A busy day today, and one last surprise at the end of the day that makes tomorrow a busy day as well.

On the way home from Bible study tonight I hit a small animal causing damage to the front and bottom of my car. I was coming up over the top of a bridge and there it was running straight at me. No time or room to swerve room since I was on the bridge.

Tomorrow morning will busy figuring out insurance, repair, etc..  and seeing if I can make it into work. Not looking forward to it. At least I got the insurance claim started tonight. Car troubles seem to come in spurts. See Friday Frustrations, Saturday Evening Walk and Old Blue Monday for other recent car adventures.

So, tonight you get a very simple blog post with a few nature pictures.

First we have a nice little dandelion ready to disperse seeds to the wind. The name dandelion comes from a French word dent de lion. The word means lions tooth and refers to the leaves. Of course the common dandelion (Taraxacum) has many other names including puff-ball, blowball, Irish daisy and cankerwort. I am sure that you can think of more. Leave them in the comments below.

Next is a nice little yellow blossom. I am sure that many of you will recognize this as a blossom on a tomato plant. Can you imagine the nice juicy tomato that it will become.

Finally we have what I think is a Spear Thistle (Cirsium vulgare).  This could also be a California Thistle (Cirsium californicum). There are many different species of thistles and many look similar. Maybe a botanist will see this and give us a more precise identification. What I do like about this picture is the little bees feeding on the thistle.

Hopefully tomorrow will go smoothly and I will be off to work in a rental car before the day is too far gone. I have a lot of things to get done at the office tomorrow before I take a planned day off on Friday.

Steven