a table fable

It's hot - really hot.  We've gone from blissful 70 degree days to 95 degrees daily, with zero rain.  Thankfully, my garden tasks are petering out.  I've up-potted the last of the seedlings in good soil.  After a week or two of growth, I can pop them in the ground.  Otherwise, sporadic weeding, and just enjoying the things that are already up.  Hot pink bee balm...

...and hydrangeas in the shade!

I've had to replant MORE morning glory seeds this week.  Earlier in the spring, the "backyard" chogs ate my thriving seedlings...

he looks so innocent!

...so I planted more, and moved the buckets adjacent to the front yard - where our "woods" chogs indulged.

I've got a woods chog (or last year's babies, who relocated to the woods next to our property) visiting my annual garden - a first.

If he starts to do a lot of damage, our only choice will be to put up ANOTHER fence on that edge of the garden, which would be a huge pain.  I'm hoping that other deterrents will work.  I'm always watching while I'm working at my desk upstairs.

From that same vantage point, I saw that we have a deer and her baby in the side field.  Todd has been getting his daily exercise by mowing it...

...so I can easily see any activity there.  I was able to get close to her last week...

...but she keeps the baby carefully hidden away.  I've only been able to get a quick glimpse through the upstairs window before they melt into the brush.

We've caught her on the trail cam, though, and...ugh.  Ticks.  TICKS!  It's the deer that are bringing to many ticks to our yard.  Check our her ears.  Those are TICKS!

These ticks are getting a juicy blood meal from the deer.  They mate, eat, engorge, drop off, and overwinter in the grass and underbrush.  In the spring, they lay THOUSANDS and THOUSANDS of eggs, and the cycle starts all over again.  Deer also bring fleas...I wish we could completely fence them out, but they can jump up to 12 feet.  It's just not feasible to try to fully fence them out.  

On to more pleasant creatures, like this giant leopard moth.  A real beauty!

A green heron is fishing in the front pond...

...and we're getting the usual group of fliers on our front porch.

I finally finished the side table project! The "before" on these Ethan Allen tables:

...and now:

It took a lot of sanding, and then a couple coats of Minwax finish in "Natural."  I bought some baskets to put in the bottom, for Todd's CPAP machine and other miscellaneous.  The style doesn't quite match our bed and armoire and I *still* haven't gotten around to replacing our 20+ year old lamps, but I don't care.  Baby steps!  

Another fun find for me:  I found a couple of Americana-style canvas prints at a sale this weekend.  I'm not a huge fan of that style, but I was instantly drawn to them, especially the larger one.

It reminded me so much of the big white church next to my great grandma Grace's home.  I pulled an image.  They aren't quite the same, but same basic shape...close enough for my mind to make the leap.  When I see this print, I see the church of my childhood.  

The print even has a white house on the left, just like Grace's house (although they don't look similar).  I look at this print and remember all the times I played "Ghost in the Graveyard" behind the church, and all the nights I watched bats swarm in and out of the belfry.  

I actually have some old photos of Grace's house.  Here it is, before they bought it...this must've been the late teens or early 1920s.

Move in day!

I don't have many photos from my childhood so I'm so thrilled to have these photos, and to have found that canvas print of the church that is so, so similar to the one I loved so much as a child.  

A little walk down memory lane...now back to reclining in the heat.

Have a great week!  

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!  

getting my greens

An overabundance of beauty around here right now!

Just as the perennial garden is starting to flag a bit in the heat, the annual flower garden in the back is bursting to life.

Okay, so only the zinnias are really starting to bloom, but even the rows of green are lovely...and I bet this will be completely transformed within a couple of weeks.  I thought I'd hate the look of the landscape fabric, but it is SO nice not to have to weed much...and everything is amazingly tidy!  

My sunflowers are a bit more crowded than I expected, and ditto my tomatoes, but I'll do a better job of spacing them next year.

Lots to see in the garden even without blooms.  So many insects!  As always, constant milkweed beetles...

To-ga!  To-ga!  To-ga!

...unusual butterflies...

zebra swallowtail

...and plenty of the "ordinary" ones.

Pests, like this horse fly...

...and squash bugs, who somehow manage to occasionally hatch despite my diligence with squishing the eggs every few days.

The ladybug nymphs have done their job with the aphids, and now they're well on their way to adulthood.  I've found several in various stages of molt.  Remember this stage?

Here is the progression.  Do you see the crumbled spiny pile at its base?  That's the exoskeleton that you see above!

And escaping into adulthood...

(spider warning ahead!)

This Venusta Orchard Spider looks like its abdomen was decorated with gold and silver leaf...

...while this Thin-Lined Wolf Spider blends into the ground.  This mother is fiercely guarding her eggs.

I've found some really beautiful spider molts, too!

The action is not solely in the garden around here, either.  We see the wood duck babies every day in the front pond.  And they've got company.  Besides our Great Blue Heron, a Green Heron has been hunting here regularly!

Looking for a snack...

I think I've spotted something, and...

Attack!!!!

Grass carp were released into the pond this week to combat the algae problem.  Hopefully they'll clear up this mess by fall!  

We've ju-u-u-ust about gotten things around here in maintenance mode.  Time to relax a little!  The kittens are leading the charge.  They are great motivators!  😄

Have a great week!