see no weevil

 It's already August!  It must be...the naked ladies are blooming. 

Hydrangeas, too.

The garden is finally springing to life.

Corn is getting tall...

...with kernels as tiny and pearly as baby teeth.

from a blown-over stalk

But now that it's closer to getting ripe, the birds have become interested.  I've found several stripped ears.

The only safeguard is to wind tape loosely around the tips.  That way, the birds can't tug down the husk.  Fingers crossed that it works!  

I harvested our first watermelon, which had seemed to stop growing in size and sounded hollow when I thumped it, telltale signs of ripeness.   But...

...whomp whomp.

Todd said that there was a surprising amount of edible sweet flesh here, so it wasn't a total loss.  Oh, well, trial and error!  Up to 15 robust tomato plants, too, and still no ripe tomatoes.  We're going to be swimming in them in a couple of weeks!  More trial and error...next year I'll start them inside, under lights, so that they'll be fairly sizable when they go in the ground, late May.  I'd like to have tomatoes before the frost next year! :)  

Plenty of wildlife around here lately.  So many turkeys and poults!

Snakes, like this harmless Eastern Milk, help keep down our rodents.

This green heron is having a tasty meal in the front pond!

I was really excited to find a summer fishfly on the porch.  They only live for a few days in this adult form...they spend most of their lives (2-3 years!) in the larval stage.

Another interesting find...this looper moth caterpillar.  They're nondescript brown striped caterpillars who disguise themselves by plucking debris from flower heads and attaching it to their backs.  They certainly look intimidating!  I've found several this week.

using the dark bits from the flower center....

...and this one is using immature petals from the exterior.

Having just finished The Last of Us, this next discovery was especially noteworthy.  Entomophthora, which means insect destroyer, is a fungus that attacks the brains of flies.  It causes them to climb, climb, climb, so that the fungal spores, when ready, can more easily and widely disperse.  It's easy to see when a fly is infected.  The fungus is sprouting everywhere!  

Speaking of flies, check out this bristly bottom!

This is juiniopsis adusta...a bristle fly.

They're sometimes used as biological pest control, because they parasitize some harmful moth caterpillars.  I just like watching them bustle!

More fun insect bums!  :)

This Asian oak weevil was hanging out on the corn last week.

They're pretty destructive to oaks and chestnuts, but at least our corn is safe!  I'm loving the wide variety of insects around here this year.

Nice end-of-summer days...

I'm loving it.   Have a great week!  

milk snake double take

It's been a busy and beautiful week!

muliflora rose from the field

The peonies are in bloom this week and it's heavenly.

I fill the rooms with bouquets.  I keep telling myself to add some variety...purple salvia, yellow loosestrife, white chamomile...but all the the bouquets are simple, just peonies and mint.  I like the color contrast.

Sometimes I'll put a lone bud on a shelf and watch it get bigger and looser, day by day.  

"The yellows" are starting to come in...the loosestrife...

The sedum is blooming yellow, too.

Lots of color...

It's hard to select photos at this time of year.  Every day, I bring my camera when I go out and I take hundreds of photos...anything that interests me.  Not just plants, but lots of animals.  Sometimes I'll get a glimpse of turkeys in the barnyard...

...a chog by the barn...

Deer watching from across the pond...

Todd set a loose birdhouse on one of our fence posts two weeks ago, and it was quickly claimed by a bluebird.  

I peeked in when she was away once...we're going to have babies!!

Todd unearthed this Eastern milk snake while pitching compost this week.  What a beauty!!

Farmers used to call them 'milk snakes' because they were seen so much around barns that farmers thought the snakes were slipping in to steal milk from the cows at night.  Actually, they prey on familiar barn pests...mice and voles.  They're great to have around!

So, so many more things that will have to wait for another post.  We're both busy with work and getting the garden ready.  We had the back left field plowed last week...

...and ordered a drip irrigation system and garden fabric...WITH holes for seeds/plants.  It's more expensive, but I'm done fighting the weeks and ticks in that garden, and it's just too much to water by hand when I have four other garden beds to deal with.  Already this early summer we're two weeks without rain and no rain in sight, which means up early and watering at least 30 minutes before work to keep things alive.  Todd has been busy measuring and pounding stakes...

Each row has to be measured for the fabric we bought, and the paths stomped down.  It's daunting...by the time everything is laid out, it will be ready for over 2,000 seeds/seedlings!  Quite a bit for a home garden but I love being surrounded by flowers and I'm getting such a late start (most of these flowers should've been started inside a month ago) that I probably won't even see blooms until late July.  No matter...I'll enjoy the growing things no matter what.  

Have a great week!