Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see it.
Note the size of my shoe at the bottom.
Here’s a video of one that showed up at a get-together in the interior.
Here’s a video of one we encountered on a walk.
Good-sized lizard
Category: Nature
General observations, generally during dog walks
Lines in the sand
The few hundred acres of scrub bushes and pine trees we where we walk dogs has little in the way of stunning beauty, and sometimes glaring examples of human ugliness, but it does not have thousands of people like the beach.
And it almost always has fascinating little discoveries, like these lines in the sand.
They must have been caused by wind and the grass, but how exactly they managed to make those outward curves was not at all clear.
Back to the beach
I haven’t been to the beach with Benji frequently since we started walking with Syd and his five dogs in the wastelands (literally) of Villa Argentina norte. Variety of reasons: conversations with Syd tend to be considerably more interesting than conversations with Benji; Benji usually gets more sustained running given all the other dogs including rabbit scout Jordy; and I don’t have to throw a stick into the waves 20 or 30 times in succession.
But from time to time I am reminded of the age-honored saying that location is everything.
As in, we encounter no cows on the beach.
This was Benji yesterday, halfway through our walk. It may be just the exaggerated olfactory experience, but Syd and both thought Benji stayed closer to us for the rest of the walk than he ever has before. Excruciatingly close. Being able to see and not smell this, I must say he achieved a remarkable extent of coverage.
After two soap bath yesterday evening, and 20-30 plunges into the waves to retrieve a stick, it was only after he dried off that our living room didn’t smell like a barn.
So, what’s new on the beach?
I have posted before about the boardwalks that were poorly designed and maintenance-free. Now in Las Toscas (we live on the border) appears one built with posts that extend vertically to a metal handrail. Progress!
Meanwhile, at the end of Circunvalacion, the boardwalk solution (B) has become unusable, while problem it addressed (A) has grown 2-3 times larger.
Seen from the other side: the boardwalk (B) is completely buried, while beyond (A) the dunes are completely blown away because of traffic through the gap.
Coming back from the beach, I note a number of wine cartons at the overflowing recycling bin — all with corks carefully replaced. Which means that someone at the recycling center will have to remove them, one by one, so the glass can be recycled.
Over the past couple months, trucks have dumped dirt at the park we pass through on the way back. Red arrows mark the vertical poles that are all that remains of the goal posts. The person who cuts the grass has carefully mowed around the mound of dirt (and rubble).
Is it to fix the field? Ya veremos — we’ll see.
Las hormigas locas
The crazy ants. As soon as a foreign “invader” stick is added, they’re all over it – immediately!
The bug
Walking dogs yesterday, we got into a discussion of bugs, as in garden variety. Syd and Gundy had a bunch of green spiders, and he wondered what they were, and whether they would hurt his tomato plants. He also mentioned a long green beetle with long antennae with balls on them. They were all over the blackberries, but apparently not harming anything.
Returning 45 minutes later, within a few meters of his front gate, returning, one landed on his arm, as if to say, “Welcome home!”
Kind of cute. I guess.
Expo Cannabis 2017
Uruguay “sort of” legalized marijuana at the end of 2013. Being a place where free-market is generally considered a bad thing, and government somehow a creator of wealth, the experiment has proceeded with predictable ham-fisted bureaucracy. The government controls all production, licenses growers and buyers, limits the amount they can buy in a month, etc. At present there are maybe 16 pharmacies (all in Montevideo AFAIK) where one can buy marijuana, and they have had their bank accounts closed because of the ham-fisted and arrogant United States federal government. This echoes the contradiction between state and federal laws in the U.S.: marijuana is legal in California and Nevada, but if you transport it across the border you’re committing a federal offense.
However, there is good news: Hemp Planting to Triple in Uruguay. And the Expo Cannabis has gone from rinky-dink three years ago (according to Syd) to quite impressive.
As you might guess, most of the crowd was younger than yours truly.
The first display inside the door showed a variety of products including hemp oil, and dog care products that Syd really wanted to buy. Not for sale? It took me an embarrassingly long time to realize the display was for the Museo del Cannabis Montevideo.
Nearby, a display of plants.
We quickly noticed a number of booths had hydraulic presses. We were a bit mystified, then watched a demonstration of extracting cannabis oil with heat and pressure — far safer than using toxic solvents, which then have to be boiled off.
Many booths were selling seeds and growing apparatus, and the government was there with a booth where you could register with the authorities. Several booths centered on medicine and healing, as did a number of the presentations/panel discussions.
I started asking questions about seeds when I saw “AUTO“ in some of their names (autofloreciente). Fascinating stuff.
My only regret is that I didn’t ask more questions, because in the car on the way back, discussing what we had seen, we had plenty more.
Sightings on the dog walk
A dramatic sky.
The sculptural remains of a logged and burned eucalyptus tree.
A blade of grass growing from under the bark of a pine stump.
Boo!
Unplanted flowers
If you look closely at the second, you might spot a volunteer tomato plant in the box, which I originally built for worms. Turns out they thrive just as well, with no attention, in the ”compost” barrel which never gets hot enough to actually compost anything.
Around the garden
Posting about the squash plants yesterday inspired me to survey the area in which I plan to plant them.
Surprise!
They’re already growing there! And the more you look, the more you see.
Here’s a nearby clump in the shade of one of the little orange trees.
Nearby, under the pine tree, a pigeon egg met its demise in yesterday’s very strong winds. Note the epiphyte as well.
