Backyard

I recently moved to a new apartment, which looks out on trees and bushes (and the backyards of the apartments behind mine, but mostly trees and things) instead of a wall. Since moving in I've really enjoyed watching the various animals that live out there.

This cardinal has gone bald because of molting or mites. I feel bad for it, but at the same time it looks like a Skeksis which makes it very, very creepy.

A much cuter visitor is the rabbit that seems to live in the bushes behind my apartment. I see it fairly often and the kitties are big fans.

This is the one that surprised me the most. I looked out of my bedroom window one morning and saw this bat climbing up a tree. It settled in this position and napped for at least a couple of hours.

Mammoth Cave

A year ago Clay and I took a camping trip to Mammoth Cave to celebrate the end of the semester.

We walked to the Sand Cave, which can't actually be accessed except for by a walkway with signs telling Floyd Collins's story. At the end of the walkway the entrance to the Sand Cave can be seen from above. There was some graffiti carved into the handrails, like this which says, "RIP Floyd."

The Sand Cave

We drove over to the Mammoth Cave Baptist Church to see Floyd's grave. (And listened to the Cast Recording in the car on the way over)

We had some time to kill before our cave tour so we took the River Styx Spring Trail down to where the River Styx empties into the Green River. On the way down to the spring we saw several deer, including a family of four that pretty much ignored us while they ate next to the trail.

It was overcast and drizzly so the light was terrible and only a couple of my pictures came out.

This was right after it had flooded in the area and the line where the water had been was over our heads.

We also took the Violet City Lantern Tour of the cave, which was awesome, but taking pictures in the cave is very difficult because flash photography is not allowed and the light is very, very low.