iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

gray, spelled g r a y @grayherndon.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

"Eddies," said Ford, "in the space-time continuum." "Ah," nodded Arthur, "is he. Is he." ... (We’re watching the 12 Monkeys tv series and we quote this at least twice per episode on average.)

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gray, spelled g r a y @grayherndon.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

Got a complaint from the city today (very kindly written, by email rather than certified letter) about our grass being tall, which, sure, and we’re working on it. No problem, & this is the farthest we’ve ever gone through the season before the man up the street complains about *something*…

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Mike Benard @benardmf.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

Young slimy salamander (and snail friend) found in northeast Ohio today - Arguably one of the prettiest non-Ambystoma salamanders in North America.

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gray, spelled g r a y @grayherndon.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

Our little Lola is gone. 🤍🧡🖤

A white cat with stripey patches of orange and gray/black sleeps on a soft gray pad laid on the seat of a brown velvet chair with a pink blanket draped over the back. Sunlight slants across the cat’s face.

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gray, spelled g r a y @grayherndon.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

I have a picture for today but not the mental capacity to post it tonight. Our little kitty isn’t feeling so good. 😕

A cat with patches of orange, gray/black, and white lies on a gray mat that sits on a brown velvet chair. She is facing away from the camera and the black tip of her tail is visible from under her body, along with stripes of white and orange. A pale pink fuzzy blanket is draped over the back of the chair.

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gray, spelled g r a y @grayherndon.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

I came to look at the common boneset (Eupatorium perfoliatum) because it’s near blooming, & then stayed to look at some leafhoppers (versute sharpshooters) that had gathered on it, but in the end it was the way the hairs on its stems looked in the evening light that I took a picture of. #2026photos

Rough-textured leaves shaped like narrow, elongated diamonds extend outward at alternating right angles, centered on a sturdy stem that is covered in fine white hairs. At the top of the stem is a cluster of unopened flower buds, and under one upper leaf a small insect is visible. In the background, out of focus, is a light blue house.

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gray, spelled g r a y @grayherndon.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

In today’s picture we have the tiniest snail ever to have existed, crawling along under a common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) leaf. These guys aren’t native - I don’t know if we have native snails, but if we do, these aren’t them - but they mostly eat our hostas… (1/3) #2026photos

An exceptionally small snail crawls from right to left upside down under the large leaf of a common milkweed plant.

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gray, spelled g r a y @grayherndon.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

This came up in my FB memories from years & years ago & for some reason neither her name nor the title were ringing any bells so I pulled it up & OH MY GOD & now we’re all going to listen to it over & over.

youtu.be

Dionne Farris - I Know

YouTube video by DionneFarrisVEVO

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aramtopwitch @fireflyathon.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

Please enjoy this prime baby killdeer footage!

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gray, spelled g r a y @grayherndon.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

While we’re on milkweeds… here is our one remaining whorled milkweed (Asclepias verticillata) starting to bloom! The picture doesn’t really convey quite how tiny these are. & speaking of tiny, every time I zoom in on a milkweed photo lately there are tiny ants in it! #2026photos #nativeplants

A single slender stem with equally slender leaves almost resembling curved pine needles radiating from it rises from a grassy area, with small clusters of flower buds near its top, a couple of which have opened into white flowers that are being visited by tiny black ants.

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gray, spelled g r a y @grayherndon.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

Today’s picture is a cautionary tale, but one that turns out ok in the end. This plant came from a plant sale last year, with a printed label identifying it as native green milkweed (Asclepias viridiflora). That one’s hard to find, so I was excited to get it! (1/3ish) #2026photos #nativeplants

Soft pink milkweed blooms have started to open at the top of a single slender stem, with narrow leaves pointing out at right angles. Tiny ants are here and there among the flowers.

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gray, spelled g r a y @grayherndon.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

Today’s picture, because a friend asked to see what it looks like, and because earlier I was digging through vermiculite to find some fridge-stratified seeds of this species, shows the rattlesnake master (Eryngium yuccifolium) in bloom! Another little garden alien. (1/2) #2026photos #nativeplants

A rattlesnake master plant shows flowers in whitish-green with a pincushion-like appearance for the most mature/central bloom and more if an artichoke shape on the symmetrical flowerheads on either side.

