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!
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