iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Jeff Ward @rebbitzman.bsky.social · 08/07/2025

20. Gleditsia triacanthos var. inermis This species is 'three thorns' and the is 'spineless.' Spineless three-thorned honey locust. Popular here, though disease prone.This is my first representative of the clade Fabales, the nitrogen fixers. #gardening #backyardwildlife #backyardbiodiversity

Honey locust seen from a drone next to a driveway in the front yard of a modern house.

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Jeff Ward @rebbitzman.bsky.social · 08/07/2025

19. Prunus cerasus Now serving. Although the records from the landscaper show a sweet cherry, this is a sour cherry, probably Montmorency. Highly productive. I share with the neighbors, birds, squirrels, and beetles. #gardening #backyardwildlife #backyardbiodiversity

A sieve full of glistening red cherries.

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Jeff Ward @rebbitzman.bsky.social · 02/07/2025

18. Acer tataricum Introduced to North America in the 20th C from southeastern Europe. Neighbor's tree overhangs my yard and seems to feed the squirrels. #gardening #backyardwildlife

Many pairs of reddish green maple seeds hanging from a branch.

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Jeff Ward @rebbitzman.bsky.social · 02/07/2025

17. Euxoa auxiliaris A migrant that comes from the plains in spring. In '23 there were hundreds in our house. Not too bad this year. Delicious to birds and bears. "Miller moth" is a very common common name and not useful except locally. #gardening #backyardwildlife

A brown moth with its wings folded. Wings are brown with black stripes and two gray patches on each.

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Jeff Ward @rebbitzman.bsky.social · 01/07/2025

16. Apis mellifera There are plenty of honey bees in our neighborhood, and the helpful resource at www.pollinator.org/pollinator.o... tells me that all of them in Colorado are A. mellifera. One of these photos shows a swarm last year in the neighbor's tree. #backyardwildlife #gardening

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Jeff Ward @rebbitzman.bsky.social · 26/06/2025

15. Polistes dominula European paper wasp. One more today, because I enjoyed the picture. A pair of these wasps is guarding a nest on my gate. When I approach, they raise the fronts of their bodies in defensive posture. I retreat. #gardening #backyardwildlife

A black and yellow wasp with orange antennae on a paper nest.

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Jeff Ward @rebbitzman.bsky.social · 26/06/2025

14. Bruneria brunnea Brunner's slantfaced grasshopper. It seems a good season for seeing grasshoppers then spending time trying to classify them. This one is certainly not the same as the two-striped, but whether my ID is correct, I can't quite say. #gardening #backyardwildlife

Grasshopper with vertical stripes on femur.

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Jeff Ward @rebbitzman.bsky.social · 26/06/2025

13. Melanoplus bivittatus It seems that classifying grasshoppers (and insects in general) will be a detailed task. This is the two-striped grasshopper, though I would have said it has one dark stripe. #gardening #backyardwildlife

A grasshopper sitting on an electrical cord

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Jeff Ward @rebbitzman.bsky.social · 25/06/2025

12. Papilio multicaudata I believe the black and yellow swallowtail butterfly that drifts through my yard a few times each day is the two-tailed swallowtail. I had to be fast to snap this photo with my phone. #gardening #backyardwildlife

yellow and black butterfly flying through the blue sky with some trees and power lines

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Jeff Ward @rebbitzman.bsky.social · 13/06/2025

11. Pisaurina mira Seems like spiders will be hard to identify, but from the way this one carries itself, and from body shape, I think it is a nursery web spider. Perhaps a young one. It was almost translucent. #gardening #backyardwildlife

A small, elongate, almost-white spider on a bit of wood.

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Jeff Ward @rebbitzman.bsky.social · 12/06/2025

10. Aceria malherbae I ordered bindweed gall mites last year, and they were delivered this week--a tangle of sickly bindweed in a Styrofoam container with some ice packs. I don't have high hopes that they will eliminate my bindweed problem, but at least they can try. #gardening #backyardwildlife

Microscope image of a bindweed mite. From CSU Extension website.

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Jeff Ward @rebbitzman.bsky.social · 12/06/2025

9. Syringa reticulata The Japanese tree lilac didn't bloom for a few years after it was planted, but now it is a late-spring regular, a bit ghostly against the green. #gardening #backyardwildlife

Sprays of white blossoms against green foliage.

