A moment ago I discovered that the tickling sensation down by my ankle was indeed... a tick. I've been home from work for hours, so I wonder if my unwelcome little guest has been hanging out on my leg for that long. It's not a Deer tick though, which is good. Deer ticks are the ones that transmit Lyme disease... unless of course they've been gorging themselves on the blood of a Fence lizard, in which case they lose the ability to transmit it. Strange but true.

Anyway, I finally got a picture of a Giant salamander larva.

This one is still quite small, but growing. You can see the gills right in front of the front legs.

I'm still kind of sick, but not sick enough to stay home from work. The week has been going pretty well so far. Today was warm and sunny, and I really just felt like lying down on the grass and doing nothing - just letting the sun wash over me. Instead I taught the usual lessons to a more-or-less attentive group of children, and hiked around with the class following after. We even came across a dead Ringneck snake. Something had eaten its head, and the ants were investigating. Nature is brutal. And beautiful. All at once.