A Catherine Noon

Noony!

And this was also on my bus route the other morning, on the other end at the terminus for the route.

The little spiky things are pigeon deterrents.

Remember, no post tomorrow for Sunday; we resume on Monday with the Letter O!

My theme here at my Knoontime Knitting craft blog is Letterforms In Nature and the Built Environment.

Thank you for joining me for the A-Z Blog Challenge. If you’re blogging in the challenge, please leave me a link so I can come visit you too. If you have a moment, please check out these other fine blogs:

The theme on my main blog, Explore the Worlds of A. Catherine Noon, is The A To Z of the Zoo. Join me as I explore Brookfield Zoo and finds animals, birds, and insects from A to Z.

The theme at Noon & Wilder is The A To Z of Chicago. Since I live here in the city and we have our Chicagoland Shifters based here, I figured I’d share a window into the city, Noon & Wilder style.

The Nice Girls Writing Naughty have a new home, and we’re blogging in the challenge again this year. Throughout the month you’ll be hearing from each of the Nice Girls, and during the RT Booklovers Convention from April 12^th to the 17^th, you’ll be getting live convention reports. Join the conversation!

The Writer Zen Garden’s brand new website is up and running, and we’re bringing you posts from me, Noony; my partner in crime, Rachel Wilder (the Wilder half of Noon & Wilder); the talented Darla M. Sands – a blogger in her own right, see below; as well as Grace Kahlo, Evey Brown, and author Tina Holland. Check it out!

My friends who are participating in the challenge (and if you’re not on this list, tell me and I’ll add you!):

Darla M. Sands, Awakening Dreams and Conquering Nightmares with a Pen
Kari Trenten, The Cauldron of Eternal Inspiration

Write on, and Happy Blogging!

Housekeeping, Under Constructions, Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes! ~la la la~

We updated the theme on my websites to fix some problems, but in the process it overwrote the widgets (the stuff I have on the right sidebar, over there >>>) and did some other odd things, so we’re fixifying it. AND, I loaded a new books page but did something goofy, which Dayna fixed yesterday; I just haven’t had time to finish setting it all up.

Point being, stay tuned, more coming! 🙂 (This is the challenge of having a passionate love affair with writing but the reality of having a day job.) ~crazy chicken dance~

Mexican Grey Wolves Are Sneaky

Brookfield Zoo has a spectacular habitat for the Mexican Grey Wolves called Regenstein Wolf Woods. I learned something while reading about them on the Zoo’s site: “All the types of wolves you’ve heard of, like timber, gray, Arctic, and Mexican, belong to the same species: the gray wolf.”

The habitat is large and affords the wolves much privacy; the downside is they’re not always available for photographing. We lucked out on one of our visits, though.

Nap time (in the very center of the image).

Again, from the Zoo: “Mexican gray wolves were considered extinct in the wild until their reintroduction into Arizona and New Mexico in 1998.” Brookfield successfully reintroduced the female they had to a wildlife park in New Mexico, and last year celebrated the birth of a litter of wolf cubs. They even held a naming contest on their website!

They won’t, however, let one pet them. ~pout~

This one is, admittedly, difficult to spot. It’s the center knoll in their enclosure. If you see the smaller tree in the foreground, travel up along its trunk to where the branches first start on the right of the trunk. You’ll see the wolf centered in the branches.

Wolves have a strict hierarchical structure. Whomever is at the highest point on the knoll is the alpha.

Another one arrives on the knoll for a nap.

The other wolves show deference to the alpha pair by lowering their heads and not making direct eye contact.

It’s fascinating to watch their body language as they move around.

At first, it seems this one is hiding. Then one realizes that it is, in fact, capable of seeing pretty much everything in the field of view – me and my husband photographing them by the fence, the front of their enclosure, the pedestrian path beyond that gate, all the way to the bald eagle.

And when one looks back, they’re nearly invisible. Camouflage. ~shiver~

Check back tomorrow for the North American River Otter. Or… not? Stay tuned to find out!

Thank you for joining me for the A-Z Blog Challenge. If you’re blogging in the challenge, please leave me a link so I can come visit you too. If you have a moment, please check out these other fine blogs:

My theme on my Knoontime Knitting craft blog is Letterforms In Nature and the Built Environment. I’ll be exploring my daily round, looking for shapes in the natural world and build environment.

The theme at Noon & Wilder is The A To Z of Chicago. Since I live here in the city and we have our Chicagoland Shifters based here, I figured I’d share a window into the city, Noon & Wilder style.