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Jeff Ward @rebbitzman.bsky.social · 09/06/2025

8. Lactuca serriola The mother of all lettuce. Ceremonial emetic. Maror for Pesach. Sedative. Analgesic. Euphoric. Associated with the Egyptian god Min. My new policy is "identify and learn before destruction." #gardening #backyardwildlife

A leafy weed growing from gray rock chips.

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Jeff Ward @rebbitzman.bsky.social · 09/06/2025

7. Cirsium arvense Creeping thistle. Canadian thistle. Lettuce from hell thistle. Call it what you will, it is my spiky adversary in the west-facing thyme lawn. As Euell Gibbons would say, "many parts are edible." But the internet warns they cause flatulence. #gardening #backyardwildlife

A spiky green plant amongst thyme leaves.

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Jeff Ward @rebbitzman.bsky.social · 08/06/2025

Not everything is broken. In the park, above the dog walkers, roost a great horned owl and two owlets. Impatient for dusk, they call gently to one another, inviting me to notice, to seek, to find, to gaze into wild eyes and smile. Beneath the tree is a feather. Not everything is broken. #poetry

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Jeff Ward @rebbitzman.bsky.social · 06/06/2025

Having a monsoon season feels exotic, especially in the morning when all the shrubs are bowing down with the load of rain. I haven't even turned on the irrigation system yet this year. #gardening #denver

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Jeff Ward @rebbitzman.bsky.social · 30/05/2025

6. Amelanchier x grandiflora 'Autumn Brilliance' We put in several serviceberry trees when we re-landscaped, and they are all doing well. That said, I have never eaten a single berry. Perhaps this is the year. #gardening #backyardwildlife

Serviceberry bush leaves and immature fruits.

Serviceberry leaves with droplets of rain.

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Jeff Ward @rebbitzman.bsky.social · 29/05/2025

This morning, I read a @mariapopova.bsky.social essay about a beautiful children's book called "The Wanting Monster." www.themarginalian.org/.../29/the-w... Although I am torn up about many much more difficult things near and far, over my espresso I wrote A Tale of Fulfillment #poetry

Text of a poem about acquisition in modern times.

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Jeff Ward @rebbitzman.bsky.social · 23/05/2025

While waiting for Sly and Family to move on out, I have put my thoughts into words. Probably somewhat risky, given medication and pain. #kidneystones #poetry

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Jeff Ward @rebbitzman.bsky.social · 22/05/2025

The naming is now official. I await the (even more painful) emergence of "Sly and the Family of Stones." Sly clocks in at 6mm. According to experts and ChatGPT, I will be mice elf again. #kidneystones

Cover of Sly Stone's memoir. Sly with a decent afro, shirtless, patchwork jeans, green Adidas on his hands and knees.

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Jeff Ward @rebbitzman.bsky.social · 22/05/2025

The pain scale should be based on soccer competitions. "My pain reached Champions' League levels overnight." Or "My pain is in the Isthmian League." #kidneystones

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Jeff Ward @rebbitzman.bsky.social · 21/05/2025

5. Sciurus niger For a couple of years, my fox squirrels have been unable to reach the bird feeder. Instead they raid my fruit trees. Squeeze here and it will come out there. #backyardwildlife #denver #biodiversity

A relatively small fox squirrel on a wooden fence, looking at the photographer, with leaves behind.

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Jeff Ward @rebbitzman.bsky.social · 16/05/2025

"our entire culture seems to have forgotten that identities and opinions are the least interesting parts of people — ripples on the surface of the ocean of the soul, shimmering but shallow, pervious to every windsweep, irrelevant to the depths."

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Jeff Ward @rebbitzman.bsky.social · 15/05/2025

Cornus stolonifera. For number 4, I want down a bit of a rabbit hole into the taxonomy of dogwoods. Who knew? Is it Cornus alba, Cornus sericia? Call it 'red osier.' And I'll get to that bug, too. #denver #backyardwildlife #biodiversity #gardening

A dogwood flowering, with a red, spotless ladybug on one of the flower heads.

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Jeff Ward @rebbitzman.bsky.social · 15/05/2025

#poetry from the fragility of the heart.

