I Spy, Identify (Or Try...)

As I arrived home after the gym this morning, I was mentally working through my large list of things that needed to get done today.  Then I saw this really cool mushroom when I got out of the car and immediately cleared the morning so that I could take a few pictures.

I can't help it.  It's been so miserably hot and we've both been cooped up in the house for so long, so on a day when there's actually a breeze, and the temperature doesn't start with a '9' or a '1,' I have to get outside.

It was a great day to do so.  Anoles have been everywhere lately, especially the babies.  They're quite skittish, but if you watch for unexpected movement on leaves or in bushes, you can usually find a few.

I even saw one on the window ledge in my office yesterday!

I love them!  Of course, lots of moths and butterflies this time of year.  Identifying the common ones, like the tiger swallowtails, is really easy.

Or if they have distinctive coloring, like this Agraulis vanillae...

...or this red-banded hairstreak...

...identification is a breeze.  But what if they're just...brown?

I have to go by the shape of the 'snout' and the wings.  Still, the best I could do on this particular moth was guess that it was in the family Noctuidae.  

Same with this beautiful Xylophanes tersa.  Even with its unusual size and beautiful markings, doing a search for an "orange-ish moth" will not bring you an identification. 

In my mind, the most distinctive attribute was the graceful wing shape with the peek-a-boo eye.

Studying wing shape in moth pictures by family helped me to choose the correct one, and then searching within the family enabled me to make the right identification.  I really love the challenge of it!  Still, I see insects all the time that I just can't identify, like this giant mosquito-like one from this morning.

In my walkabout, I also spotted a pregnant praying mantis...

...an eastern leaf-footed bug...

...a gorgeous double-banded scoliid wasp...

...and evidence of a recently-departed cicada.

Our beautyberry bushes are laden with fully-ripe berries...

...so I decided to pick some to make a bouquet.  You have to be careful, because there are almost always stowaways!

I love these plants.

They make gorgeous bouquets!

Hopefully this cooling trend continues and I can have many more productive walks.  Have a great week! 

Fawning Over Fall

We've had our first "cold spell" (down into the 70s!), and all of a sudden it seems like there's been a flurry of animal/insect activity!

I spotted a little fawn in our side yard.  Now, whitetail deer usually give birth in early spring, but there are so many of them around here, with no apparent predators and lots of food, that I wonder if it's affected their breeding practices. 

This little ornamental turtle crossed our front steps the other day. 

We discovered a yellow jacket nest at the base of a blooming azalea recently.  They're nasty little things that love to repeat-sting.  Poor Todd checked the nest area and gave the ground one tap, and promptly got stung on his chin.  That did it for yellow jacket eradication - for that day, anyway!

Two weeks ago, a little Carolina Wren began overnighting in our little front porch alcove.  He was somehow able to grip and balance on a tiny ledge there.  He comes every few nights and I really look forward to his visits!  I've named him Percival Wemys (after a character in Lord of the Flies) and he is a very charming character!

With cooler days I've started taking the pets outside in our little fenced side yard.  I don't dare let them loose, with the foxes, owls, and hawks around, but I can keep a sharp eye on them within that small space.  Borga is very alert...

...and Tabitha, our great escape artist, takes just a moment to discover the gap in the gate recently skewered by a falling limb.

The beautyberries are turning deep purple now and they're so lovely.

I've been baking a lot, as usual.  Last week I made some basic chocolate cupcakes with vanilla buttercream, using Sweetapolita's recipe.  I think they turned out really well, even thought it was almost dark by the time I got around to finishing the pictures.

They're bakery-style, with a very light and soft crumb.  I'm not much of a cupcake person, but it's nice to have a good standard chocolate cupcake recipe in my arsenal. 

Looking forward to cooler days with more exploration and baking.  Have a great week!  

Chive Talkin'

I am so pleased with the late summer garden here.  The chives recovered from the black bean aphid attack, and are just beautiful now.

 One of the things I especially love in the garden is height.  My blazing stars didn't make it (the deer - sigh), but the chives, planted all along the edge of the side bed, provide a lovely height against the shorter daisies, marigolds, and zinnias. 

On the other side, I have sprawling lantana and butterfly bushes, all taller than I am. 

It's just as untidy by our front door.  I've scattered impatiens and transplanted liriope, moved ferns and helleborus, and I'm pretty pleased by the disorder.

 

One of the fun things for me about digging around in the garden is, of course, the insects.  I get a kick out of finding their hiding places.  I often see their shadows on the backs of leaves.

Sometimes they're so swift that by the time I move to the front of the leaf, they're gone.  I did catch that last shadow, though - a katydid.

The leafhoppers love the lantana, and I love the leafhoppers.  Look at the range of colors and patterns on their bodies!  They are little works of art. 

Of course, we always have butterflies.

 

I found a beautyberry bush sprouting up in the middle of one of the beds.  Of course, I left it there to add to the disorder, but not before helping myself to some of the branches with ripe berries (ripe in the fall, not the spring - whoops!).  They make beautiful bouquets.

So do the other flowers.  Usually I spread out the blooms with random greenery, but this time I decided to do an old-fashioned, "come as you are" mix.

 Someone gave me a limelight hydrangea stem this week, and I immediately cut it in half, rolled it in rooting hormone, and planted it.  I'm hoping to get some growth so I can plant it.  The deer have eaten my hydrangeas here, but I can save it for our next place.  They aren't exactly rapid growers, so I've got time.

 

 I hope you've got some color around you too.  Have a great week!