more Hercules, please!

 The season is marching along, with so many daylilies...when did I plant these?

Hosta flowers are starting to come up, too.

The garden is really starting to pop (I'll have better pictures soon)!  It's definitely more tame this year - no 4' cosmos or marigolds - but it feels more manageable, too.  We've had regular rain, which is a big help!

Right on schedule, we have squash bugs.  And where there's squash bugs...

I had terrible germination with my pumpkins (like with everything else) and was only able to plant about 10 this year...and many of these were volunteers from the yard!  Even though the pumpkin plants are just a few inches tall, they are swarming with squash bugs.  I have to crush the eggs every couple of days, or the babies will eat the pumpkin leaves and possibly kill the plant.  

Herons are still visiting the pond regularly...

heron pouncing on a fish 

...and many other interesting creatures are around, too!

eastern tent caterpillar moth

eastern whitelip snail

house finch

song sparrow

plume moth

[look away if you're spider-averse!]

venusta orchard spider

hentzia jumping spider

Todd found this beauty in the driveway recently.

It's a female eastern Hercules beetle (a male would have gigantic 2.5" horns!).  Isn't she a beauty?  Check out her wings...it looks like a watercolor painting!

She was legs-up days ago, so I put her on the porch, where she moved sluggishly.  I didn't expect her to live, but she continued to do so, so I moved her to the garden.  She's gone now.  I hope she's laying eggs somewhere...I'd love to have more of these around!  

There was a rabbit right by the house...or there used to be.

The weather has been...amazing.  With one hot and humid exception, we've been in the 70s for several days.  It was 55 degrees when I woke up today!  Beautiful sunny days and blue skies.

The kittens watch me from their perch while I'm working outside...

...unless they're otherwise occupied.

Pleasant days indeed.

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!