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Jeff Ward @rebbitzman.bsky.social · 15/05/2025

You’ve curated a beautiful woodland. Tagging my Surrey woodsman @illiswilgig.bsky.social

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Jeff Ward @rebbitzman.bsky.social · 15/05/2025

Interested to hear more about access restrictions. What was going on “before?”

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Jeff Ward @rebbitzman.bsky.social · 13/05/2025

I’m almost done with my first pass through the book, and it has been mind blowing. The ideas have already changed the way I look at reality and my reactions to what I perceive.

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Jeff Ward @rebbitzman.bsky.social · 13/05/2025

David is a dear friend, and someone who has dedicated his entire career to supporting exploited workers. If you can give his Attorney General campaign a few dollars (or a lot), I would really appreciate it. secure.actblue.com/donate/jeff_...

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Jeff Ward @rebbitzman.bsky.social · 12/05/2025

No. 3 Colaptes auratus cafer, the western red-shafted flicker provides the soundtrack for mid-May, calling, drumming, ak-ak-ak-ing. #denver #backyardwildlife #biodiversity

grayscale sonogram showing repetitive mid frequency calling of the flicker.

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Jeff Ward @rebbitzman.bsky.social · 12/05/2025

Here's a mothers' day poem I wrote for all the mothers and one in particular. #mothersday #poetry

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Jeff Ward @rebbitzman.bsky.social · 09/05/2025

I feel there are several very different concepts here: sitting with grief, holding space with it, tending to it, embracing it, holding it dear, and finally, least satisfying, feeling that suffering brings you intimacy with god. In my experience, grief is not a choice, but carrying the bone is.

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Jeff Ward @rebbitzman.bsky.social · 08/05/2025

The cursed bindweed (no. 2 - Convolvulus) may be any one (or more) of 250 species, but is probably C. arvensis, signified by "two sharp, backwards-pointed lobes at the base of the usually arrow-shaped leaf ending in a sharp apex," as seen next to bun's whiskers.

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Jeff Ward @rebbitzman.bsky.social · 08/05/2025

I looked out the window yesterday into the front yard and spotted something that gave me joy. Not just a rabbit, of which there are many, but a rabbit eating my perennial nemesis, bindweed. Denver rabbits seem likely to be the mountain cottontail (no. 1 - Sylvilagus nuttallii).

Rabbit eating bindweed on a gravel path.

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Jeff Ward @rebbitzman.bsky.social · 08/05/2025

For some time, I have wanted to catalog the plants and animals in my yard and house--a combination of wild, domesticated, cultivated, invasive, and native companions to semi-urban #Denver life. The plot is at 39.7135, -104.921. Off we go, in no particular order. #backyardwildlife

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Jeff Ward @rebbitzman.bsky.social · 01/05/2025

I know who you are! A nascent peach on 1 May. #denver #gardening #fruit

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Jeff Ward @rebbitzman.bsky.social · 29/04/2025

“Something like only 43% of the cells in your body are actually human cells.” — Annaka Harris, Lights On, Ch. 4 #science #consciousness open.spotify.com/show/5KNrTzu...

open.spotify.com

Lights On: How Understanding Consciousness Helps Us Understand the Universe

Annaka Harris · Audiobook

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Jeff Ward @rebbitzman.bsky.social · 25/04/2025

We shall see, in the SpaceX/Starlink case.

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Jeff Ward @rebbitzman.bsky.social · 24/04/2025

Rava bar Rav Huna says: If one crushed nine ants and brought another one that was alive and thereby completed their measure to an olive-bulk and ate them, he is flogged with six sets of lashes…There is no halakhic dispute in this case. #dafyomi #makot 16b www.sefaria.org/Makkot.16b.12

Five very large ants on the palm of a hand

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Jeff Ward @rebbitzman.bsky.social · 24/04/2025

“harmful to moose and to young salmon” But so sweetly perfumed it will wake you up in the night. Prunus padus #plants

Racemes of white flowers with green leaves.

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Reposted by Jeff Ward

The English Oak Project @thekentacorn.bsky.social · 23/04/2025

We can’t photograph every English Bluebell in our woodland as it would take years, but we will share some every day Bluebell #19

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Jeff Ward @rebbitzman.bsky.social · 22/04/2025

I am liberal person who believes in the existence of Israel as a democratic, Jewish state, and I agree with your point.

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Jeff Ward @rebbitzman.bsky.social · 22/04/2025

He does tour, so you might meet him.

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