mellow yellow

It's the yellow season in the garden!  I didn't mean to plant so much, but I think it's so cheerful and I just can't help myself. 

Our white poppies are about done...

...and now the red ones are starting.  All re-seeded from last year!

Although nothing from the annual garden is near blooming yet, I've been able to get plenty of flowers from the perennial garden.

An insane amount of daisies this year.  They've tripled their original number and just keep growing and spreading!

It reminds me so much of my favorite photo of great grandma Grace.

A busy time with the animals here.  I noticed Claudia wasn't eating, and that she had flecks of foam on her whiskers.  She let me check her mouth and I realized that she'd lost her incisors on the left side and couldn't masticate the hard kibble that she normally eats.  I pureed wet cat food for her until her mouth healed.  It was a strange week.  She occasionally leaves bird parts on our doorstep, but that week there was just one confused bird that she'd tried to gum...

...but only managed to pull out a few feathers.  She's all better now!

The choglets are eating and growing...

...and we've continued our snake streak with a THIRD black rat snake in as many weeks!  This one was in our storage barn.

He was a lot bigger than the first two! 

We've been seeing a lot of rabbits around, too.

And on these rabbits...

Yes, more ticks, and MORE ticks.

I even found a tick crawling on Frances yesterday, and he's a strictly indoor cat!  We are being very, very diligent about tick checks this year and so far only Todd has had a single tick attached.  Of course, he's been in their territory quite a bit lately.

We've both been outside lately because the weather has been wonderful, and continues to look promising in the forecast.  70s into the second week of June?  I'll take it!  So we're outside as much as possible, and when inside, our indoor animals keep us on our toes.

Here's Barnabas, who decided that a mere screen did not provide enough ventilation, and it cramped his stretch as well.  So, necessity is the mother of invention...

A new hole provides enough of both!  And Frances is responding in a similar way to his no-cats-on-the-table training.

Life is never boring around here.  Have a great week!  

life is like a box of choglets...

 While we've been busy in the yard, other creatures have been...busy in the yard.  

These margined leatherwing soldier beetles are becoming acquainted on my daisies.

If you look closely, you can see fertilization taking place.  Beetle penises are frequently referred to as "hyper-elongated" and their copulation lasts for hours.  One week, the plants are full of margined leatherwing soldier beetle pairs, and the next, poof!  Nowhere to be seen.  Eggs are being laid in the soil, and we'll have a new crop of beetles very soon.  

These chrysopilus velutinus flies, too, are getting into the spirit of the season.  Snipe flies are blood drinkers, like horse flies, but thankfully they don't feed on humans!

Bluebirds are nesting in our fence boxes and we have BABIES!  Dad brings some food...

...and then he's off for more.

Our chogs have been out and about lately, with a slightly larger family.  Yes...we have CHOGLETS!

They are very hesitant and creeping around us...

...startling easily.

Choglets...climb...trees.  This mulberry tree is full of berries, drawing birds...

...and, well, you know.

We love watching them, although they've already gotten into my tomatoes!

Other visitors this week...a Cope's grey tree frog on the front porch, again...

...and someone that Todd was less than thrilled to see, a gorgeous black rat snake...right on our porch rail, just a few feet from the front door!

This gentle snake is afraid of humans, so it crinkles up its body as a defense mechanism, so that it looks like a crooked stick.  

The tip of its tail almost looks like a fingernail!  A frightened snake will coil and shake this tip like a rattle, hoping to fool people into thinking it's venomous and dangerous. But he's a big softie!  

So much going on around the property this week, with so many visitors and so much work!  We have had mild weather, so even though I've had pretty lousy germination, I've been braving the ticks to get seedlings into the garden.  Speaking of ticks, here's one of our major carriers, down by the back pond.  Look at how many ticks are around its ears...shudder!!

The deer have been extra destructive this spring, too.  

We try to plant things that they like in areas far from the trees, where they don't usually frequent, but they're about as obedient as Frances.  Here he is, THREE YEARS into his obedience training, taking a nap right on top of the dining room table.  

He's incorrigible!  Oh, well.  Maybe 2025 will be his year.

Have a great week!   

snakes on (an inclined) plane

 All sorts of brambles are flowering right now...

...which inspired me to make a berry cobbler!

Actually, looking at brambles led me to an interesting adventure this week.  We've got multiflora roses growing all along the fence line.  They're invasive, but at least they're pretty in bloom.  I love how they wind around our birdhouses.

I went in for a closer look at this particular birdhouse, and...someone looked back!

It's a harmless young black rat snake.  They, of course, will eat bird eggs, although I'm not sure if any bird was nesting here.  It might just be temporary housing for this guy, and at this size, it's a perfect fit for him!  

On our front porch, a small Cope's tree frog rested before his big nightly solo.  We have so many frogs here, with 2 ponds and a stream and lots of trees.  I don't usually see them on the porch, though!  

I've seen other little fellows, like this praying mantis nymph, just an inch long.

A green stink bug watched from nearby.  I actually haven't seen too many insects yet...other than ticks...so I'm loving all of these visitors right now!

Todd and I are continuing with our daily walks, and the trail is so pretty.  

It's lined with the Indiana state tree, the tulip.  This time of year, they're dropping their flowers.  I love to pick them up and put them in water.

I love the variety of trees there.

Different trees, different galls.  These bullseye spots are caused by the oscellate maple gall midge.

The midge, which looks similar to a mosquito, laid eggs here.  The eggs hatched, and tiny maggots live on the leaf tissue, which creates the raised circles.  

Galls are so cool, and all so different.  Here's another that I found recently, caused by eriophyid mites.

I always keep an eye out for something new, even though we walk the same path every day.  I usually find it!  

Even at home.  For example, Frances paid no attention to the barrier I stacked in the upstairs window sill, to keep him away from the screen.  He wanted to stretch out, so he simply stretched over the barrier and busted out a convenient hole in the screen for his paw.  Ah, that's better!  

terrible cell phone pic!

That was definitely a new one for me.  These cats keep us on our toes!

Have a great week!