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gray, spelled g r a y @grayherndon.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

In today’s photo from (adjacent to) my garden… I have more seedlings! Some of the things I sowed last weekend are starting to poke up above the soil. 💚 Now if only they will grow quickly enough to be in the ground & standing on their own by fall… #2026photos #nativeplants #virginianativeplants

A closeup of potting soil inside a gallon milk jug with its top half cut off, and a single tiny green seedling appearing from the soil.

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Margaret Renkl @margaretrenkl.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

Things they are wildly overrated: fireworks. Things they are not wildly overrated: fireflies.

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gray, spelled g r a y @grayherndon.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

Tonight, in demonstration of the extent of our patriotism, we watched the first episode of Star City.

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Marie @legallyhea.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

I was a big fireworks fan as a kid but given what I now know about a) family pets, b) wildlife interruption, and more importantly c) veterans with PTSD, I think drone shows are so cool and have so much potential all without having to make the lives of our loved ones and wildlife miserable!

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gray, spelled g r a y @grayherndon.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

It’s a good thing we got so much rain earlier & these idiots *probably* can’t set the city on fire no matter how hard they try because JFC.

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gray, spelled g r a y @grayherndon.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

I apparently *really* hurt people’s feelings last night by suggesting it’s possible to choose not to set off fireworks due to the harms they cause *even if you personally enjoy them.*

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The Native Guild @thenativeguild.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

🗽While we look up at the fireworks this 4th of July, remember our pollinators! 🐝✨ Loud booms can disorient sleeping bees, and the chemical smoke settles onto the summer flowers they eat Consider celebrating away from garden beds or opting for laser/drone shows to keep them safe!🦋 #GrowNativePlants

Close up of bright yellow sunflower with honey bee approaching and is covered in pollen

Monarch butterfly atop a pink flower with yellow center with a blurred background showing other flowers

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gray, spelled g r a y @grayherndon.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

& for today’s (yesterday’s) photo, new accommodations for some of the plants that aren’t in the ground yet, to help them through the heat! I may have um, underestimated how many plants I had. I got two pools. I needed at least 3. #2026photos #nativeplants #virginianativeplants

A variety of different plants including grasses, sedges, forbs, and a couple of seedling trees, all in plastic nursery pots, sit in a blue plastic kiddie pool with water in the bottom. Around them is a patchy lawn and a pair of boxwood shrubs stand behind them.

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gray, spelled g r a y @grayherndon.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

I’m late enough with this that yesterday’s photo is really the day before yesterday’s now, but anyway, it shows the nodding onion (Allium cernuum) beginning to bloom! This patch was completely (& unnecessarily) crushed when the roof was replaced. (1/2) #2026photos #nativeplants

Many stems of nodding onion rise straight up from a flowerbed before arching back down. Flower bulbs on most have not yet opened, but the nearest one has opened into a ring of little flowers. In the background are a grassy area and trees.

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Beth Macy @bethmacy.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

This week marks the one-year anniversary of a sad event: the passage of Donald Trump's Big Ugly Bill, which took food from families, sent insurance premiums into orbit, forced three medical clinics in the Shenandoah Valley to close, and will cause 350,000 Virginians to lose their healthcare.

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gray, spelled g r a y @grayherndon.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

Still too hot this evening by the time it got dark to roam around outside looking for a picture, & I wasn’t feeling great anyway. Not that tomorrow will be any cooler, but if I’m up to it I’ll take two pictures!

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gray, spelled g r a y @grayherndon.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

(at the garden center) Me: I have 4 of these, 2 of these, & 10 of these. Employee: 4, 2, and 10. Great! Me: Heyyyy, it’s like Dr. Pepper, but in the wrong order! *silence* Me: Is anyone else old enough to know what I’m talking about?

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gray, spelled g r a y @grayherndon.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

Today’s photo shows some of our pokeweed (Phytolacca americana) blooming, & its berries starting to form. I could write a lot about why I like pokeweed so much (if I weren’t so tired), & why I think it’s often an unfair kneejerk reaction when people dislike it. (1/2) #2026photos #nativeplants

A spray of small, white, rounded, waxy-looking blooms with slightly flattened green berries growing in their centers reaches out from a bright, light green stem and leaves at left. In the background, out of focus, is a tall patch of goldenrod, not yet blooming and thus all green.

