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:  

 

 

 

 

I love seeing wild grapes in the fall.  Look at this gorgeous color.  

 

These are on Beaconhill, just past the sign.  We tasted a couple and they are still a little sour.  I guess that’s why the birds and deer haven’t eaten them yet.  

 

When they start disappearing, I will know they are ripe.

 

 

HAPPY FALL!!!

 

I thought you might like to see the maple trees on Five Forks Drive.  These are near Solitude, but there are lots of them changing all over town.  

 

So pretty!!!  

 

 

HAPPY FALL Y’ALL!!!

 

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!!!

 

Looking up into the Gingko tree in the church parking lot.  

 

Look at these beautiful leaves.  The species name is biloba, meaning two lobes, but they look like butterflies to me.  

 

And they haven’t even begun to show fall color.  Just wait!!!  I’ll show you again when they change.  They look like golden coins then…I'm thinking a couple weeks.

 

 

HAPPY FALL!!!

 

 

 

I love it when the Beautyberry shows off.  The color is so otherworldly to me.  I know it is a common Earth color, but it is almost electric.  

 

I hope you have some Beautyberry in your path.

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

The maple trees in the Union County Methodist Church parking lot are beautiful right now.  

 

There are several of them, all showing their gorgeous fall color.  

 

I hope you are seeing fall color wherever you go.

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

This made me smile.  A truck full of mums in the Walmart parking lot.  

 

 

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!!!