hot spot

Working on two full weeks with our Pepita!  She has somehow taught herself to fetch...

...and is working hard on SIT and COME HERE.  Still no house accidents, still sleeping through the night in the office crate, and now she rests quietly in her living room playpen for 4 hours in the morning and 3 hours in the afternoon, allowing us to get work done.  When not in the playpen, she is actively working with one or both of us.  Frances supervises from a safe distance.  He knows that she's been good, but cats are so interesting and new!

Pepita made her first trip to PetSmart this week...

...and managed her first 15-minute trail walk this morning!  She's making amazing progress.  

So is Claudia!  Her tubes come out tomorrow and I think she'll finally be able to leave the crate she's been living in and roam around the barn.  Todd has been spoon-feeding her (because of her cone), cleaning her crate and litter box, cleaning her incision and drain tubes, and making sure that she has plenty of pets and reassurances.  We'll both be glad for her to gain a little bit of independence!

Meanwhile, our hot weather stretch continues.  I open the windows every morning, no matter what, for a bit of fresh air.  It doesn't take long for our floors to become actually wet from the humidity and after we slide around for awhile, I grumpily close them.

 I keep trying to rouse myself to work in the garden, but between the heat/humidity and Pepita, I can't seem to get time to get anything done.  I did get the pumpkins planted, at least.

But the cutting garden (hangs head in shame)...we've got the saddest 4-foot sunflowers ever, and despite the fact that I spent an insane amount of time weeding at regular intervals until just two weeks ago, weeds are bursting out everywhere.  I'm definitely writing it off for the year.  At least the perennial garden has a ton of color...

daylilies

...and a ton of visitors!  The bee balm, especially, has drawn all sorts of butterflies...

eastern tiger swallowtail

zebra swallowtail

great spangled frittilary

pipevine swallowtail

...but also one of my favorites, the snowberry clearwing hummingbird moth.

They used to be a rarity, but now the garden is FULL of them.

You can see why they're called flying lobsters!

They're great pollinators and I love to see them around.  I also saw two really cool sphinx moths this week...the blinded sphinx moth (so named for a coloration quirk - they are not actually blind, but they don't have mouthparts and don't feed...just breed quickly and die!)...

...and the elm sphinx moth.

A couple of beauties!  

We're still catching lots of action on the trail cams.  Bobcats, coyotes, possums, deer, squirrels, skunks, turkeys, turkey vultures, herons, and so...many...raccoons.  I counted five in this video!

Todd has only seen two ticks so far this year, and I haven't seen any.  Our winter was especially cold (I wistfully remember) and that helps keep the population down.  However, seeing this deer on one of our cameras reminds me to continue to be vigilant.  There are still ticks around.  See those lumps on the backs of her ears and bridging the space between?  Those are ALL TICKS.  Yuck!!

Between trying to keep up with Pepita and Claudia, get work done, keep the house in order, and generally keep things moving forward while trying to survive in 90 degree heat, there isn't a lot of time left for leisure.  However, I'm going to try to take a cue from Pepita...

...and the cats...

a typical Frances nap

...and take a break every once in a while!  

Have a great week!  

those that devour coneflower

The bee balm is starting to fade, and it's a shame because it draws so...many...insects.  One of my favorites is the hummingbird moth.

Like hummingbirds, they can hover, and they are fast...up to 35 mph!

I love seeing them in the bee balm.

Of course, there's still plenty of bees there...

Butterflies, like this pipevine swallowtail...

Really, the only other flower that comes close is the coneflower.  Now, I planted a few coneflowers when we moved here, but they have spread...

...and spread.

I think our huge population of goldfinches helped to spread the seeds.  Before they really got going, I counted over one hundred plants!

Butterflies love 'em.

Great Spangled Fritillary

Eastern Swallowtail

Of course, we have lots of other personalities...

Damselfly

Ladybug

Japanese beetles

red milkweed beetle

so many bees!

I've also been delighted to find lacewing eggs around the garden, suspended by a stiff stalk.  The eggs are tiny, like a little poppy seed.

After a bit of searching, sure enough...I found the lacewing.

Lacewings are great to have around because they eat aphids...something we have in abundance here.  I'd been fretting about our milkweed in the back, covered with sugarcane aphids.  I didn't want to rinse the leaves with soap and water, for fear of destroying any monarch eggs.  However, nature balanced it out.

This is a ladybug nymph:

In the few weeks before he pupates, he will eat hundreds and hundreds of aphids.  They are voracious!  They're all over my milkweed, and the aphid population is looking decidedly thin.

snacking on an aphid

What a relief!  Now to keep an eye out for those monarchs!

So much to do in these mid-summer days, but still seeking out those quiet, peaceful moments when I can find them.

Have a great week!

pollination fixation

Because I pass by the back garden every day on my way to the barn, I can't help but notice the flurry of activity.  It is covered in pollinators right now.  

I was excited to spot this Snowberry Clearwing moth (in the hummingbird moth family) today.

They are so named for the rapidity with which their wings move, just like hummingbirds, and they also share their ability to hover in midair to feed.  They are really delightful visitors!

Someone less welcomed...but still visually appealing...is the Japanese beetle.  I wasn't too hard-hit by these this year.  It seems like they were around for a week and then gone.  These are the first I've seen in quite a while.

Hello, grasshopper!

Of course, we always have lots of skippers...

...and butterflies!

Butterfly wings are covered with the tiniest scales. It's pretty amazing when you study it closely!

I decided to do some work in the garden recently.  We've had a lot of rain, and the weather has cooled.  We're having mulch spread in a week, so I needed to weed around my plants to make sure that nothing is accidentally covered up.

EVERYTHING is smothered in weeds.

If you don't see a flower, you're probably looking at weeds.

I weeded, laid down cardboard, and covered non-flower areas in mulch.  This is before we decided to hire out the mulch portion of the job!  :)

When Claudia wasn't fussing to get into my lap, she napped in the shade provided by the extra cardboard.

So.  Many.  Flowers.

Sure, most are zinnias, a few sunflowers, and huge swatches of cosmos that are just getting ready to bloom...but I don't care.  There are so many different varieties!

I'm cautiously optimistic about collecting seeds this year.  My little plants have rebounded quite a bit, and although a bit short, the flowers are wonderful!  Another surprise...I did not expect any vegetables this year.  I didn't do any preventative insect work, I didn't provide structure, and I let them grow in weeds.  Yet...

Watermelons and tomatoes and pumpkins, oh my!  I've also been collecting the first of the zucchini and cucumbers.  I've never grown more than cherry tomatoes, a few split radishes, and bolted lettuce in the past, so this is pretty exciting.  As usual, I have big plans for more vegetables and a tidier presentation next year!  Two words:  squash arch.

 

Photo Credit:  animalnatlife.com

Squee!!  

Have a great week!