history mysteries

(Sorry for republish...had to fix the video links!)

Really cold, but not much snow.  We did had a mini blizzard blow in last week!  I hastily shot a video (sound on!), but unfortunately, this only lasted for about ten minutes.  What a bluster, though!

Extremely low morning temperatures (7 degrees anticipated tomorrow) mean that Pepita isn't getting her regular walks...and she's become a little monster!  She has quite a lot of energy and spends a lot of time pestering the cats and invading their space...

"WHY is she HERE?!"

...and playing loudly with her toys.  She has a habit of dropping her toys off the couch and generally being too lazy to retrieve them, so she flops and grunts/howls until one of us obliges her, or she finally gives in and gets it herself.  This is a MINOR episode...she's usually much louder!

Meanwhile, the cats are being their usual rambunctious selves...

So these quiet winter days can actually be quite noisy!  Well...sometimes they're peaceful.

It's been so cold that I've been fretting about our outdoor animals.  We're keeping cat food in multiple locations outside for not just cats, but raccoons and other friends.

Bird feeders are full, drawing the usual crowd, including an unusual amount of cardinals!  A nice bit of color on grey days.

In my free time, I finished a puzzle this week...another one by Charley Harper.  I really enjoyed it and plan to get the whole series...eventually!  Right now, this is my only one.

I finished that embroidery project from a couple of years ago.  Regrettably, it is a little bit rough, but I'm pleased to have it finished and move on to something else.  Practice makes perfect!

I've been knitting again, slowly working on a sweater sleeve, and doing quite a bit of reading.  With Todd being sick/work flow interrupted, I've had so much more free time and have actually finished eight books so far this year!  The best has been I, Medusa, but my current book (The Buffalo Hunter Hunter) is pretty promising too (two thumbs down for the much-ballyhooed Theo of Golden).  I'm busting through podcasts and feeling very productive in general in 2026!

The old photo of Ruth last week reminded me of some other photos that I received in that batch of unwanted things from her son after her death.  Photos like this one, of my great grandparents, displaying their well-known love of animals and flowers.  I spent a lot of my childhood at their house and well remember the rose arch, the weeping willow, the hundreds of irises that my great grandma cultivated, and the big backyard, plowed up into rows for vegetables and flowers.

I have this letter from their son, who was my grandpa's brother.  He was a crew chief on a B-17 and a technical sergeant.  Many of his letters and telegrams were in this box.  Really evocative.  "I've toured England - seen all the things I studied in history etc. - and I've seen the horrors of war.  Death, destruction beyond comprehension, evacuees by the thousands, poor homeless kids and hundreds of things I never wanted to see hear or think again as long as life goes on."

I've read a lot about World War II and this is interesting on a broader level, but more specifically, it made me curious about family dynamics.  I was raised by my grandparents, with my great-grandparents just down the street, but my grandpa's brother Lawrence - "Lonnie" - was never around.  A rift had developed between the two brothers and Lonnie moved to Florida, never to return to Indiana.  I wondered at this letter.  Lonnie, the beloved older brother, had a rather glamorous role in World War II, living in England for years and working with war planes.  My grandpa joined the Navy as soon as he was old enough, but he was mustered out after basic training.  He had a heart murmur from a childhood illness, and he was deemed unfit, medically, to continue.  It must have been a crushing blow to the little brother who wanted to be a war hero.  Surely he was jealous.  Could this have led to the rift?  It's too late to find out...but I love these little clues.  This box of old family documents and photos is a real gift!  

I feel that even in these quiet months with many fewer wild creatures moving around, you can still be a bit of a "historian" about their past movements, just by seeing what was left behind.  Poking around the back barn while feeding the feral cats, I noticed a few interesting things.  Old wasp nests...

...and groundhog holes, although they weren't very visible this year.

Old barn swallow nests...

...and remnants of a hornet nest.

This was a pretty lively place last summer.  I'll have to pay more attention to it this year.

Have a great week!  

milkweed glee

Summer is going by so quickly, which always amazes me.  But the signs are unmistakable.  Blackberries are ripening everywhere.

Flowers are starting to go to seed...to seed!  It seems so early.

bupleurum

Spring hatchlings are looking more like adults now.  This bluebird is just about ready to leave the nest...

...and these young barn swallows are practicing their low, swooping flights every late afternoon, filling the air with their exciting chirps.

Young rabbits, too, are getting more bold.

(side note: ANOTHER TICK)

Our young turkey poults are half grown now!

Our trail cams pick them up quite a bit.

The local fawn is steadier on her legs, too.

This grass-carrying wasp is preparing her nest for eggs.  They take over old insect nests (in this case, a carpenter bee hole) and stuff them with grass to make soft places for the next generation.  

Caterpillars are everywhere, eating quickly to gain mass for pupation.  Here's a black swallowtail butterfly caterpillar on my dill (another excellent reason to plant it):

And a new-to-me one on the milkweed.  These are milkweed tussock moth caterpillars.  They look destructive...

