Munk!

This chipper chipmunk with cheeks full of food is getting used to me taking pictures. Chipmunks spread their toes more than I thought they would. Yesterday I was shaking the dust out of my throw rugs off my balcony and I could hear a chipmunk saying, "Munk! Munk! Munk!" way up high in my neighbor's birch tree. That chipmunk was as high as I was. From the back yard my balcony is three flights up.

Two chipmunks in the same photo reveal one is reddish and the other is tawny. After this photo the reddish chipmunk chased the tawny chipmunk full speed up the hill of the driveway. Chipmunks can be fast.

Yesterday I went to an agate festival in Lincoln Park. Wow, the agates are beautiful. Take a look at these beauties I bought. The top one is a slice of a Brazilian agate that clearly looks like a whale to me (or else a very fatty slice of bacon). The ones below are polished agates from Minnesota. Some vendors rub mineral oil on unpolished rocks. Other vendors keep their agates in plastic totes of water because the rocks are more attractive when they are wet. Plus, rocks get very hot to the touch when sitting in the sun on an August afternoon. I also got to tour Duluth Maker Space which is a building full of cool tools that artists can use if they pay a small monthly fee. The building has laser cutters, computerized laser cutters, electronic equipment, kilns, wood working equipment, welding equipment, sewing machines, wood burning pens, stained glass equipment, wood routers, wood chisels, and drill presses. They have tools I had never heard of before. The pandemic set them back some but now they hope to enroll about 70 more artists so the space can be sustainable.