2 Things Challenge: Cloud/Up

The 2 Things Challenge this week was: Cloud/Up.  There it is!

2 Things Challenge: Bubbly/Flat

The 2 Things Challenge this week was Bubbly/Flat.

Some of Maine's waters can be quite bubbly,



and some of Maine's waters can be incredibly flat.

Bugs of Summer

One of the things we have to look out for during summer in the south are these guys.  Stir up a nest of them and you will get stung.  While they are not as painful as the Cow Killer sting (see below), you might easily wind up with several stings from all the wasps on the same nest.  Best to use one of those wasp and hornet sprays from 20 feet away, and be ready to run anyway.

Cow Killer

I remember these orange and black fuzzy things from my early childhood in Macon, Georgia.  We spent a lot of time outside during the summer and often encountered them.  They are about an inch long and look like the biggest, most velvety ant you've ever seen.  If you pick one up, and this is the voice of experience, you will discover that they have a VERY painful sting, perhaps the worst I've ever experienced. 

That's all I knew about them until I went to create this post and searched them out on the internet.  They are variously called Common Eastern Velvet Ants or Red Velvet Ants, but I really like their most common name, Cow Killers, obviously based on their sting.

2 Things Challenge: French/German

The 2 Things Challenge this week was French/German.  French corks, but not from the German wine.  It's a sort of neat bottle, the German castle is on the back label and is seen through the wine.

2 Things Challenge: Art/Graffiti

The 2 Things Challenge this week was Art/Graffiti.

Art: n.  . . . 2 The creation of works that are, in form, content, and execution, esthetically pleasing and meaningful, as in music, painting, sculpture, literature, architecture, dance, etc. . . 4 The works so created.

Graffito: n. pl. ~ti 1 Any design, or scribbled motto, etc. drawn on a wall or other exposed surface.

The above was painted/restored on the side of a building next to the courthouse in Columbiana, AL several years ago to help bring back a little of the small town charm of the place.  I'm pretty sure Mr. Falkner still owns the building, although Eagle's Department Store is looonnnggg gone.  It is a "design . . . drawn on a wall or other exposed surface" so I guess it might qualify as graffiti, but I think it is definitely art.

I'm not sure what to make of the words "Lawyer" painted on some of the upstairs windows (click on the photo to get a larger view if you can't read it).  I guess they were painted facing the courthouse so that if you got all the way to the courthouse and suddenly found yourself in need of a lawyer, you could easily find one right next door.  But all the lawyers have long ago moved out to other, often newer, offices across the street or nearby, along with the bail bondsmen, etc. that come along with being a small town county seat in a populous and rapidly growing county.  But does that word count as graffiti?  I know it's not art, although lawyering itself might be considered an art by some.