It just looks like a blob of jelly, but we know that they are frog eggs.  

 

They show up in this holding pond about this time every year.  There was water in the pond last week;  I guess that’s when she laid her eggs.  I am glad it was dry, because I had to climb down into the pond to get the picture, but we love seeing this.

 

There are several blobs like this, but this one is the most impressive.  

 

I thought you might like to see another early sign of spring.

 

 

HAPPY  GARDENING!!!

 

Hi, everybody.  I’m Gizmo, and I would like you to know that today is our third anniversary.

 

Gerry and Jon rescued me three years ago at the Valley River Humane Society.  I was only there for eight days, so I never made any real friends.  But when I met these two humans, I knew that they were just right for me.  

 

When they first brought me home, I was 2 years old, and only weighed 6 pounds, but they started feeding me lots of good food, and I grew into the handsome 12 pound kitty that I am today.

 

We also have a great home here in the mountains.  We live on a very quiet street, with no traffic, so I can be free to sit in the road if it strikes my fancy.  I also have lots of nice woods to patrol every day.  I catch mice and moles, and bugs and stuff.  It is great!!!  I have been so happy here with my new family.

 

Well, thanks for hearing my story, and wishing us happy anniversary.  

 

 

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY GIZMO!!!

 

 

 

When Jon went up on the roof to blow out the gutters, he found this hornet’s nest!!!  Looks like it’s been there all summer.  But it was on the back side of the house where we can’t see, so we never noticed it.

 

Fortunately it was abandoned, so there is no threat.  I just want you to see how big it is.

 

Lots of critters here in the mountains.  But when you think about it, they were here first.  

 

So we just leave them alone.  

 

HAPPY FALL!!!

 

Jon always notices the weirdest bugs.  He spotted this Orbweaver spider on one of our walks.

 

Of course, we didn’t know WHAT it was, so we used the SEEK app, and learned that it is a Marbled Orbweaver.  

 

This picture is a little deceiving, because she is only about the size of a marble.  Interestingly, it is also called a pumpkin spider because the female’s inflated abdomen resembles an orange pumpkin.  Well, this one was definitely yellow, but quite pumpkin-like in shape.  Oh, SEEK shows seasonality of species, and this one peaks in September and October.  Right on schedule.

 

We love our mountain bugs.

 

HAPPY FALL!!!

 

As we were going down toward the creek, I looked up the hillside and saw this.  Actually it was about 100 feet up the hill, but I knew instantly what it was.  It is growing at the base of a living tree.  The mushroom book says that is not uncommon for Chicken of the Woods to grow at the base of living trees.

 

So, of course, I had to scramble up the hill to get a good picture for you.  When I got up there I noticed that the mushrooms were a little dry, and definitely past their “use by date.”  So it is still there.  

 

Going up wasn’t that hard, but coming back down was a little slippery.  Anyway, I survived, AND got a good picture.

 

 

HAPPY FALL!!!

 

 

 

 

 

Here is another predictor of winter weather:  the wooly bear caterpillar.  

 

Looks like more brown than black to me.  The pointy end is the head.  It was crossing the road traveling north. 

 

Here’s what I found in Wikipedia:  

 

 

 

 

On our walk the other day, we stopped to look for persimmons on the ground, and Jon noticed this turtle.  And if you look closely, you can see that it is eating a persimmon.

 

We knew that deer and turkeys eat them, and of course we do, but who knew that turtles eat them too?  I love it.

 

 

HAPPY FALL Y’ALL!!!

 

Yep.  They are back.  This is the time of year they always show up.  And they LOVE my marigolds.  

 

I love to see Monarchs.  They are so pretty as they “float” on the air.  

 

I know I’ve told you this story before, but maybe I have some new readers who haven’t heard it.  I have a friend in Virginia Beach who used to work inside the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel.  He told us that during Monarch migrations they would fly THROUGH the Bay Bridge Tunnel.  

 

That paints such a beautiful picture for me.  I think about it every time I see a Monarch butterfly.  

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

I went out to cut some sage, and look who I found on a little fennel plant.  Five Black Swallowtail caterpillars.  

 

You can see a bunch of different stages.  The Stokes Butterfly book says that the little caterpillars resemble bird poop, so they don’t get eaten.  Actually, I think they use the word “droppings,” but you get the drift.  As they get bigger, they split and shed their skins.  You can see one that just did that all the way to the right.  See the black stuff behind it?  That one almost didn’t make it into my picture.  Anyway, they are getting bigger.

 

It looks like the butterfly laid eggs on the young fennel plants, not on the older ones.  Too bad, because the young plants are small and won’t be able to support that many caterpillars.  See the two on the right?  They have eaten all the leaves on their two stems.  So I cut those two stems and placed them on other young fennel plants.  

 

Good thing we have lots of fennel.

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!! 

 

I didn’t see any Virginia creeper that day showing fall color, but we did see this interesting thing.  

 

My SEEK app told me that it is Buffalo Nut.  Here’s what I found on Wikipedia, which is where SEEK got its information:

 

 

I think that’s pretty interesting.  

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!