So much fun down by the river

Thanks again to Nicole and Gaelen who invited the whole neighborhood to their farm on July 3 for a great day of food, music, the Farm Olympics, and general fun by the river. (If you don't find this picture slightly amusing, you might want t click on it to see it bigger.)

Cedar Waxwing impersonates presidential candidate

Evan Raskin took this spectacular photo at Mt. Mitchell last week and sent it with the caption listed above. Click on it to see it bigger for the full effect.

Feed me! Feed me!

I came across this hungry scene while picking raspberries.

Just another view of the Blacks

The devil's nostrils

If you are young and translucent and you shine a flashlight on the back of your mouth in just the right way, you can have scary glowing nostrils! Who knew?

I've never actually seen one before

This is a gray tree frog that was, oddly, hanging out on a railing at the Penland Gallery. There are two species of gray tree frog, which are hard to tell apart. One of them, the eastern gray tree frog (hyla versicolor), can change colors for camouflage. They have sticky disks on their toes and can climb up glass. Although they are cold blooded, they produce glycerol in the winter which allows them to withstand low temperatures without their cells freezing. These are not the spring peepers--that's a different species of tree frog.

David and Kim got married

Still liking each other after 19 years, David Zietlow and Kim Kuchon figured "why not?", and so they got their friends and family together and made impassioned professions of love out in public and now they are married. This idyllic scene was followed by music, dancing, eating, and drinking (with exceptional coleslaw!).