That’s totally Toadfish from Neighbours outside the pub, right?
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I avoid touching brightly colored and fuzzy caterpillars. insect larvae are so tasty to birds that if they aren’t camouflaged they probably have toxic and/or highly irritant hairs, and their visibility is a warning flag.
I saw a one inch caterpillar send a six foot man to the hospital. That caterpillar kicked George’s ass!
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Good to know!
I try to exercise a lot of caution around Texas wildlife and adapted locals.
So many venomous things here. It’s kinda unreal. It is not a calming activity to list everything here that can really endanger a human. Last week I came within one or two paces of stepping on a rattlesnake (at night, cloud covering the moon, I forgot my flashlight, was saved by my DH who turned on his cell phone flashlight just in time for me to see a 2-button diamondback well over a meter long, there in the middle of the road trying to warm up).
I am told that living in central and south Texas is a bit like Australia in this way, but with fewer snakes. And spiders.
ETA: typo
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On my walk to Job #1, Texas native milkweed (one species is called “Antelope Horn” has these bugs (Lygaeus kalmii ?? sorry I don’t have an ID right now but I know they are not cochineal bugs) on them:
At Job #1, I find that frogs are starting to shelter in the pool, which on one level lets me know that I’ve probably got the chlorine on the low side, but means that I need to relocate these to safer waters (both because kids at the pool may not be so kind to them, and I know that chlorine is bad for living things generally speaking and frogs especially) so I have to walk back the way I came to a low spot where our creek is still running:
Go swimming there, little dude! Grow up to be a big ol’ Texas Leopard Frog and eat a lot of bugs for us! Don’t forget to make more frogs! Sorry the algae is a bit high right now.
Sunset over Job #1’s workplace in Central Texas. Child in water included for scale.
Later I took my mom grocery shopping at HEB, and I wonder why why why the Japanese have this idea that the U.S. state of Vermont and the word “curry” go together in a special, put-it-on-a-package kinda way:
Not to throw shade on Vermonters, but… really… curry?
ETA: I looked up a picture of cochineal bugs and yeah, nope
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A Route of Evanescence
With a revolving Wheel–
A Resonance of Emerald–
A Rush of Cochineal–
And every Blossom on the Bush
Adjusts its tumbled Head–
The mail from Tunis, probably,
An easy Morning’s Ride–
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It’s a product of japan, so I am not surprised at all!
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Mmm, maple curry! 
I tried some maple-flavored fizzy water yesterday, can’t say that was good either.
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Illinois Kimchee!
California Haggis!
New York Blubber!
Colorado Jack Fruit!
Wyoming Ants in Choclate Sauce!
Oklahoma Sushi!
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I agree.
De gustibus non est disputandum
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My wife is a runner and swears by this stuff. Less sweet than Gatorade.
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I often find it at the Asian food store. I can easily see past its weird name and enjoy it for what it is: a sports drink that isn’t as sugary as grenadine.
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Pocari Sweat is an acquired taste.
I am not a big fan of sugar either and I agree it is useful.
I sometimes use this:
… the unsweetened version. Useful when I sweat a lot.
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Careful, there…
I doubt they’re too common, but a friend found a coral snake at his house, in the hills west of Austin.
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I nearly stepped on one of those fuckers in Southern Illinois. Not sure how one got all the way up there, but sometimes they do.
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What I awoke to this morning was practically a monnow
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Residence: Santa Monica, California
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