The diligent observer might have noticed a handful of arbitrary posts yesterday that appeared and quickly disappeared.  Oops!  In perusing my drafts, I inadvertently shuttled more than a few into the “posted” category.  But more troubling than that was the discovery that I have drafts going back seven years, most of which I’d long forgotten.

That discovery drew me into an overall evaluation of the junk that has accumulated here over the seven years I’ve been blogging.  Technical specs for the site?  What theme I’m using?  An archive of header images that shows I really need to update the collection?  Dare I go on?

So I’ve embarked on a cleanup of the site.  A lot of static and draft material will fall by the wayside.  A few posts will vanish as well.  (These posts have been password protected for ages because they contain material I intend to publish, such as the “Darkness Comes to Kingswell” short story, so removing them affects no one since no one can access them anyway.  No publicly available posts will be removed, though.)  A new collection of rotating header images will begin to take shape but the archive of them will be dumped.  And other various housekeeping changes will be made.

I mention this because, like yesterday, there might be times when I accidentally publish stuff that makes little sense (some of the drafts are nothing but collections of random notes and others are incomplete thoughts that dangle like half-fallen fruit).  Removing currently available detritus might cause 404s (page not found) on those rare occasions when someone is actually looking for the garbage I throw out.  Certainly the long overdue replacement of header images should be noticeable (though that will happen over time and not all at once).

So while I vanquish debris to the refuse pile, here are some worthwhile carnivals you can visit to occupy the time you’d otherwise spend wading through my overly loquacious gibbering.

Friday Ark #280: The weekly carnival of critters.  Whether you’re into dogs, cats, birds, or even invertebrates, this celebration of life always overflows with the week’s best offerings from the blogosphere.

Berry Go Round #24: The carnival dedicated to plants.  Until a few months ago I’d never heard of this, but it’s since become a regular in my must-read list.  Go enjoy a fantastic collection of science, discovery and beauty from all around the globe.

Festival of the Trees #44: The carnival dedicated to trees.  My first memory of a tree?  Falling off one and skinning my knee.  How I’ve loved them ever since.  This robust and beautiful edition will leave you breathless.

Circus of the Spineless #47: The carnival dedicated to invertebrates.  Ted being an entomologist and a beetle blogger, it certainly took him long enough to get around to hosting this.  Slacker.  But no matter how long he waited to host, it was worth the time: he does a fantastic job presenting a varied edition that covers everything from sea slugs and snails to spiders and skippers.  You don’t want to miss this.

[photos of northern cardinals (Cardinalis cardinalis): male at top and female at bottom; they’re an “item” if you get my meaning; it was cool and drizzling that day, so he hunkered down at the top of the tree and collected a nice moist sheen of white; meanwhile, she was smart and perched lower and more inside the tree where she was protected from wind and precipitation]