The Nice Girls Writing Naughty have a new home, and we’re blogging in the challenge again this year. Throughout the month you’ll be hearing from each of the Nice Girls, and during the RT Booklovers Convention from April 12^th to the 17^th, you’ll be getting live convention reports. Join the conversation!

The Writer Zen Garden’s brand new website is up and running, and we’re bringing you posts from me, Noony; my partner in crime, Rachel Wilder (the Wilder half of Noon & Wilder); the talented Darla M. Sands – a blogger in her own right, see below; as well as Grace Kahlo, Evey Brown, and author Tina Holland. Check it out!

My friends who are participating in the challenge (and if you’re not on this list, tell me and I’ll add you!):

Darla M. Sands, Awakening Dreams and Conquering Nightmares with a Pen
Kari Trenten, The Cauldron of Eternal Inspiration

Write on, and Happy Blogging!

Paint the Fence!

“Paint the fence!” “Wax on!” “Wax off!”

Thank you Karate Kid.

And today’s letter is… M! Ironically, this is the fence by which I stand every time I wait for the northbound bus near my house. M’s all over the place!

My theme here at my Knoontime Knitting craft blog is Letterforms In Nature and the Built Environment.

Thank you for joining me for the A-Z Blog Challenge. If you’re blogging in the challenge, please leave me a link so I can come visit you too. If you have a moment, please check out these other fine blogs:

The theme on my main blog, Explore the Worlds of A. Catherine Noon, is The A To Z of the Zoo. Join me as I explore Brookfield Zoo and finds animals, birds, and insects from A to Z.

The theme at Noon & Wilder is The A To Z of Chicago. Since I live here in the city and we have our Chicagoland Shifters based here, I figured I’d share a window into the city, Noon & Wilder style.

The Nice Girls Writing Naughty have a new home, and we’re blogging in the challenge again this year. Throughout the month you’ll be hearing from each of the Nice Girls, and during the RT Booklovers Convention from April 12^th to the 17^th, you’ll be getting live convention reports. Join the conversation!

The Writer Zen Garden’s brand new website is up and running, and we’re bringing you posts from me, Noony; my partner in crime, Rachel Wilder (the Wilder half of Noon & Wilder); the talented Darla M. Sands – a blogger in her own right, see below; as well as Grace Kahlo, Evey Brown, and author Tina Holland. Check it out!

My friends who are participating in the challenge (and if you’re not on this list, tell me and I’ll add you!):

Darla M. Sands, Awakening Dreams and Conquering Nightmares with a Pen
Kari Trenten, The Cauldron of Eternal Inspiration

Write on, and Happy Blogging!

The King of the Jungle

This ferocious young man is the pride of the zoo, the king of beasts, the lion of doom.

Well, I added the, “of doom,” part.

His wife, on the other hand, isn’t impressed. Snooze city.

He’s actually not all that young, and he’s been at the zoo for a while. They are seriously threatened in the wild and Brookfield Zoo participates in an international Species Survival Plan to try and conserve these majestic creatures. They are African lions, mostly nocturnal, though we did get to hear him roar one evening long about closing time.

Lions spend about 20 hours a day asleep. Kind of like house cats, really. In fact, in the book Tribe of Tiger: Cats and Their Culture, by Elizabeth Marshall Thomas, biologists liken house cats’ behavior most closely with that of lions.

Just makes you want to pet her, doesn’t she?

Um. Maybe… not?

Tomorrow, we get to visit the Mexican Grey Wolves.

Thank you for joining me for the A-Z Blog Challenge. If you’re blogging in the challenge, please leave me a link so I can come visit you too. If you have a moment, please check out these other fine blogs:

My theme on my Knoontime Knitting craft blog is Letterforms In Nature and the Built Environment. I’ll be exploring my daily round, looking for shapes in the natural world and build environment.

The theme at Noon & Wilder is The A To Z of Chicago. Since I live here in the city and we have our Chicagoland Shifters based here, I figured I’d share a window into the city, Noon & Wilder style.

The Nice Girls Writing Naughty have a new home, and we’re blogging in the challenge again this year. Throughout the month you’ll be hearing from each of the Nice Girls, and during the RT Booklovers Convention from April 12^th to the 17^th, you’ll be getting live convention reports. Join the conversation!

The Writer Zen Garden’s brand new website is up and running, and we’re bringing you posts from me, Noony; my partner in crime, Rachel Wilder (the Wilder half of Noon & Wilder); the talented Darla M. Sands – a blogger in her own right, see below; as well as Grace Kahlo, Evey Brown, and author Tina Holland. Check it out!

