Hammerhead Stoneworks

These images have been sitting on my desktop for several weeks now, waiting for me to upload them. These are all creatures discovered while I was working on the cabin chimney in Madison County.
This is a Giant Leopard Moth just emerged from his cocoon and drying his wings on the cabin sill. These moths come from the Wooly Bear caterpillar. Notice the iridescent blue knee joints. His abdomen had bright orange spots on it.

This Ringneck snake wasn’t much bigger than the moth. He was hiding under the tarp I used to protect the sand, meaning he had a steady diet of roly-polys and millipedes readily available.

Cathy found this guy in the garden. It’s an Eastern TIger Swallowtail caterpillar. Those eyes are markings meant to deter predators.

I lost a wedge and set of feathers in the lintel stone. The stone broke cleanly, but this wedge, at the front edge of the stone, didn’t split quite right. The wedge remains, well stuck in the stone. In this picture, the wedge is set about two inches back from the front of the fireplace. I am leaving a ‘truth window’ in the stonework, so that you can look inside this little pocket and see the stranded tool.

This is my work space in the cabin, morning light filtering in. The recessed floor is where the hearthstones will be set.

There are marbles throughout this project, including this playful little dragon, well hidden in the face of the fireplace.

This tiger beetle has been a shiny emerald skittering around my stone piles.

This spring has been the wettest in years and the salamanders are in seventh salamander heaven. Everyday I see a few, under stones, in the creek or sometimes just walking around in the damp leaf litter. I believe this to be a Mountain Dusky Salamander, but I am not certain of my ID.