...but they serve a purpose.  Both monarch butterfly and milkweed tussock moth caterpillars rely on milkweed for their larvae, but monarchs prefer new leaves, and tussocks prefer old.  They happily co-exist. Milkweed spreads rapidly, so these tussocks ensure that they are not too widespread.  They eat a few of them, and the sap from the milkweed makes these caterpillars taste very unappealing to predators.  Win win!  

Milkweed really does provide for a vast array of insects, and they are all readying to lay eggs for next year.

red milkweed beetles

milkweed bugs

It really is a wonderful plant to have around!

Well, although we're nearing late (!) summer, there's still plenty of insects around.

cluster fly

wood nymph moth

oleander aphids

agreeable tiger moth

meadow spittlebug

There's so much to see that I've gotten into the habit of carrying my camera when I go outside.  There's only so much summer left!

Well, as seasons end, so do lives.  Borga gave her last WOOF last week.  

She had a good, long life here!  Todd is really going to miss his little companion.

Hopefully these guys will help him feel a little bit better!  It's tough to lose a pet, though.  They really do leave paw prints on your heart.  

(yes, they're on the dining room table...again.)

Have a great week!

"fish" scales and this plant is...male?

 Babies!

Barn swallows are reusing the old nest in the white barn.  There are nests elsewhere...the air is full of dipping and swooping barn swallows in the barnyard!

More babies in our front junipers.  This is a song sparrow fledgling.

The parents are protective...maybe making a nest directly by the front door wasn't the greatest idea?

This paper wasp queen is making a nest, too.  She's been out and about, searching for wood fibers (any source of wood, even cardboard!).  She masticates the wood with her saliva until she has a ball of pulp...

...which she'll use to start building one of those papery grey wasp nests that are found in so many places.

Turkeys are gobbling in the early mornings, and scavenging during the day when the hunting is good!

I see the same deer almost daily.  

It's easily recognizable because of its strange appearance.

These warty clusters are called deer fibroma, caused by a papillomavirus.  It doesn't affect the health of the deer and can't be transmitted to humans.  It's just unsightly, not harmful!

Butterflies are out and about!

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail female

Great Spangled Frittillary 

Someone dropped a wing recently and I love examining them in detail.  Butterfly wings are covered in tiny scales, like a fish.  That's why their scientific name is Lepidoptera, from the Greek Lepido (scale) and ptera (wing).

Gnats are out in their mating swarms, which are tiny but mighty!

If you look closely, they almost look like they're holding hands in tiny joyful dance circles!

More garden work.

I'm a little concerned with my direct seeding.  The soil is healthy, but the top of the rows are covered in dry,  crumbly clay chunks.  I planted 22 pumpkin seeds but only 2 came up (I'm going to start more in flats this week...seedlings transplanted into the rows are doing just fine).  I planted over 200 sunflower seeds on Saturday.  On Sunday, we got our first real rain in a month, but hours of torrential downpours that likely washed the seeds away.  Sunflowers germinate quickly...if I haven't seen any in a week, I'll probably (sigh) fill flats with seeds and transfer the seedlings.  The garden will be beautiful...maybe not 'til August, though!  Next year, at least, we'll have our system in place and can get things planted a month earlier.  I've been working on more container planting.  The chogs ate all of the hyacinth bean vines that I planted, the week after eating half of my tomatoes.  I'm putting morning glories in their place.  On the front porch, I planted a pretty vine called purple bell vine.  They look normal from above. 

But at eye level?  I'm pretty sure this is really a purple penis plant.

I guess it's a conversation piece?  :)  This week I get the dahlias planted...the last of our landscape fabric comes in, and I fill in the rows with all available seedlings, and seed more if there's room.  Excitement!  The whole garden should be seeded and growing within a week!  We're all ready for a rest.

Have a great week!

molt jolt

It's easy to recognize the slow drift into autumn, even if you ignore the temperature cues.  Dahlias are really popping now!

Birds are rushing through their final brood of the season.

Carolina wren feeding fledglings

A praying mantis goes through 7 or so molts before maturity.  They're moving smoothly through the process now in order to mature and mate in time for a fall egg-laying!  I was really lucky to spot this leftover molt...a lot of times, the mantis or other insects will eat it.

Goldfinches are making their early fall appearance!  I grabbed a quick shot with my junky camera:

Even if I hadn't seen them, I've heard their incessant singing, and they definitely leave behind evidence.

Lots of butterflies...

Hummingbirds...

...and insects.  These are twice-stabbed stinkbugs, so named for the two red dots on their back (evidence of a double stabbing, apparently!).  

This plant hopper is patiently waiting for me to move along.

Sweat bees crowd for nectar.

This tachinid fly is most welcome.  It's parasitic and will lay its eggs on a host...mostly harmful caterpillars and beetles.

Check out this huge gathering of juvenile barn swallows on the telephone line in our barnyard!

I love it when my hydrangea blooms.

Beautiful sunrises...

...lazy kittens...

...and late season flowers...

There's a lot to love about these last days of summer.  Have a great week!