My friends who are participating in the challenge (and if you’re not on this list, tell me and I’ll add you!):

Darla M. Sands, Awakening Dreams and Conquering Nightmares with a Pen
Kari Trenten, The Cauldron of Eternal Inspiration

Write on, and Happy Blogging!

Too Literal

Tilt your head to the left when you look at it, and you will see… The Letter L!

This is fun. I wandered out today and got some pictures of the built environment for M, N, and P. Stay tuned!

My theme here at my Knoontime Knitting craft blog is Letterforms In Nature and the Built Environment.

Thank you for joining me for the A-Z Blog Challenge. If you’re blogging in the challenge, please leave me a link so I can come visit you too. If you have a moment, please check out these other fine blogs:

The theme on my main blog, Explore the Worlds of A. Catherine Noon, is The A To Z of the Zoo. Join me as I explore Brookfield Zoo and finds animals, birds, and insects from A to Z.

The theme at Noon & Wilder is The A To Z of Chicago. Since I live here in the city and we have our Chicagoland Shifters based here, I figured I’d share a window into the city, Noon & Wilder style.

The Nice Girls Writing Naughty have a new home, and we’re blogging in the challenge again this year. Throughout the month you’ll be hearing from each of the Nice Girls, and during the RT Booklovers Convention from April 12^th to the 17^th, you’ll be getting live convention reports. Join the conversation!

The Writer Zen Garden’s brand new website is up and running, and we’re bringing you posts from me, Noony; my partner in crime, Rachel Wilder (the Wilder half of Noon & Wilder); the talented Darla M. Sands – a blogger in her own right, see below; as well as Grace Kahlo, Evey Brown, and author Tina Holland. Check it out!

My friends who are participating in the challenge (and if you’re not on this list, tell me and I’ll add you!):

Darla M. Sands, Awakening Dreams and Conquering Nightmares with a Pen
Kari Trenten, The Cauldron of Eternal Inspiration

Write on, and Happy Blogging!

Konlabos. With a K.

(Any Rundown [the movie with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson] out there?)

“K” was a tricky one. I took three shots in total, but this is my favorite of them and therefore my image for today’s letter.

My theme here at my Knoontime Knitting craft blog is Letterforms In Nature and the Built Environment.

Thank you for joining me for the A-Z Blog Challenge. If you’re blogging in the challenge, please leave me a link so I can come visit you too. If you have a moment, please check out these other fine blogs:

The theme on my main blog, Explore the Worlds of A. Catherine Noon, is The A To Z of the Zoo. Join me as I explore Brookfield Zoo and finds animals, birds, and insects from A to Z.

The theme at Noon & Wilder is The A To Z of Chicago. Since I live here in the city and we have our Chicagoland Shifters based here, I figured I’d share a window into the city, Noon & Wilder style.

The Nice Girls Writing Naughty have a new home, and we’re blogging in the challenge again this year. Throughout the month you’ll be hearing from each of the Nice Girls, and during the RT Booklovers Convention from April 12^th to the 17^th, you’ll be getting live convention reports. Join the conversation!

The Writer Zen Garden’s brand new website is up and running, and we’re bringing you posts from me, Noony; my partner in crime, Rachel Wilder (the Wilder half of Noon & Wilder); the talented Darla M. Sands – a blogger in her own right, see below; as well as Grace Kahlo, Evey Brown, and author Tina Holland. Check it out!

My friends who are participating in the challenge (and if you’re not on this list, tell me and I’ll add you!):

Darla M. Sands, Awakening Dreams and Conquering Nightmares with a Pen
Kari Trenten, The Cauldron of Eternal Inspiration

Write on, and Happy Blogging!

Lookit Them Feet!

Kangaroos fascinate me. They don’t live on this continent, so I’ve never encountered one outside of a zoo. They’re marsupials, which is rare here too – though not on their own continent of Australia, where there are many species of marsupials (the distinguishing feature of which is carrying the young in a pouch). Interestingly, I read that during the Mesozoic they were more common on this continent than “placentals” (i.e. animals who deliver their young in a placenta). (1)

Their powerful hind feet, on which they stand, appear to have fewer toes than I assumed. I’m not sure why I thought they’d have toes like us, but I did; from what I could gather it looks like one large claw and at least one, maybe two smaller ones. But looking down at him like this, you can’t really see the power of the haunches.

These two ‘roos show you the sheer power of the butt. But in all seriousness, the mass seems mostly concentrated in the hindquarters; they clearly can pack a helluva wallop.

