Larger view of August’s thumbnails

August is the month where everyone goes on trips, probably because they are trying to squeeze the last bit of summer vacation in before the fall semester starts. This month was all about our big trip to Aruba! I have always wanted to visit Aruba, and this year said, “What the heck, I’m booking this!” Also this month was more travel for work, and lots of food-related themes.

• Some of the birds in the yard were molting this week, and one of the cardinals was completely bald. The male cardinals have black under the red head feathers, so the poor guy molting looked to be in rough shape. But the feathers eventually grew back.
• I love the “Little Free Libraries” our neighborhood has. This time I found some free intermediate-level French grammar books. Who gets excited at such things? This gal!
• We suspect Featherduster is one of Squirrel Friend’s kids. This lead to internet research on “do squirrels recognize their own kids when they grow up?” Answer is yes, the recognize the smell. Probably helps prevent inbreeding.

• Trying new food spots. Z-burger was meh, and Good Company Doughnuts was giving out free donuts at a neighborhood movie night. We tried caramel popcorn custard donuts which were good. Too good.
• Sometimes I draw random flowers I see in the neighborhood. I was pretty happy with how this illustration came out.
• August was super hot, so the squirrels lay down on their tummies to get cool. Squirrel Friend takes this a step further and lies on her tummy while eating seed.

• A crazy storm hit the DC area and lots of photos of the stormy sky over the capital. I decided to capture the sky from the pics.
• I bought new Pigma Micron pens that were on sale, but didn’t realize they were grey instead of black. Gave them a try. Not a fan. I prefer black outlines.
• 4 squirrels in the front yard under the feeder = critical mass. 5 squirrels or more causes an explosion, a flurry of chasing and jumping to the trees, and a re-ordering until peaceful 4 squirrel equilibrium is once again achieved.
• Traveling to Aruba! I immediately recognized the organ pipe cactus they have everywhere called Yatu, but it’s the same. Aruba is a desert island that looks very similar to Arizona.

• Walking along the beach we saw an iguana that immediately jumped into a tree (he did not want his picture taken) and cool needlefish jumping out of the water right by swimmers. This led to more internet research, and yes, people do get stabbed by jumping needlefish. They are flying stabby things!
• Aruba has really cool deep blue desert lizards everywhere called the Aruba whiptail lizard.
• We visited the southern point of the island where there was a natural bridge, a labyrinth, and cool barrel cacti with hats! They are called melocactus, or “Turk’s cap.” We also visited Hooiberg and climbed the 587 steps to the top to view the entire island.

• We hiked 6 miles from the place we were staying to see the Ayo Rocks and petroglyphs, and there were also a ton of mountain goats hanging out. We also saw the Natural Bridge, which is cool, but also crammed with tourists on quads, which was annoying. We walked home and by that time the sun was blazing hot.
• We visited the national park of Aruba and hiked Sero Arikok Hill and the Cunucu Arikok Boulder Village, where there were more petroglyphs. These petroglyphs were unique in that they used 2 colors, rather than just one.
• Our last day in Aruba we hiked the north end of the island and saw California lighthouse, and the Westpunt, a cool cave where the waves crash in, hit a back wall, and flow back out under pressure, creating a rainbow. We also made a friend at our rental cottage that was named Tiger Kitty. Tiger Kitty visited everyday.
• Flying home from our vacation. We saw the entire island while there!

• Immediately upon returning home, Squirrel Friend wanted her peanut. She was practically waiting on the front porch tapping her little foot.
• More neighborhood flowers.
• We have a jailbreak budgie (parakeet). A bright yellow and green bird, who took up with the Little Bird Gang and eats at our feeder.

• The worst thing about returning to work after vacation are the emails. I hate email.
• More neighborhood flowers.
• Cicadas are back out and flying around in the tops of the trees. Why potata? Cause it rimes with cicada.
• The Blue Guys are also fans of the peanuts. I have listed the range of sounds they make in the tree when I put the peanuts out.

• This was a cool phrase I heard in a podcast this week. So true!
• Toby’s Ice Cream finally opened up a location close by! We tried the mint chocolate chip and mocha chip. Both were excellent!
• The neighborhood jingle cats were out on our walk. Their real names according to their tags are Ollie and Merlin, but we have named them Jingle Cats because they wear clown collars with bells.

• The last week of August was a work trip to Huntsville. My absolute favorite sandwich shop there is Stanlieo’s Sub Villa, which has an awesome vegetarian wham. I could eat these sandwiches every day they are so good!
• Visiting the ducks and fishes at the big pond in the center of town. They have machines where you can buy food for a quarter. The ducks and fish know this and will stalk anyone by the machines. Still, it is cool to see so many people every evening feeding the ducks and fish.
• This illustration is another “what the heck?” Execution failed on this one. But I visited the Huntsville Train Depot that had a round house and lots of cool rail cars on display.
• Came home to Jailbreak budgie and Squirrel Friend sharing seed in the front yard in harmony.