I look up at the sky and to the clouds and think, wow those things are really tall and high up there. The camera makes these look like they are just above the trees. I was driving along yesterday a few hours before a heavy storm and though it was a sunny day there were clouds that were in columns that must have gone up for miles. Miles.... just think of it. Miles to just to get up to them and then miles to the top. How different these are from the wispy clouds we see so frequently, especially in the morning in the valleys. Spacial relationships really are a challenge when you let yourself get lost in the depths of things like clouds. They look so small a solid until you are up in the middle of them. Then they are clearly vapor but go on and on and on.





My daisy patch is expanding and that is good. If I can get them to eventually cover part of the year then that will be even less mowing to do. In our yard we are experiencing a sort of infestation of ticks. Walking out to the far end of the yard to take this picture and I returned to find a deer tick crawling up my leg. My son is up to 16 ticks this season. We have so much wildlife trooping through the wood and into the yard so there are many potential carriers and that isn't even considering deer.

So what to do? The idea of blasting the yard with poison and killing every living thing, seems a little extreme. Plus I like to walk barefoot. There are some organic options but they are very tedious and have to be reapplied. Seems more like fighting the tide. And then there is the chicken option which some friends have used. They seem to have their yard under control, but that seem like too much work and then there are the animals that would love to get a hold of the chickens.

So I guess I'll start by cutting the grass a little shorter and use the organic stuff around the edges and see how that goes. One of the good things about a harsh winter is that many of these bugs get weeded out. But things have been relatively mild for the past few years.

Ah, this challenges of living near the woods. I'll still take it over the city.