Enormous Insects

I know that Portland has been hit by some crazy 100F+ weather this summer, but generally the climate is cool and not particularly humid - the water tends to remain is just the liquid phase year round - which is not conducive to breeding large or venemous insects. Hallelujah. Pittsburgh is not exactly a fetid rainforest itself, but remember that we're not to many miles north of the Mason Dixon line. Mom and I were terrified by the mouse sized spider we saw hanging out in southern Indiana, and I continue to be shocked when I meet insects larger than an inch. This seems to be the time of year when they start to be around.

The shadow of this two inch grasshopper was projected and enlarged onto the sheer curtain in our front hall.

A half dozen husks of these inch long cicadas (right?) are clustered on the trunk of our maple tree.

Every couple of years I spot a preying mantis or too, and hopefully I'll have a camera handy.

Dogapalooza

Today I thought I would share a nice trip we had last weekend to the dog park at North Park. But first, I'll experiment with embedding a google map of the location:


View North Park Dog Park in a larger map

Did it work? By my calculations the off leash area is a little under 3.5 acres, an enclosed area of grass, mud, and other unmentionable substances that used to be a paddock for captive deer.

Otto's favorite activity at the park has varied from racing and wrestling, to ball chasing and butt sniffing, but he always likes to start off with a circuit of the perimeter fence, which is basically like Facebook for dogs. Buttbook. P-mail.

He was feeling pretty mellow that day and didn't want to do much chasing. Instead he found a shady spot in a stand of trees and made a friend. This husky was not the one that went on to take a bath in the huge mud puddle at the bottom of the hill.

We wandered over to the other stand of trees where there was a huge dog party, and a couple of other dogs were making friends as well. And who can blame him? That big red hound (not Otto, but with some resemblance) was a beautiful beast with his short shiny hair, taut physique, and friendly floppy face.

Some people didn't think that was appropriate and thought the chihuahua should make friends with a dog that was a little more...vertically compatible. The big red hound (Clifford?) didn't seem to have taken offense.

Otto started feeling the love and thought he'd jump on the table and get in on the action. But then a hawk came screaming over and the chihuahua had to leave.

Enormous moth

It's hard to tell from this blurry photo, but this enormous moth had a wingspan of about 6". Ashley thought it was a bat. I jumped out of the car and grabbed a picture with my phone.