cat-astrophes

So many interesting little dramas happening in the past week.  I noticed a big pile of ants on...something...in a porch beam.

It wasn't long before they completely extracted the mysterious white lump, and it fell onto the porch rail below.  It was an immature carpenter bee!

They face a lot of predators before they're fully mature, but we have so many of them around that I guess it's not too much of a concern.

And, in the back yard, I saw thousands and thousands of ants swarming on a log.

It's hard to get a feel for the scope from this picture, but there was about 4 feet of wood on the ground too, and every inch of it was crawling with ants.  Winged ants rimmed the stump edge.

They're called the St. Valentine ant, because of their heart-shaped abdomen.  Both sexually mature females and worker males have wings, but these are most likely females heading out for their "nuptual swarm."  They will mate and fly off to start new colonies.

Speaking of wings, Todd found the wings of a beautiful Cecropia moth on a walk last week.

More wings...look at this gorgeous red admiral!

And eastern pondhawk!

On our way to a walk this week, we saw that someone had hit a possum.  The next day, only a few bones remained...thanks to these guys.

We have so many turkey vultures here.  I see them every single day.

I love having them around.  They seem so dignified and stately!  And they do a great job of keeping our roads clean.  

Another kind of turkey is around nearly daily now, too...and in great numbers!

It's baby time!

The young goz are out in the field, too, but in smaller numbers.

Both gardens are blooming now, which are bringing the bees.

I have one more group of seedlings to get into the ground.

But that's it.  I've been astounded, truly shocked at how poor germination has been, even with the good soil.  I started ANOTHER group of seeds - sunflowers and zinnias, the world's easiest things to germinate.  Todd built a cattle panel enclosure to keep out the groundhogs.  I started to get some small seedlings in the sunflower container, but then a pounding rain destroyed them.  In my older sunflower container, I had 6 healthy seedlings...and something popped off their tops.  A few desultory zinnias came up, but insects quickly devoured the leaves and they died.  I'm done.  I've got these zinnias, toothache plants, and ageratum up by the house, where they're thriving.  They're going in the ground TONIGHT and then I am officially, 100% done with gardening for the year.  Woo hoo!  

I've been doing more baking...

healthy flourless peanut butter cookies

a three-fruit coffee cake to celebrate the 1st day of summer

...including cupcakes and a couple of cookie batches yesterday, for a get-together, that I didn't have time to photograph.  

We've also been dealing with ever-increasing cat problems with our two boys.  They look so innocent...

Barnabas

Frances

...but they've been absolutely tormenting our elderly cat...and we can't keep them separated, because Barnabas has freaky outward-turned hind legs that enables him to jump up to 8 feet.  He's cleared every single barrier that Todd has erected to keep him downstairs.  It's been a pretty stressful and chaotic week, but we're hoping that we have something figured out to help.  Fingers crossed.

At least our outdoor cat is not causing any stress!

I'm trying to take a deep breath on the porch swing whenever I need it.  Love the view!  

Have a great week!

a table fable

It's hot - really hot.  We've gone from blissful 70 degree days to 95 degrees daily, with zero rain.  Thankfully, my garden tasks are petering out.  I've up-potted the last of the seedlings in good soil.  After a week or two of growth, I can pop them in the ground.  Otherwise, sporadic weeding, and just enjoying the things that are already up.  Hot pink bee balm...

...and hydrangeas in the shade!

I've had to replant MORE morning glory seeds this week.  Earlier in the spring, the "backyard" chogs ate my thriving seedlings...

he looks so innocent!

...so I planted more, and moved the buckets adjacent to the front yard - where our "woods" chogs indulged.

I've got a woods chog (or last year's babies, who relocated to the woods next to our property) visiting my annual garden - a first.

If he starts to do a lot of damage, our only choice will be to put up ANOTHER fence on that edge of the garden, which would be a huge pain.  I'm hoping that other deterrents will work.  I'm always watching while I'm working at my desk upstairs.

From that same vantage point, I saw that we have a deer and her baby in the side field.  Todd has been getting his daily exercise by mowing it...

...so I can easily see any activity there.  I was able to get close to her last week...

...but she keeps the baby carefully hidden away.  I've only been able to get a quick glimpse through the upstairs window before they melt into the brush.

We've caught her on the trail cam, though, and...ugh.  Ticks.  TICKS!  It's the deer that are bringing to many ticks to our yard.  Check our her ears.  Those are TICKS!