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gray, spelled g r a y @grayherndon.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

Holy shit y’all, I have been trying to find this song for 31 years. I’m not claiming it necessarily *merits* that, but I have, & here it is.

music.apple.com

World Citizen by Iya on Apple Music

Song · 1995 · Duration 4:05

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gray, spelled g r a y @grayherndon.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

Increasingly frequent heat waves like this one will be all the more difficult for whoever buys the cute little house up the street, now that the sellers are removing everything that resembles a tree from the property. 😕

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gray, spelled g r a y @grayherndon.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

In today’s picture, we see that the common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) has been pollinated! Much of it is past its prime, rushed on I think by the heat and the drought, but some is still doing well & receiving visitors, & all of it still smells wonderful. (1/2) #2026photos #nativeplants

Three very pale green, bulbous, knobbly seed pods grow from the drying remains of a common milkweed flower, with the plant’s large green leaves with magenta midveins spread out behind them.

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gray, spelled g r a y @grayherndon.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Today’s photo is the one I wanted for yesterday! It shows the set of shelves intended for the basement that we’d never put together, which Travis put together for me yesterday to use for my seedlings. 💚 So much better than having them on the floor around the edges of the porch! (1/2) #2026photos

A set of pale gray plastic shelves holds trays of seedlings of various species in nursery pots, as well as cut down milk cartons and soda bottles full of soil. A little more than half of the shelf space remains empty. The shelves sit on a screened porch with a weathered brown wooden floor. The screen is behind them, with a wall of white siding & windows extending away on the right. Part of a light blue house is in the background.

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gray, spelled g r a y @grayherndon.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

Today’s photo shows one of our mountain mints (Pycnanthemum sp.) covered in blooms, but I’m not sure which one. 😬 The label I stuck in the ground with these has either blown away or just gotten lost amid the stems. It is *not* P. muticum, like all the apps seem to think it is! (1/2) #2026photos

Tiny whitish purple flowers with purple spots are arranged on round green flowerheads, on branching stems of a mountain mint with broad leaves. The leaves nearest the top are a cloudy gray-green, and those lower down are a darker green.

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gray, spelled g r a y @grayherndon.bsky.social · 28/06/2026

Oops, a little late with today’s/yesterday’s photo… in which we see that the leaf-cutter bees have found the redbuds (Cercis canadensis)! They really, really seem to love redbuds. 💚 They aren’t eating them - the bits of leaf are taken to build their nests with. (1/2) #2026photos #nativeplants

Several heart-shaped redbud leaves are shown. The newest, smallest leaves are deep red, while the older leaves are light green and have semicircular notches cut from their edges by leaf cutter bees. Under them is a bed of violets, also with heart-shaped leaves.

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gray, spelled g r a y @grayherndon.bsky.social · 27/06/2026

In today’s photo… they’ve arrived! The dogbane beetles (Chrysochus auratus) are officially here. I thought I saw them, just dark spots on the plants then, from a few feet away on the berm last night, but I wasn’t sure & needed to keep working, so I didn’t check. (1/several) #2026photos

A small iridescent beetle showing primarily magenta and green metallic colors is on a leaf of a pale green, stiff-leaved dogbane plant. Behind it is a grassy hillside.

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gray, spelled g r a y @grayherndon.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

I think the blue vervain (Verbena hastata) in today’s photo might be nearly done blooming, but its shape would be interesting even without the pretty blooms… like little candelabras! #2026photos #nativeplants #virginianativeplants

Several narrow stems lean across the picture from the left, with narrow pointed leaves hanging down. The stems are slightly purple and the leaves also have a slight purple tint. From each stem extend several long flower clusters, mostly made up of spent blooms but with open, light purple flowers near their tips. The flower clusters look like the arms of candelabras.

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gray, spelled g r a y @grayherndon.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

Sorry for the quality of these pictures but does anyone know who these guys are that chewed through about 40 tiny stiff goldenrod (Solidago rigida/Oligoneuron rigidum) seedlings in like 3 days? If they’re native we can put them on something more robust. #Virginia #nativeplants #invertebrates

Several tiny brownish-black caterpillars or cutworms are seen on a plastic lid sitting on a rusty black metal chair seat. One is curled up in a circle, the others are stretched out or exploring.

A tiny brownish black caterpillar or cutworm on a plastic lid, with its head toward the camera.

Two tiny brownish black caterpillars or cutworms on a plastic lid.

Two tiny brownish black caterpillars or cutworms on a plastic lid. The larger one is trying to climb over the smaller.

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gray, spelled g r a y @grayherndon.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

In today’s photo, it’s not the prettiest or most even cut, but it’s all done with hand shears. The annual ryegrass seeded around our pond jumped up & went to seed recently. We don’t want it to reseed, as we’re working on filling in with native plants. (1/3) #2026photos

Grass grows thickly on a small mound where it has received a chunky mowing job. A pale brown 4x4” square post rises from the mound, and in the background are a row of boxwood shrubs and the second floor of a light blue house at left.

