Love the snake, Bob. They are such misunderstood creatures. I also have a soft spot for spiders. This one has taken up residence on an Elephant Ear leaf. I believe that is his belly side we are looking at. This post was edited by gazania on Fri, Aug 29, 14 at 17:34

Susan - yes, it's stone, basalt to be exact. Whenever the thick flow of lava cools down relatively fast it contracts along horizontal axes. Hence polygonal columns are formed that do look carved rather then natural. The faster the cooling down process the smaller columns size. The "rocks" in the bed of the stream are broken of pieces of columns.

Give a weed an inch and it will take a mile! This is Purslane. Yes, I know that to many folks, it is good eating. Tossed this little clump on the compost pile last Thursday. This long tendril had grown out of it by yesterday.

Wow! First thing I do when someone brings me a cat or kitten or one shows up is cart it off to the vet before it is even brought inside with the others. Soon as they are old enough they go off to be fixed! I have heard people tell me Oh, I will get them fixed but I want her to have one litter before I do? Why? Why? So because you"think" you will get one just like the mother father, you bring 4-8 more kittens into the world that you will have to give away free to good home and those people wont fix them and they will breed and just keep breeding. Sigh. Sadly with cats there are so many that a re-homing fee doesn't work. If you charge a re-homing fee a lot of people will just go where they are free. Most of my rescue work is with feral cats and Kittens. The shelters and Rescues are so over run that any feral brought in is usually put down right away because they just don't have the resources to socialize them. It is just extremely sad.