These ticks are getting a juicy blood meal from the deer.  They mate, eat, engorge, drop off, and overwinter in the grass and underbrush.  In the spring, they lay THOUSANDS and THOUSANDS of eggs, and the cycle starts all over again.  Deer also bring fleas...I wish we could completely fence them out, but they can jump up to 12 feet.  It's just not feasible to try to fully fence them out.  

On to more pleasant creatures, like this giant leopard moth.  A real beauty!

A green heron is fishing in the front pond...

...and we're getting the usual group of fliers on our front porch.

I finally finished the side table project! The "before" on these Ethan Allen tables:

...and now:

It took a lot of sanding, and then a couple coats of Minwax finish in "Natural."  I bought some baskets to put in the bottom, for Todd's CPAP machine and other miscellaneous.  The style doesn't quite match our bed and armoire and I *still* haven't gotten around to replacing our 20+ year old lamps, but I don't care.  Baby steps!  

Another fun find for me:  I found a couple of Americana-style canvas prints at a sale this weekend.  I'm not a huge fan of that style, but I was instantly drawn to them, especially the larger one.

It reminded me so much of the big white church next to my great grandma Grace's home.  I pulled an image.  They aren't quite the same, but same basic shape...close enough for my mind to make the leap.  When I see this print, I see the church of my childhood.  

The print even has a white house on the left, just like Grace's house (although they don't look similar).  I look at this print and remember all the times I played "Ghost in the Graveyard" behind the church, and all the nights I watched bats swarm in and out of the belfry.  

I actually have some old photos of Grace's house.  Here it is, before they bought it...this must've been the late teens or early 1920s.

Move in day!

I don't have many photos from my childhood so I'm so thrilled to have these photos, and to have found that canvas print of the church that is so, so similar to the one I loved so much as a child.  

A little walk down memory lane...now back to reclining in the heat.

Have a great week!  

A-mouse Bouche

The more rain we have, the more frogs we see.  Last week, I saw one wedged between the glass panels on our front door!

I could juuuuust see his eye through a tiny slit. 

I was worried that he wouldn't be able to get out, so I raised the glass.  He still struggled to free himself and left a little bit of froggy debris behind, but was able to successfully hop off.

Claudia, too, proved that she was back to her old self by thoughtfully providing a mouse for our supper.

The rain and cooler temperatures have been amazing...

...but even these optimum temperatures haven't ignited my passion for gardening this year.  I don't feel passion for all of my hobbies all of the time...some I lose complete interest in for years, but I always come back to them eventually.  I've been so consumed with gardening in the past, but this year I feel nothing.  Perfunctorily, I planted seeds in containers and moved them to the empty holes in the row garden, but it seems that I infected them with my apathy.  Germination has been incredibly poor and I've struggled to get even "the givens" (sunflowers, basil, marigolds) to germinate.  Things that have germinated haven't grown much.  Is it the cooler weather?  The substandard soil I was forced to use when my reliable source was out of stock?  My attitude??  Whatever it was, I was nearly ready to give up and accept a weed patch.

Then, a miracle.  The garden...self-seeded.  Two full rows and probably another full row, in sections...all filled with annuals that had grown from last year's fallen seed.

I recognize celosia, and maybe...balsam camellia?  Ageratum?

Whatever it is, I don't care.  Truthfully, I don't even know what's in the rows that I planted myself this year.  I used old plant markers on the labels, and they promptly faded.  I've just been dutifully shoving green things into available spots.  I don't think I'm going to have a big, wild garden this year, even with all spots filled.  It's going to get down into the 40s tonight...in June!  Things just aren't growing well...but I don't care.  There's green, and the green isn't weeds.  Puny flowers make great bud vase bouquets.  And as soon as I get this pesky garden done (within 2 weeks?  I've had to repeatedly plant in order to get a few seedlings), I can forget it and move on to something that I really care about!  Hooray!  

Meanwhile, the perennial garden has filled in beautifully.  I keep thinking of the BEFORE picture:  

Now it's wild!

Wild blackberries/raspberries are ripening...

Every little thing is creeping or flying:

tiger moth

katydid nymph

great spangled fritillary 

Our apple tree is absolutely bursting.  A bumper crop!

Inside, a little baking...

the sandwich loaf I bake every week

cake for a friend

...and a little laziness.

Ahhh...summer!

Have a great week!