Motley Monday - January 5, 2026

 Monday Stuff

A hummingbird in the Pluot tree.

A few weeks ago I almost donated this California pottery lazy Susan (without wooden base that spins) I found in the Goodwill Bins.   However, I like drip glaze and decided to keep it a bit longer.  I found use for it on New Year's Eve!   I keep forgetting to look for a base at St. Vincent de Paul, I think I've seen them there.  The bases often get separated from the pottery pieces.  It's not often I see the complete pottery parts, usually just a few of the side dishes are left.

The late-season foliar extension of the blue-eyed grass did grow into a plant!  

The drainage at the park must not be sufficient for the amount of rain we've had lately.  Several ditches have been dug to divert water to the drainage area.  "No, Mickey, you can't go take a closer look!"

The first graffiti at the remodeled park.  Quite mild as graffiti goes!

Remember the mushrooms from last week, the ones that are said to be hard to see before they mature?  I think I found one on Saturday. I wouldn't have noticed it if it weren't near the patch of mature ones.

Saturday had a few hours of beautiful weather, which I'm glad Mickey and I took advantage of to go to the park.  That's Roxy Ann Peak.  The new dog park is on the right, with the black fence.

No photos, but an exciting story from Friday morning.  When I opened the back door to let Mickey out for the first time that day there was a raccoon!  I didn't see it at first, but Mickey took off like a shot, and the sounds were sure not from a cat! By the time I got out there the raccoon had gotten under a bush by the fence, and was unable to climb the fence.  Mickey was lunging in, there was growling and barking, and snarling, and hissing... it was quite a racket for 7:00am!  I expected the neighbors to come out and ask what was going on (and really, since their cat is outside a lot they should have).  I could only get hold of an empty plastic watering can to throw at Mickey to distract him!  I was unwise to reach over and get it back, the raccoon could have gotten me.  It managed to climb the fence, and instead of dropping to the other side, it stayed on top, teetering, and slipping as Mickey jumped up to grab it.  I threw the watering can again!  It managed to make it to the end of the fence and disappeared.  It took ages for Mickey to calm down, although he did stop barking. He is already a reactive dog, so this put him way over his threshold!  The watering can is still in the thorny flowering quince.  I've been going out first, alone, and making noise before I let Mickey out. Raccoons can really injure a dog.  Cute, but don't be fooled, not cuddly.  Plus, they carry rabies, and there were several confirmed case in my county in 2024 in wild animals. 

I've been fooling around with inverting color in Microsoft Paint.  No one told me it was so easy (I did hear it didn't used to be as easy in Paint as now).  Here's the above park photo inverted.  

I've spent way too much time on this over the weekend!  I'll show more on Wednesday.