As I was checking on my giant Cushaw squash the other day, I saw this Silver-spotted Skipper enjoying my Zinnias.  I watched as it sipped nectar from each of those tiny yellow flowers.  That's a good enough reason to plant zinnias in your garden, besides being pretty to look at.   

 

There are lots of good nectar plants to attract butterflies to your garden including:  Asters, Buddleia (butterfly bush), Phlox, Black-eyed Susies, Purple coneflowers, Bee balm, Marigolds, Coreopsis, Lantana, Cosmos.  And let the wildflowers grow too:  Joe-Pye weed, Queen Anne's Lace, Goldenrod, Thistle, and Oxeye daisies.  

 

Plant all kinds of flowers in your garden, and watch the butterflies come to visit.  

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

 

 

This is what the deer did to my beautiful Hostas.  

 

Last year, all we did was protect the flowers with a barrier.  That worked fine.  But this year they have eaten the flowers and the leaves.  

 

Not too pretty.  Oh well.  We have barricaded everything else.  Next year we will guard the Hostas too.  

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

Every time we walk down the trail, we look for Tedd.  And he's always in the same spot.  I guess he likes it there.

 

Thought you'd like to see Tedd and Jon.  We tickle ourselves.

 

HAPPY TUESDAY!!!

 

 

 

We have a bucket at the top of the stairs to the basement (doesn't everybody?)   Into this bucket we put things that need to go to the basement, the next time somebody goes down there.  

 

Well, this morning I started to drop in a wet dish towel, and I saw this!!!  Surprise!!!  I nudged the bucket, and it moved!!!  JON!!!

 

We see them a lot, but they move so slowly that you have time to think about how to catch them and put them outside.  I don't like to kill critters, but I don't want them inside my house.  So I just report the incident to my hero, and he takes care of it.  Don't know if he squished it or just relocated it;  don't care.  Just so it's not in the bucket, or inside a wet dish towel.

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

 

 

 

 

Wow!!!  We were walking the loop last week and looked up into this Maple tree.  We walk past it all the time, but somehow this thing grew without our noticing it.  Julia told Jon about it, so he was on the lookout.  

 

It is on Stonebriar just above Al's house, about 10 feet up in the tree.  This nest is about 18 inches across, and a couple feet long.  We could see the wasps coming in and out, not bothered by us at all.  Good, we don't want to bother them.  There must be a couple hundred residents.  

 

Seek told me it is the nest of the Bald-faced Hornet.  So I went to Wikipedia and, sure enough there is a picture of the nest that looks just like this one. Go there and read about these hornets.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolichovespula_maculata  Very interesting.  

 

Beautiful to look at...from a distance.

 

HAPPY TUESDAY!!!

 

I just went out to take a picture of the Lemongrass because I wanted to tell you about it, and there was a praying mantis right in the middle of it.  See?  The lemongrass is just across the driveway from the Rosemary and that egg case I wrote about the other day. So, I guess they have emerged, and grown.

 

I love how praying mantises camouflage themselves.  If they are against something brown, they are more brown than green.  Beautiful!!!

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

Remember when I showed you the mole in the wheelbarrow?

 

This is that same mole tunneling for his life under the watchful eyes of Gizmo.  The mole did get back to his home underground, but Gizmo knows where it lives, and checks that spot every day when he's making his rounds of our yard.  Sometimes he just parks himself on the spot, listening.  

 

Talk about an ambush predator!!!

 

HAPPY HUNTING!!!

 

 

 

It is a Praying Mantis egg case.  You can easily see it on this branch of Rosemary.  It is about 1 1/2 inches in diameter.  

 

I don't know if the mantids have emerged yet, but this egg case holds about 100 babies.  You can read all about Praying Mantises at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantis?wprov=sfti1  and learn more than you can possibly remember.  

 

My favorite part of the article describes Praying Mantises as "ambush predators."  That paints a pretty picture!!

 

It reminds me of our cat, Gizmo.  He loves to ambush critters, including US!!!

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

 

We were walking in the Park last Wednesday and saw this guy just off the trail.  I jumped a bit when I spotted him, but he was so calm I didn't panic.  He didn't move a muscle when we walked by.  Look how he is in the sunspot, probably just warming himself.  

 

It was about lunchtime;  maybe he was just waiting for his lunch to happen by, and he considered us a little too big to swallow alive.  Good!  

 

My reference book:  Snakes of the Southeast  says that Southern Black Racers have white chins.  You can see that in the picture.  The book also told us that they are non poisonous.  We hung around only long enough to take a couple pix.  That was enough for me.  Then back to our walk.

 

There are other snakes out and about these days, and some ARE poisonous, so be careful when you are out walking in the woods.

 

HAPPY HIKING!!!

 

I love seeing this sculpture up at Bill and Carol's.  It stands about 8 feet tall.  And this particular day it was backdropped by early morning fog.  

 

It makes me think of our home in Tidewater, VA, on the Lynnhaven River, where Herons and Egrets were daily sightings.  We see them here occasionally, but not nearly enough.  

 

Thanks Bill and Carol, for having this where I can see it on our daily walks.

 

HAPPY TUESDAY!!!