Which leads me to my story. My friend in Australia and I were talking by chat one day, and she commented that there was a ‘roo in the front yard. “Cool!” I said. “We can’t leave the house.” Pause. “Why not?” I’m thinking, at this point, what’s the big deal? We had deer in our yard growing up and you just walk outside, the deer run away, no problem. “She delivered young.” “Cool!” I said again. “You don’t understand. She’ll attack us if we go out the front door.” The light bulb went on. Never mess with a mother and young. It’s one of the first rules of hiking in the wild. Stay away from rattlesnakes and don’t bother bears. Especially mammas. Any mamma.

But not leave the house?

“What about work?” She seemed resigned to it. “We can get out the back, as long as we’re careful. It’ll take animal control a couple days to come get her.” Meanwhile, they had a mamma with a baby in their front yard, near enough to touch.

Cool!

Tomorrow, it’s the King of the Jungle – Lions!

References

(1) “Marsupial Mammals,” Dave Smith: New photos; modification of Thylacinus graphic; application of UCMP style sheet; addition of footer includes; minor text editing 10/10/05; from University of California, Berkeley, website retrieved from the following link, 04/13/2016.

Thank you for joining me for the A-Z Blog Challenge. If you’re blogging in the challenge, please leave me a link so I can come visit you too. If you have a moment, please check out these other fine blogs:

My theme on my Knoontime Knitting craft blog is Letterforms In Nature and the Built Environment. I’ll be exploring my daily round, looking for shapes in the natural world and build environment.

The theme at Noon & Wilder is The A To Z of Chicago. Since I live here in the city and we have our Chicagoland Shifters based here, I figured I’d share a window into the city, Noon & Wilder style.

The Nice Girls Writing Naughty have a new home, and we’re blogging in the challenge again this year. Throughout the month you’ll be hearing from each of the Nice Girls, and during the RT Booklovers Convention from April 12^th to the 17^th, you’ll be getting live convention reports. Join the conversation!

The Writer Zen Garden’s brand new website is up and running, and we’re bringing you posts from me, Noony; my partner in crime, Rachel Wilder (the Wilder half of Noon & Wilder); the talented Darla M. Sands – a blogger in her own right, see below; as well as Grace Kahlo, Evey Brown, and author Tina Holland. Check it out!

My friends who are participating in the challenge (and if you’re not on this list, tell me and I’ll add you!):

Darla M. Sands, Awakening Dreams and Conquering Nightmares with a Pen
Kari Trenten, The Cauldron of Eternal Inspiration

Write on, and Happy Blogging!

Jump Out At You

I’ve noticed, in doing this project, that I’ve started seeing letterforms everywhere – the wheel wells of cars, branches of trees, even the intersections of power lines.

This one reminds me of a day I spent at the park near my house during the summer. I reclined against a tree to meditate with my eyes closed, (you know, it’s called napping), and something made me open them. A racoon stood not ten feet from me, and we stared at each other in shock. He trundled away and climbed up a tree.

By the time I realized what happened, he was thirty feet away and mostly hidden. Some photographer I was!

In my defense, racoons are, basically, bears. Getting in a tangle with one because I’m napping in his backyard would ruin my day, y’know? o.O…

We have some awesome stuff going on this week for you because of the RT Booklovers Convention going on in Las Vegas. If you’re not familiar, RT is the largest romance genre event of the year, with over a thousand readers and several hundred authors in attendance for a week of workshops, parties, networking, and fun.

Not going to Las Vegas this year? Don’t worry, Dear Reader. I will be posting at The Romance Studio for the Staying Home Party, and I’ll have live convention reports – Tina Holland, Live at the Rio!, behind-the-scenes, interviews, and reminiscences from yours truly about RT’s past. And just for you, Dear Reader, it will be five posts a day for six days – PLUS the challenge posts. So there’s plenty for you to read and do this week! Rest your eyeballs, ‘cuz you’re gonna need ’em!

Don’t miss it. Truck on over now – plus, you can enter to win a bunch of awesome prizes, including a $100 USD Amazon store card.

Thank you for joining me for the A-Z Blog Challenge. If you’re blogging in the challenge, please leave me a link so I can come visit you too. If you have a moment, please check out these other fine blogs:

The theme on my main blog, Explore the Worlds of A. Catherine Noon, is The A To Z of the Zoo. Join me as I explore Brookfield Zoo and finds animals, birds, and insects from A to Z.

The theme at Noon & Wilder is The A To Z of Chicago. Since I live here in the city and we have our Chicagoland Shifters based here, I figured I’d share a window into the city, Noon & Wilder style.

The Nice Girls Writing Naughty have a new home, and we’re blogging in the challenge again this year. Throughout the month you’ll be hearing from each of the Nice Girls, and during the RT Booklovers Convention from April 12^th to the 17^th, you’ll be getting live convention reports. Join the conversation!

