Ceti Eel Appeal

It's been really, really hot here, and it wasn't much relieved by a recent rain.

It's beautiful in South Carolina, with mostly wonderful weather, but June - September is a bit of a trial.  We're near 100% humidity...not too different from Indianapolis...but cool fall weather arrives much later. 

At least we've got some nice flowers coming up.  Our lantana bush has reached about half its eventual height, but still has lots of blooms.

Our butterfly bush is going strong.

Some mysteries...an amaryllis that we didn't plant bloomed in the garden earlier this summer, and now we have these little pitcher plants coming up everywhere.  They're pretty, but how did they get there?

Same with this small patch of daylilies.

These giant shamrocks (3" across!) come up at random times.

This Rose of Sharon-like bush is just starting to bud out.

Our late-blooming gardenia bushes are going strong, and the abelia bushes are starting to put out their little trumpets.

We see a lot of fungus this time of year, especially if we've had a lot of rain.  Sometimes it even pushes up through our blacktop!

 I love seeing more insects in the summer, even this pesky black beetle eating through one of our dogwood leaves.

All over the yard I saw tiny balls of fluff moving industriously over leaves.  It's the debris-carrying green lacewing larvae, a great insect to have in the garden.  See the jaws?

The larvae is hidden cleverly beneath.  He uses his disguise to get close to prey without arousing suspicion.  Genius!  And...am I the only one who sees the resemblance to Star Trek's ceti eel? 

Look away, arachnophobes...this beautiful venusta orchard spider is making short work of this little insect that's stumbled into her web.  I love those colors!

I've only seen our "goz" twice this past week, but it's easy to see that these 6-week olds are pretty near fully grown!  They're nearly indistinguishable from their parents, who still keep a sharp eye on their activities. 

The "lucky seven" are all accounted for, but the second group of 3 hatchlings is now down to a single chick.  We've got foxes and other predators here, so this is a pretty dangerous time for this little guys.

I've been doing  a lot of crafting inside (as time permits), but I hesitate to post future gifts.  However, sometimes the project takes a different direction.  I decided to make a pair of heavily-cabled socks for a friend.  The cables spiral over the heel and cover the front of the sock, all the way down to the toe.  I'm not keen on cabling without a needle, so I'm pretty slow.  Two weeks of night work on these guys and I was not even done with the first sock, and thoroughly tired of cables.

Second Sock Syndrome is a real thing, and I knew that I would never do all that cabling on a second sock.  Worse, I was 8 stitches off somewhere, so the cables on the existing sock weren't centered properly.  I frogged this guy last night and will use the yarn for something else.  I have an embarrassingly large queue on Ravelry (3000+!), so I've taken a little time to go through it and organize for future projects. I've found some long-forgotten gems and feel inspired to take up the needles again soon!

Have a great week! 

Sarlaac-ing in Skills

I love the dependability of our wildlife friends here.  Several days ago Todd spotted a Southern Toad (Anaxyrus terrestris) sitting at the entrance of his hole down by the pond.  He's there every single day.  I always go down for a peek. 

A cardinal pair is nesting in an azalea under our sunroom.  Every day, I take a peek at "Little Miss" sitting on her eggs...

We are officially forbidden from using those stairs so we won't disturb the expectant parents!

Every day, of course, we see the familiar cast of characters:

The geese swim down to our end of the pond every day, bringing their little goslings. 

I'm following their development with great interest.  Even since last week, they've changed.  They're molting - more feathers and less baby fluff.  Their heads are bigger and are taking on the classic goose slope:

It's such a treat to watch them.

Every time I go down the deck stairs, I see the same Venusta Orchard spider, waiting patiently for her next meal:

They all start to feel like old friends, and it makes me happy to walk around and see them in their daily routines - just like me. 

Borga likes being outside too:

Not the cats, though.  Oh, it's fine for a while, and then it's:

That's what I call a kitten caboose!

In other news, I took my first stab at making a Star Wars cake recently.  This is a Sarlaac.  It's some kind of tentacled worm creature that lives in a sandy pit, catching prey in a way reminiscent of an ant lion (video here).  I got the idea from Yummy Crumble, whose cake turned out way better than mine.  But anyway...I baked a basic bundt cake.

I hand-cut the Sarlaac shapes in basic sugar cookie dough with a knife.

I frosted the cake and coated the frosting with crushed gingersnaps to mimic sand.

I gave the Sarlaac frosting teeth...

...and popped the parts into the bundt cake center, anchored with frosting.

I didn't think the tentacles looked right, so I ate them.  ;)  They were very tasty!

Finally, I went to a flea market this weekend and found this old wooden trough with several holes through its center.  I'm not sure what it was originally used for, but I had some small glasses that fit perfectly into the holes.  I pulled up some of our groundcover for the glasses.  I'm not sure what this stuff is, but it lasts FOREVER and in a darkened room, too.

It makes a nice centerpiece, I think!

Have a great week! 

Sign O' the Times

No, I'm not referring to a Prince album with the title of this entry.  Even though it's still 90+ degrees F outside, I'm seeing little signs everywhere that fall will soon be upon us.

The deer are even more visible as they fatten up for winter.

The beavers are shoring up their dam with our little trees.

Some of our trees have started dropping their nuts, which they do every fall.  There's a constant gentle tap, tap from them hitting our roof and deck.  We have lots of squirrels here, and they are pulverizing the nuts still in the trees.  I can look out and see a steady stream of shells falling from the trees, and our driveway is absolutely covered in the little shards.

Some of our fall-blooming azaleas have opened up.

I decided to let the Sweet Autumn Clematis have its head and twine up through our gardenia bushes.  I'm so glad I did.  It's just starting to bud out.

The liriope is sending up its purple spikes.

 Our ginger lilies will be blooming soon...

The camellia bushes have little buds...

...and the little berries on some of our bushes have obtained a hint of blush, getting ready for their big fall show of color.

The blossoms have fallen from our beautyberry bushes, and they're setting up berries, too, for late winter color.

You can see the coming season in our insects and arachnids, too.  I've been looking for spiny-backed orb weavers with no luck so far, but I did spot my first Venusta Orchard spider of the season.

I still see lots of flies and bees...

...and I spotted this late-season cicada as he pushed out of the clay and headed for a tree, where he prepared to molt.

Fire ants here are most active in spring and fall, and in the past week saucer-sized mounds have been popping up all over the place.

I always tap the top of the nest with my foot to make sure it's not a 'regular' ant nest.  Fire ants look like harmless little black ants, but they are incredibly aggressive.  Even though I tried to be quick, ants were swarming on my shoe before I was able to withdraw it from the top of the nest.  Thankfully, I didn't get bit.  Look at that activity!

The cats don't care much about the changing season.  They continue with their "all seasons" reclining.  :)

Fall is, by far, my favorite season, so I'm incredibly encouraged by these subtle signs, even though the temperatures aren't quite there yet.  I know it's coming soon.

Have a great week!