weather most fowl

 Rain...at last.

It's been insanely hot this past week, with temperatures reaching 100 degrees.  I've been seeing this meme a lot lately and Devil's Front Porch sounds about right.  Or maybe we're in Second Summer?  

When it rains in the summer here, we tend to get torrential downpours.  Unfortunately, it absolutely flattens my flowers.  You can see some slumping in this picture, taken earlier in the summer.

I took this photo a few days ago...

...and all the tall plants (amaranth, apple of peru) are twisted and bent in half. Two of my dahlias were ripped off at the roots. Zinnias, cosmos, celosia...anything that's over 2' fall...bent over.  Next year, I have to run rope the length of the rows, both sides, to help prevent flop. 

Lots of interesting faces in the garden.  So...many...katydids!

Colorful leafhoppers...

Too cool for school spittle bugs...

...and quite a few spiders.  Many people don't like looking at them, so be sure to...

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...if they creep you out! 

Okay, are we ready?

I was really excited to see this beautiful female garden spider (argiope aurantia) this week.

And just a few beds away, a loosely-related garden spider (argiope trifasciata) was nestled amongst the scabiosa.  Males are much, much smaller than females, so this one was easily identified!

I've seen several crab spiders in the garden...they're my favorite!

Like the venusta orchard spider, this beautiful long-jawed orb weaver looks like he's been decorated with gold flake!  

We've also seen the chogs out in the barnyard...the older parents who've maintained their home under our back barn are still there, but not outside very often.

The "babies," now grown, have gone further afield.  We see one especially chunky one by the front garden quite a bit.  I think he's got a nest down by the stream that bisects our property.  As long as he doesn't burrow under our porch!

After our insane rain storm, a flock of turkeys inspected our back yard for insects.  Two parents and...nine(?)...babies!  Well, like the groundhogs and our wood ducks, they aren't babies any more.  They're nearly full grown.

see the babies standing on the fence post?

Our county is doing a turkey brood count and I've been able to document several sightings this month.

Todd and I are still taking short hikes before breakfast almost daily.  So much to see in the forest!

This beech tree is covered in beech blight aphids, aka the "boogie-woogie" aphids, so named because they appear to be dancing on the branches.  We saw quite a few of these in South Carolina!

A lone luna moth wing, nearly bleached of color...

Interesting fungus, like this Chicken of the Woods...

...and so many wildflowers, even this late in the season.

goat's rue

The days are busy as we slowly fade into fall.  I'm looking forward to resting up once things slow down.  The kittens are leading the way.

Have a great week!

it's like a heat wave...

Another 95 degree day, and with frequent cloudbursts, everything is growing like you wouldn't believe.  We have a vine on our outside deck railing that grows inches every day.  Inches!  I want everything to be caught up for the new homeowners, so I spent most of Saturday working in the yard, weeding.  With some good company.

It's exhausting to keep moving preparations going on within the house and also deal with a very needy yard, but I would be ashamed to leave a mess behind for new people.  I learned a painful and valuable lesson when we bought this house.  Under South Carolina law, water cannot be transferred into your name until you have the house deed...i.e. after closing.  Despite grudgingly agreeing to leave the water on for a day to give me time to make the transfer in person at the downtown office, the former homeowner called the water department first thing the next day and told them to shut off the water immediately.  I will never forget how that felt:  being in a new state and new house, surrounded by contractors and stacks of boxes, and NO WATER.  I felt so unwelcome and I couldn't believe the insensitivity and meanness behind it.  But it really brought home the value of the Golden Rule to me, and I'm determined to never be like that woman.

So, 95 degree yard work.

I did find some interesting insects while I worked.  This red-sided flat millipede was happy to pose for pictures, since he was long deceased.  These are also known as almond millipedes, since they secrete benzaldehye, which is a chemical note in the scent of cherries and almonds. 

I also saw one of my favorite leafhoppers.  They're all pretty, but this one has red eyes!  It's also one  of the larger leafhoppers.

The finch babies are growing quickly, but so is the cowbird.  It's hard to see from this photo, but the cowbird (on the right) is much larger than the other two.  I see that he has smothered the third finch.  I definitely detected an odor, which is unusual for these nests.  Or could they all be finches?? Only time will tell!

Here's the father, bringing a meal.  I love hearing them sing on the front porch!

Day in the yard aside, most work is being done indoors.  Moving prep is tough, especially since we have so much business inventory!  The good news is that a contractor was able to saw the wooden grids off of both the broken and unbroken doors...

...and the whole glass unit was able to be removed.  Our repair will be under $2000, instead of $8000 or so.  Huge relief! 

It's hard to believe that we're moving in 11 days.  It just doesn't feel real.  Still, I'm going through the motions of this move is really happening, even if it feels like each day will be much like the prior day, just like it has for the past six years.  Part of going through the motions is planning for things that we're excited about doing, and one thing we're both excited to do is to buy bicycles and start riding.  There are lots of bike shops and trails in Bloomington (home of the "Little 500" bike race), and I regularly ride 50 miles a week...in a gym, anyway.  So I had to buy these shirts to commemorate our inaugural ride:

I found a dance studio and a gym.  Different knitting clubs that meet three or four days a week.  Book clubs. Quilting.  Gardening.  Bird watching. FOUR farmers markets. A massive continuing education program at Indiana University, just down the street from our temporary apartment.  Opportunities for all the hiking and kayaking we can handle, just minutes away, and of course we have lots of friends in the city.  Maybe it doesn't feel real is really I'm afraid this is too good to be true!  I believe in preparing for the worst while hoping for the best, so I suppose I won't give in to excitement until we're pulling in our new driveway.  I've definitely got plenty to keep me distracted until then! 

Have a great week!

Dracula makes a pre-Halloween visit to the Upstate

The hurricane in Florida didn't cause more than a heavy rainstorm here in the Upstate, but it ushered in a brief period of blissfully cool weather.  Just enough to get a few leaves to start changing...

...a few days of heavy dew...

...and a certain fall-loving girl very, very excited!  Thankfully we didn't have any real damage from the wind and rain, mainly minor leaf debris.

Once the storm had passed, I went into action.  I switched out my summer fabrics in the living room, took down the "summer" fireplace mantel and put up the fall-themed one, and gathered tons of acorns to make some fall centerpieces.

I put away my summer clothes, pulled out the flannel sheets and blankets and started washing...and it was back to 88 degrees within 3 days, with no end in sight.  ARGH!

On the positive side, we've still got some late-season flowers blooming here.

Some absolutely gorgeous spider webs, mostly occupied.

Lots of activity.  Our anoles are still out and about.

Look at the back of this leaf hopper.  Do you see a face too?  Perhaps a horned devil?  Maybe I've been reading too many books!  I've had trouble finding much information about this, other than a few vague references to it being a "Dracula" leafhopper, because of the face in the "coffin" of wings and the fact that it's a sucking insect...although it sucks sap, not blood.

Typical for the fall, we see the deer every night.

And our solitary beaver has taken a wife!

They're very active at dusk, nibbling on the green shoots and branches at the pond's edge.

This is, of course, one of the busiest times for squirrels, too.

I'm going to take comfort in these signs of fall and try to be patient for cooler weather.  Have a great week!