We live at Lizard Central. Little reptiles are everywhere, rustling in the grass or leaves, scrambling up the trees, or scooting across bare areas. We have big, dark fence lizards; quick little side-blotch utas; long, slithery, beautifully-patterned whiptails, including one endangered kind that sports an orange throat; at least one huge alligator lizard; and, just underground, the strange legless lizards. And there are at least two horned lizards between the house and the two gardens.
One of the little horny guys I started seeing last spring is large-ish and dark brown. I call him “Skittles” for his sideways-shuffle style of running. Later I started seeing a smaller, sandy-colored version. Due to lack of imagination, I call him “Little Skittles,” and that is who I am holding, above. He got caught in a box in my garden and couldn’t get out. Now there are a couple of rocks in the box so nobody gets stuck there.
My apologies for dropping out this week. Our internet service was out for most of a couple of days, especially the hours I usually devote to writing and researching for posts and reading other blogs. So while I catch up, here are a few songs that I managed to get out of my e-mailbox in between outages.
These lyrics illustrate how lame pickup lines don’t work. Funny as hell for us ladies! Take notes, men.
We Are the Arm: You Standing from Togetherness, release date May 5, 2009
Website | Buy
This is a beautiful little slow ride of a tune by this new San Francisco band.
Trainwreck Riders: Chug Along from The Perch, release date May 12, 2009
MySpace | Buy
L.A.’s Death to Anders know what’s on every Californian’s mind.
Death to Anders: Handshakes and Earthquakes (new and unreleased)
MySpace | Buy
Even if this band have a name almost as unpronounceable as The The, this is a cute little song.
We The They: Pastures
MySpace | Buy at iTunes
The Veils’ latest album was released last month, so I have had this single for a while and I like it a lot. I need to make time to hunt down the rest.
The Veils: The Letter from Sun Gangs (2009)
MySpace | Buy
- alt-gramma (370)
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- Uncle T (7)
Wait, legless lizards? How is it possible that I grew up there, and have never known that we had those? Also, baby horny toads are the cutest things ever - until they squirt blood out of their eye sockets.
May 8th, 2009 at 7:25 pm
Yes, there are legless lizards! Herpetologists look at other physical characteristics besides legs distinguish them from snakes. They are about 8 inches long and not even as big around as a pencil. They live in layers of leaf mold or just under the ground underneath trees. We found the first ones when we were digging a hole for a fence post.
This little horny toad didn’t spit, thank goodness, but after his photo op, he got really excited and wiggly as I walked him back to his “territory.” So cute!
May 9th, 2009 at 7:46 am
“cute” and “lizard” are not two words i’d ever put together!
i am really squeamish, i’m not ashamed to admit it. i would be very uncomfortable with all those little lizards running around my yard . . .
May 9th, 2009 at 12:43 pm
Awww, they are cute! The animals that make me squeamish are the ones that have too many legs. More than four is too many! No legs, however, is quite all right.
May 9th, 2009 at 7:01 pm
Awww, baby dinosaur!
May 23rd, 2009 at 5:26 pm