bee-ish to my untrained eye. They were enjoying the ironweed in bloom on July twenty-first, very near where I stared at the odd bee/not bee/bee fly on Indian Blanket yesterday.

And now I'd better get busy.


© 2013 Nancy L. Ruder

Ampersands with a prize in every box

Introducing a new label to this blog, "Frosted Mini-Wheats," but not because I would ever eat them for breakfast.  I just seem to get started on mini-blog thoughts that should be posted before they get all soggy and the milk turns gray.  

Ampersands are in the news because of a new novel by David Gilbert. If I were to post the title with its ampersand symbol, it would show up all goofy when you try to read my post. The same thing happens when I try to read posts by other bloggers that have typed the fiendish symbol. And so I do not.

According to the Washington Post, July 23, 2013, Amazon can't search for Gilbert's book.  I can't wait to hear the cataloger at the library. There are likely to be some expletives deleted over 

That &%$! book title.

© 2013 Nancy L. Ruder