Rainbow Tilly

dog linoleum
My dog likes crayons. Really, what could go wrong?

“We have ensured that our products are safe since 1903, when we first began offering crayons. All Crayola and Silly Putty products have been evaluated by an independent toxicologist and found to contain no known toxic substances in sufficient quantities to be harmful to the human body, even if ingested or inhaled.”–Crayola

Odocoileus virginianus

white tailed deer
Tilly had her first close encounter with a wild ungulate by the Rivanna river last week. Tilly didn’t give chase. Something I didn’t know about deer? “Though almost entirely herbivorous, white-tailed deer have been known to opportunistically feed on nesting songbirds, field mice, and birds trapped in mist nets, if the need arises.”–Wikipedia

Abscission

sycamore leaf frost
A plant will abscise a part either to discard a member that is no longer necessary, such as a leaf during autumn, or a flower following fertilisation, or for the purposes of reproduction. Most deciduous plants drop their leaves by abscission before winter, whereas evergreen plants continuously abscise their leaves. Another form of abscission is fruit drop, when a plant abscises fruit while still immature, in order to conserve resources needed to bring the remaining fruit to maturity. If a leaf is damaged, a plant may also abscise it to conserve water or photosynthetic efficiency, depending on the ‘costs’ to the plant as a whole. The abscission layer is a greenish-grayish color.–Wikipedia