Unimpressed octopus(?) lawn sculpture

The eye/face expression seems... unimpressed. As if to say, "really? this is all you want me to do? sit on your lawn?"

This post's theme word is quaggy (adj), "marshy; flabby; spongy." Amongst invertebrates, "quaggy" is more complimentary than we vertebrates usually consider it.

Tidepool textures

Some very cool textures were on display on the crusted, wind-blasted, smoothed and craggy rocks that the tide revealed when it receded. This is the idyllic, vivacious north Atlantic in its summer finery, vacationing along the coast just like everyone else.

Wisps of seaweed and moss grabbing a foothold in a shallow pool.

The presence of water is clearly indicated in the change of surface texture: bare rock into lush, soft greenery.

Thick, short, stubby seaweed, photographed through maybe 10cm of water, looked like a soft bathmat. I did not try to wipe my feet.

The entire fanciful landscape is contained in a nearly flat plane --- below, solid rock; above, empty air. Everything interesting happens in a narrow band, as usual.

The texture is fantastic.

The water's surface, a passive prison gate, confines the biological below its strict limits.

This post's theme word is sclerotic, "hardened, stony in texture" (but this is an obscure 3rd meaning). The receding tide of emotions exposed her sclerotic heart, weathered by many past losses.

Chopstick technique

I am intrigued by the chopstick technique presented below.

How does a single tentacle control both chopsticks? It looks like it's a hunting tentacle, so maybe the hunting tentacles have extra abilities that the others lack. The configuration as represented looks instable. A small amount of squirming on the human's part would suffice to loosen from the ominous --- dare I say, eldrich? --- grasp of the squid's tentacles.

But a merry eldrich grasp it is!


This post's theme word is micturate, "to make or eliminate urine." The hapless human micturated in terror, but the ocean absorbed both his screams and that small embarrassment.

"Sunrising jellyfish"

The 2011 National Geographic Photography Contest winners are posted. Although it only got honorable mention, Angel Fitor's "Sunrising Jellyfish" is my favorite.
It is very aesthetically pleasing, the colors and edge of the sun blending into the top of the jellyfish. Plus, for some reason, it makes me hungry.


This post's theme word is nankeen, "a yellow or buff color," or "a sturdy yellow or buff cotton fabric," or "(nankeens) Trousers made of this cloth," or "a Chinese porcelain having blue designs on a white background."

Octohedron octopus

On my desk this afternoon, I found:
The note reads (in an unsteady hand),

Greetings from under the sea! I am not too good at writing I heard you are kind to the tentacled. I was teased for being green. I disguised myself as an octahedron to slip past the mathematicians, take me home? [wiggly octopus self-portrait]

So of course I grabbed that green tentacle and shook it in a firm handshake, welcoming it to come home to my (increasingly silly) collection of tentacled things. When everted, the purple octohedron becomes the ink in a green octopus.
Many thanks to A., who was ultimately responsible for the creation and delivery of this octopus!


This post's theme word is imbosk, "to hide," usually in a wood. Environmental limitations make octopus imbosking impractical.