a meeting of two blogs

Phew! I finally finished adding my other blog's posts to Nature ID. I lost a couple pics and comments along the way (despite blogger/blogspot's assurances that all would remain intact), but I'm fine with that. I'm still working on fixing my labels and embedded links. Here are a few of my recently moved old posts and labels:

sentimental about seasons
sunrises
sunsets
artsy photos
crappy photos
travel version of Nature ID
yakety yak

This little hobby of mine has turned into a piece of work. My self-imposed rules for Nature ID were becoming limiting, hence the reason why I decided to combine my blogs. Compared to some of the bloggers out there, I'm relatively new to the scene with only 16 months of blogging under my belt. I'm still learning the etiquette of the blog-o-sphere.

Quite honestly, I never thought anyone would read my blather, let alone comment, but, someone, namely Biobabbler, felt I was worth mentioning and awarded me a blog badge, which I now proudly display in my sidebar. Again, thank you, bb! While I'm not up for taking the time to adhere to the award's guidelines (I feel it's a new generation of the old-fashioned chain letter without the bad joojoo), I will make the following comments:

a) I don't particularly like writing or taking photographs. Nature blogging seems contrary to this dislike, but I also like learning new things and I love the community of nature aficionados that blogging has exposed me to.

b) I regularly link to bloggers and posts that I find "good," without fancy-schmancy awards. However, maybe I should let them know more often as I'm fairly shy about commenting on other people's blogs.

c) Here's a short list (considering I regularly check in on over 350 blogs, this is short!) of my favorite bloggers, nature-related or not, and in no particular order:

Blue Jay Barrens
Posie Gets Cozy
Wanderin' Weeta
The Zen of Motherhood
Meanwhile in a valley in the Coast Ranges...
Indian flowers and herbs
A Yankee-in-Belgrade
John Wall's Natural California
The Max Files
The Skeptical Moth
Xenogere
Bread on the Water
The Speckled Wood Calendar
Phyte Club
From Russia with Blog

wordless Wednesday

To interrupt my regularly scheduled blog...

I'm in the process of combining my two public blogs. My concept for Kt's Nature ID companion didn't pan out. While I like sharing some personal information, I'm uneasy about sharing too much for internet consumption. Do you know what I mean? Now I'm going to relegate my companion blog for testing and playing around with blogger and coding features. Plus, I'm finding it's too time consuming to keep up with multiple blogs, Twitter, and flickr. Until I get organized, here's a little tidbit to show a new label, shout out to awesome blogs and sites:

I had the opportunity to watch Karate Kid recently since the mid-80's. Ah, I miss the simpler times and seemingly innocent life experiences. Thanks to the power of the internet, I found this on YouTube: Funny or Die's Wax On, F*ck Off with Ralph Macchio.

LMAO! This is my generation in a nutshell. Again, what was I saying about too much information? Seems every celebrity in the news these days has behaved in some heinous fashion, and why it makes "news" is beyond me. All I can do is shake my head and appreciate those who use their fame for good, like Angelina Jolie's work with UNHCR. I still remember when her tattoos and marriage blood vials with Billy Bob shocked the public.

"Haha. You're so sweet, baby. Why don't you come back when you turn 18, okay?"

So, I've been deliberating over actually mentioning the following nature bloggers. They like curse words, but in some ways it helps me laugh and not take things too seriously:

Fuck You, Penguin
Bourbon, Bastards and Birds
The Drunkbirder... Birding From The Hip Flask.
The Drinking Bird (Nate doesn't regularly curse, but his blog name fits the theme)

And, one last shout out to an ol' friend Friday Jones who inked parts of Angelina.

fiery skipper ~ 09/11/10 ~ Monterey

female fiery skipper on lantana
Hylephila phyleus on Lantana sp.
Verbenaceae

Finally, there's some color to my blog! We had so many days of drippy, wet fog here for more than a month that my mood has been in the damper, as evidenced by my infrequent and grumpy posts as of late. There are several activities going about town this weekend. After our respective morning runs and power walks, we pumped up the air in our bicycle tires and tootled around to check out the Triathlon at Lover's Point, Cherry's Jubilee in Cannery Row, and the Festa Italia in Monterey's Custom House Plaza. Sigh, it was a good day.

I guess I should comment about the skipper and flower. I'm 90% sure of the lepidopteran ID. Like crescent butterflies there is much variation within skipper species, not to mention sexual dimorphism. As for the lantana, while we have a couple native species according to Calflora, this one was in a container and so it goes under my * garden flowers label. It's apparently a very popular garden plant to attract butterflies and the like.

Hope you're having a good weekend, too.