The Writer Zen Garden’s brand new website is up and running, and we’re bringing you posts from me, Noony; my partner in crime, Rachel Wilder (the Wilder half of Noon & Wilder); the talented Darla M. Sands – a blogger in her own right, see below; as well asGrace Kahlo, Evey Brown, and author Tina Holland. Check it out!

My friends who are participating in the challenge (and if you’re not on this list, tell me and I’ll add you!):

Darla M. Sands, Awakening Dreams and Conquering Nightmares with a Pen
Kari Trenten, The Cauldron of Eternal Inspiration

Write on, and Happy Blogging!

The Bird That Wasn’t: Jambu Fruit Dove – and a Party #giveaway

The Jambu Fruit Dove, admittedly, is a lovely fellow. He looks like a flower – one of those star lilies with the overpoweringly lovely fragrance.

He is, however, shy.

The more literal-minded among you will note this is not, in fact, a Jambu Fruit Dove. I thought is was, as I stalked the wooly mammoth of a bird through the edges of his habitat.

I did, successfully, identify the aloe vera plant, about which I’m rather smug. A birder I am not. A planter, apparently, I am.

Or something like that.

These two appeared to be gossiping. Perhaps it was about how poor a naturalist I was? But I adore nature. Birds are not, perhaps, nature? After all, the dreaded terror birds struck fear into the hearts of our forebears, at least according to the movie 10,000 BC. Granted, that movie is fiction.

I do want to point out, however, there is still no Jambu Fruit Dove.

Are you a Jambu Fruit dove?

I’m reminded of Robin Williams in Good Morning Vietnam. “We walk up to people and ask them, ‘Are you the enemy?’ and if they say, ‘Yes,’ we shoot them.”

Upon reflection, perhaps that’s why Mister Jambu Fruit Dove was nicht?

Okay, fine. These gentlemen are the Gambel’s Quail. Which is a Q, which I don’t need until next Wednesday – not tomorrow, but a week from.

J is a fail at the zoo for this visit. The Jambu were hiding.

I’m sure there’s a parable here about something Zen, and maybe a tree or a river, but I need coffee and I do, as it happens, have plenty of lovely K pics for tomorrow.

But tomorrow is another day, my friends, and you’ll just have to wait. (There. I fit in another “J” for you.)

And, if you’re still with me thus far, we have some awesome stuff going on this week for you because of the RT Booklovers Convention going on in Las Vegas. If you’re not familiar, RT is the largest romance genre event of the year, with over a thousand readers and several hundred authors in attendance for a week of workshops, parties, networking, and fun.

Not going to Las Vegas this year? Don’t worry, Dear Reader. I will be posting at The Romance Studio for the Staying Home Party, and I’ll have live convention reports – Tina Holland, Live at the Rio!, behind-the-scenes, interviews, and reminiscences from yours truly about RT’s past. And just for you, Dear Reader, it will be five posts a day for six days – PLUS the challenge posts. So there’s plenty for you to read and do this week! Rest your eyeballs, ‘cuz you’re gonna need ’em!

Don’t miss it. Truck on over now – plus, you can enter to win a bunch of awesome prizes, including a $100 USD Amazon store card.

Thank you for joining me for the A-Z Blog Challenge. If you’re blogging in the challenge, please leave me a link so I can come visit you too. If you have a moment, please check out these other fine blogs:

My theme on my Knoontime Knitting craft blog is Letterforms In Nature and the Built Environment. I’ll be exploring my daily round, looking for shapes in the natural world and build environment.

The theme at Noon & Wilder is The A To Z of Chicago. Since I live here in the city and we have our Chicagoland Shifters based here, I figured I’d share a window into the city, Noon & Wilder style.

The Nice Girls Writing Naughty have a new home, and we’re blogging in the challenge again this year. Throughout the month you’ll be hearing from each of the Nice Girls, and during the RT Booklovers Convention from April 12th to the 17th, you’ll be getting live convention reports. Join the conversation!

The Writer Zen Garden’s brand new website is up and running, and we’re bringing you posts from me, Noony; my partner in crime, Rachel Wilder (the Wilder half of Noon & Wilder); the talented Darla M. Sands – a blogger in her own right, see below; as well asGrace Kahlo, Evey Brown, and author Tina Holland. Check it out!

My friends who are participating in the challenge (and if you’re not on this list, tell me and I’ll add you!):

Darla M. Sands, Awakening Dreams and Conquering Nightmares with a Pen
Kari Trenten, The Cauldron of Eternal Inspiration

Write on, and Happy Blogging!