Feline Fourth of July Eve

Tired out from his play yesterday evenng with the ribbon that might have been a dangerous snake, Thistle fell asleep on his prey and slept deeply for about an hour, then roused long enough to roll over to the other side, still clasping his captured ribbon.  The first few pictures I shot, when he was so deeply asleep, the camera and its fill-flash didn't disturb him at all. But after he rolled over, one click of the camera and he was sitting up, considering the situation. And, still sitting on his prey, he then began to groom himself. A little later he had departed to seek the litterbox.

Windblown golden raintree lanterns

This morning I was astonished to find my driveway littered with little green lanterns -- seed pods that the golden raintree's falling flowers had left behind only days ago. Developing almost invisibly within  the tree's dense foliage, the little green pods had grown to their mature size in yesterday's steamy sunshine, and then sometime in the night a gusty rainstorm snapped their fragile stems and brought them down. In the fall, the pods that are still left on the tree will mature to a warm brown, resembling little lighted Chinese lanterns when backlit by the autumn sun.