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gray, spelled g r a y @grayherndon.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

I had to rush to get today’s photo, because I’d worked up to the last minute & had to run out the door to class. So I didn’t have time to look for a subject - but trumpet-creeper (Campsis radicans) doesn’t make you look for it very hard! (1/2) #2026photos #nativeplants #virginianativeplants

A brilliant dark pink trumpet-shaped flower with five flaring petals appears facing the camera at the end of a vine, with unopened flowers appearing as orange and pink tubes behind it, and other branches of the vine covered in leaves in the background.

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gray, spelled g r a y @grayherndon.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

These are the nursery pots I hosed off yesterday evening just before dark, to remove the egg sacs & spiderwebs & leaves & slime (?) & surprises. I left them here afterwards to dry. Inside them, you can see some of the 0.4” of rain we got this afternoon. I almost decided this was today’s picture.

A jumble of 24 roughly 4-inch square plastic nursery pots, mostly black but one being dark green, lies on an area of patchy grass. A green garden hose snakes across the upper left corner of the image.

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gray, spelled g r a y @grayherndon.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

In today’s photo you can see the starry catchfly/starry campion (Silene stellata) finally blooming, with a tiny drop of this afternoon’s rain clinging to it! (And an equally tiny friend inside, whom I did not notice when taking the picture.) #2026photos #nativeplants #virginianativeplants

A small white flower with a deep cup of pale green leaves around it tilts downward with a tiny drop of rain hanging from it. A very small insect of some type is on one petal. Farther up its stem another flower is almost ready to open, and it is surrounded by the leaves and stems of other plants.

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gray, spelled g r a y @grayherndon.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

If you’re selling a house, please don’t cut down the trees. Let the new owner make that decision. They might want the shade. Don’t undo the 50-60 years or more of growth that brought that shade, when they may never get it back.

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gray, spelled g r a y @grayherndon.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

At the risk of duplicating yesterday’s overconfident insect ID, today’s photo shows (according to Seek) a common eastern firefly (Photinus pyralis) resting on some of our recently planted bottlebrush grass (Elymus hystrix). (1/2) #2026photos #nativeplants #virginianativeplants #invertebrates

A firefly with an orangey red area behind its head and blackish wings edged in a light color is seed from the side resting on a tall blade of grass. Behind it are more grasses and the stems of a perennial.

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gray, spelled g r a y @grayherndon.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

Today’s photo shows our oxeye/false sunflower (Heliopsis helianthoides) starting to bloom. This plant struggled last year, its first year in the ground. Then in the building of our berm, it got half buried, with just parts of its leaves sticking up above the soil. (1/2) #2026photos #nativeplants

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gray, spelled g r a y @grayherndon.bsky.social · 20/06/2026

Today’s photo shows the moment when I asked the beebalm/wild bergamot (Monarda fistulosa) if it was about ready to bloom and it went 🤷‍♀️ #2026photos #nativeplants #virginianativeplants

Stems of a perennial extend upward with further stems branching off in an opposite arrangement, the leaves also being opposite and each pair being at right angles to the previous pair. At the top, sets of leaves fold around what may be a flower bud, and one set of leaves bends in a way that suggests shrugging shoulders and arms. In the background are a tree in sunlight and a vivid blue sky.

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gray, spelled g r a y @grayherndon.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

In today’s photo… the flowering of our dark green bulrushes (Scirpus atrovirens)! I think they’re so pretty, and I’m also just happy they’re flowering here, in the ground, where maybe they can reseed. #2026photos #nativeplants #virginianativeplants

A spiky brown flower cluster appears on the narrow stem of a bulrush, with wide grasslike blades beneath it. In the background are a grassy area and a couple of houses, out of focus.

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gray, spelled g r a y @grayherndon.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

In today’s picture is one of the cream violets (Viola striata) I’ve just started trying to move up to a planting bed from the lawn at our property line. They’re vulnerable to the neighbor’s lawn crew there, so I’m trying to get them to safety. (1/4?) #2026photos #nativeplants #virginianativeplants

The tall stems of a species of violets, not currently fully in bloom, twist upward from the ground with roughly heart-shaped leaves climbing the stems, in front of a wire fence and among the long grassy leaves of spiderwort.

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