Went to an uncle's funeral this morning and afterwards went out to visit with my cousins at one's son's house. (my second cousin? First cousin twice-removed? I always get those mixed up) As I was getting out of my pickup, I saw some movement on the ground and it was this young "horned lizard".
(click any pic for larger view; last photo is super-high resolution)
They're getting very rare; when I was a kid, they were all over, especially around red ant beds. Since people will not tolerate ants and poison their mounds, now the horny toads have had their main supply of food cut off.
It's a shame, because while they look fiercesome, they're really docile creatures. You have to roughly handle one to get them to even open their toothless mouths at you. Horny toads can also eject or "spit" blood from their eyes (or thereabouts) and I've seen it exactly twice in all the hundreds of horny toads I've handled and seen handled. If you lie them on their backs and gently rub their tummy, they'll fall asleep.
So will I, but that's prob. TMI, huh?
A FEW MORE PICTURES
July 24, 2007
Horny Toad
July 23, 2007
Museum Events
From the Plainview Daily Herald online concerning the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum, the best museum in the Panhandle and is also considered to be one of the finest in the State of Texas.
-snip first part of article-
While we’re feeling movie star-ish, driving the BMW and all that glamour, we can drive (in the old PT Cruiser) to the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum’s Palo Duro Western Film Festival on Aug. 3-5 in Canyon. We movie buffs will have the pleasure of viewing old westerns on the big screen as well as meeting and listening to noted western writer and screenwriter Max Evans and Texas film historian Don Graham, who will present two lively lectures.
“Hud,” the 1963 movie filmed in Claude starring Paul Newman, will be one of the feature films at the Varsity Theatre in Canyon. “The Good Old Boys” starring Tommy Lee Jones, “The Rounders” based on a Max Evans novel, a selection of John Wayne movies, as well as Gene Autry and Roy Rogers shorts will be screened in the museum throughout the weekend.
From 6:30-7:30 p.m. Friday, Evans and Graham will entertain an audience with lively conversation about Evans’ career as it took him literally from “Hi-Lo to Hollywood” and into a 25-year friendship with director Sam Peckinpah.
The weekend will begin at 6:30 p.m. with “A Conversation with Max Evans” at the Museum followed by a viewing of “The Rounders,” released in 1965. Admission is free for the evening.
Saturday events — $5 for adults and $3 for children — start at noon with a showing of “Hud” (1963) in Varsity Theater.
At 2:30 p.m., a lecture by film historian Don Graham entitled “Lone Star Cinema: A Century of Texas in the Movies,” will be at the museum. Back to the Varsity at 4 p.m to see “Ride Lonesome” (1959). “The Good Old Boys” (1995) will show at 7 p.m. at the museum.
“The Last Picture Show” will be shown at 1 p.m Sunday at the Varsity. Admission again is $5 for adults, $3 for children.
Throughout the weekend, Gene Autry, Roy Rogers and John Wayne films will be shown free with museum admission in PPHM’s Llano Theater.
The Varsity Theater is located across the street and one block west of the museum at 2302 Fourth Avenue. For more information, call 806-651-2244.
Sink Your Teeth Into This Huge Flower Post
A few weeks back I was getting some gasoline at the station right at the entrance to Wal-Mart and noticed some lovely flowers in the yard of of the dentist's office (Dr. Black, I presume) just across the street.
They were closed that day, or closed early, so I didn't get permission to tiptoe through the tulips (or even prowl thru the petunias, much less blunder thru the begonias, peruse the periwinkles....I could go on with this, y'know. On and on and on and on...)
It didn't stop me, though. I'm not afraid of the Carnation Cops.
I AM afraid of the dentist, but that's a whole 'nuther story.
I like this one; if you click the photo and view the largest size, you can see the green "bottle" fly on the flower. Those'll bite the pee-waddin' outta you.
The flies, not the flowers.
I like this one, not that I think it's "good" photography, but like the two flower friends, side-by-side.
This one would be me, a loner. I'm a bit more drab, however.
A particular favorite of mine, the triplets.
I haven't a clue what the names of these things are. If anyone will post their names, I will come back and edit.
I also like this one, the first flower amongst all the neighboring buds.
They're all lovely; I only wish I had taken better photos.
I'm TRYIN' to get better, honest.
I couldn't wait to get home and download these and many more to my computer, then I went in there and flossed.
