still life

 I'm delighted that I'm still getting vegetables from our parched garden.  These 'Black Beauty' tomatoes and "Straight Eight' cucumbers are so beautiful together that I have declared them off-limits for eating.  I set them out, one bowl at a time, to enjoy looking at, like a still life painting.   

Gourds and pumpkins are providing a nice festive autumn atmosphere on our front porch, along with goldenrod and 'wheat' from our field borders.

 I'm so impressed with the bounty from these few vines that I'm ordering all sorts of fancy ornamental gourds and pumpkins for next year...pale greens and oranges, tiny white pumpkins, and big warty monsters. 

While gathering in the garden this weekend, I saw a bit more still life...this tobacco hornworm caterpillar was absolutely frozen in place.  He's been parasitized by the braconid wasp, which is a wonderful thing.  Hornworm caterpillars are mighty destroyers of tomatoes.  A braconid wasp, wanting a live egg incubator, specifically seeks out hornworms.  The eggs hatch and the larvae chomp merrily on the caterpillar's innards...not enough to kill him, but he's definitely immobilized.  The larvae spin tiny white cocoons that hang from the caterpillar's back...

Adult braconid wasps emerge from the cocoons and seed out new caterpillars to infest. 

Caterpillar dies and is therefore unable to inflict any more damage in our tomato patch.  Double bonus...braconid wasps are pollinators!  Nature's pest control at its best.  

Life is supposed to slow down in the fall, but we've remained pretty busy.  While turkey vultures circle lazily overhead...

...I've been cleaning the debris from the front garden.  Flowers are prematurely browning up because of the drought, so I've been trying to keep on top of snipping, including taking down cleomes before they drop their seeds.

Somehow, back garden flowers are still doing very well...

...and I'm able to continue to gather bouquets, but only in autumn colors - orange, yellow, and white.

Snapdragons, basil, cosmos, zinnias, coneflowers, black-eyed susans, toadflax...all contribute their cheery colors to our seasonal bouquets.

Our overnight temperatures are supposed to dip into the '30s (!!!) this week, though, so I anticipate a rapid wilt.  I'm excited to collect these seeds!  The garden is big...

...but I'm already planning an expansion for next year.

The back fields have been bush-hogged for the fall, but Todd and I have both been out with the weed eater, tidying up fence lines and borders.  It's been rewarding, having these fields return to natural meadows.  They were absolutely weed-choked when we moved in, with thistles, burdock, cockle burrs, jimson weed, and more. Cockle burrs and jimson weed are annuals, meaning that they only live for one year, but re-seed easily.  Thistles and burdock are biennial, meaning a two-year life cycle.  We mowed last fall to stop re-seeding, and have mowed multiple times this year.  The weed patches continue to reduce, and are replaced by beautiful natural grasses and wheat.

The mown fields, too, make is easier to walk to the back pond.  I love to see the fall colors reflected in the water...

...and see signs of life in the mud around the water's edge.  Raccoons have left tell-tale tracks all over.

I continue to see deer bounding through the meadow from my office window.  I wonder who else visits here at night?  

Leaves are continuing to slowly change, with our somewhat cooler temperatures...

It's still plenty warm, though, for frisky pups.

Not quite warm enough for the cats, who are seeking out sunbeams...

...and fabric piles.

I'm hoping next week that it's cool enough for heated cat mats!  These two just can't wait.  :)

Have a great week!

Spider Backs and Wasp Attacks

The weather here is finally, finally starting to cool off and the wildlife is responding.  From my office window I've observed almost daily a little red fox (with a full tail - he must have been molting earlier and not infested with mange - thanks for the reader tip!) trotting into the woods.  The turkeys have been out and about, and just this weekend I saw a woodchuck ambling down the driveway!  Of course, the Canadian geese are settling in great numbers on the pond every late afternoon.  I love to hear them murmuring on the water at night.

This is the time of year for spiders.  A beautiful spiny-backed orb weaver has spun a web outside my office window.  It's too far off the ground for a picture, but I can watch him while I work.  His web is ingenious.  It puffs and moves in the breeze like a downed parachute, and those intermittent dashes of solid white warn away birds. 

He's no spider, but close enough...a harvestman lurks on a leaf.

On our deck is a large garden spider.  She is collecting her share of those pesky shield bugs that proliferate in the fall and tidily storing them in her web.

I've always enjoyed the pattern repetitions I've seen in nature, from tree bark variations to leaf veins to water ripples.  I have no talent with sketching or painting, but with hand embroidery I have the possibility to take tracings from photos and reproduce designs in thread.  Look at the detail and shading on her abdomen!  This will be my first challenge. 

Look at the abdomen of this little orb weaver!  Yellow, with just a smattering of brown dots.  Really cool. 

Here is another 'pattern repetition' that I'd love to reproduce in thread.  This is a hornworm caterpillar.  A real garden pest. 

See those white things?  Those aren't caterpillar eggs.  They're braconoid wasp cocoons.  The wasp lays her eggs beneath the skin of the caterpillar.  The larvae feed on the caterpillar.  As they mature, they push their way through her skin and spin cocoons.  When they're fully mature, they exit the cocoons and fly away.

Here is a close-up of the cocoons:

See the holes where the larvae pushed through?  Talk about battle-scarred!

If you look closely, you can see 2 larvae, newly emerged from the caterpillar.  I lost about 30 minutes watching them make their cocoons.

I think it would make such a cool embroidery project!  I'll tuck that away for a later date.

The trees have been fairly silent for the past 6 weeks, but birds are suddenly everywhere.  Bluebirds, titmice, catbirds, warblers, and other birds are filling the air with their calls.  Red-throated hummingbirds are in a frenzy at our feeder.  All sorts of woodpeckers, too, are knocking around in the trees.  We had a pair of piliated woodpeckers last week - the largest in the woodpecker family.  Love!

Our plants are responding to the cooler weather too.  Ferns are putting up their new bronzed leaves...

Beautyberries are maturing.

Chives are up!

Our gardenias and one group of azaleas bloom at random times.  They're going full-bore right now.

Now if we can only get to the point where our temperatures are consistently in the 60s and 70s, we'll be set!

Have a great week!