Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Bit of this, bit of that

What would a post of mine be without randomosity?
(Yes, I made that word up.)


First, the birds:
Big and little
I think this is the first time I have noticed a juvenile grackle in the yard. He or she hopped up right next to a juvenile house finch, and it made a nice little moment.


Baby dove
And our mourning doves have started bringing their babies to the feeders. Well, to the ground under the feeders. I put Euro in the window, so he could watch his American cousins. He got so agitated, I had to move him. He had started cooing and bowing and raising a ruckus. It was both funny and sad.

I sent the girls and Geoff off to the CNC so I could mow the grass unfettered.
But first, I had to jump-start the mower, because after the last mowing, it ran out of gas and someone left the key on. I won't say who. But it wasn't me. Ahem.

While the battery was charging, I walked over to the sunflowers and was happy to see happy bees with full pollen buckets.
IMG_5278


There are a zillion sunflowers already, but there are still more getting ready to open up:
Ready to open


We have big ones, little ones, and this weird, spiny, red/orange one:
Weird red-orange sunflower


I noticed what I thought was a curled dry leaf.
Then I saw that it had legs:
What the hell is that 1
What the Hell?
What the hell is that 2
It looked just like a dead leaf, curled up and just a bit open at the end.
What the hell is that 3
This weird little thing has a red/orange furry head. I have some research to do.
UPDATE: I found it! It's a Yellow-necked Caterpillar Moth -- Datana ministra.

Nellie has to be wherever I am, so I let her jump in the car while I waited.
Let's go somewhere!
"Momma! The engine's running. Let's go somewhere!"

While mowing, I saw something that made me swerve and miss a whole patch of grass:
My wisteria is in bloom!
Please spit out my wisteria blossoms
It's just one little bloom, but this is the first time it has done anything except grow and try to attach itself to a nearby tree. Three years it's been.
I read that wisteria takes quite a bit of time to bloom...like seeded specimens can take decades to bloom. I am rather pleased with the goofy thing. But it's not one of the American wisterias...I do hang my head a bit when I look at it. (I bought it before I began the whole "Native" thing.)
I looked a few of the blooms, and they reminded me of my Hyacinth Bean, and I thought it resembled a pea blossom. Did you know that wisteria is a member of the pea family? I didn't.

But something is eating the blooms.
Hmmm...I wonder if it's the five trillion Japanese Beetles living on it? Time for a few of those June Bug traps. Ugly little creeps.

Thanks to all of you who have purchased a copy of Geoff's book. Each one helps...and once the advance balance is cleared, those royalty checks can start rolling in and we can live in a way that we are not accustomed.
: )

9 comments:

nina at Nature Remains. said...

I'd love to know what that curled-leaf bugger is. Sometimes its the amazingly beautiful ones that get my attention--sometimes the unusual ones. How amazing is a creature that deserves a second look and has bloggers everywhere scouring the IDs!?

entoto said...

Congratulations on the book release. I would have made a big deal, too. I hope sales are going well.

And what an awesome moth. Nice find.

The Swami said...

"One small purchase for mankind...."

If each person who reads your blog would buy just 10 copies of Geoff's book (they make wonderful presents for anyone who runs---or walks).

Then if each of those people would send just 10 chain-emails to friends telling them that they must buy 10 copies of Geoff's book within the next two hours and warning them that if they fail to do so dire consequences will follow:
* Their Chia Pet will get fleas
* They will get Dutch Elm disease
* Their HMO will not cover blogging-Rehab
* They will NOT win the Nobel Peace Prize
* Everyone will know that they did not care enough to give the very best

If your readers do as instructed they can take pride in knowing that they have helped to reduce inane posts by half-crazed relatives of the author.

Lynne at Hasty Brook said...

Wow- that moth is COOL!! The bee with the thunder thighs looks blue aainst that gorgeous sunflower. I giggled at Swami's comment about rehab for bloggers!!

Jess Riley said...

I love when bees have those thick, furry little yellow legs! It looks like they're wearing leg warmers. The caterpillar dude is very cool...

And Yay for Geoff's book release!!! How very exciting. Loved your mom's bookstore reaction.

Mary said...

I'd love to find a way to permanently rid of Japanese beetles.

Your house is blooming all over! Great photos today (as ususal).

Did you ever take Nellie for a ride or did she just take a drive by herself?

NatureWoman said...

Cool Yellow-necked Caterpillar Moth!! I can't wait for Amazon to *ship* Geoff's book so I can read it!

Mary said...

Tell Geoff there's one more reader out there - ME! Michael will love it. Amazon will get it to me next week. I love the smell of new books.

Anonymous said...

the "rondomosity" (is this your word of the day?) is what makes your blogging so interesting! Love your nature photos and that moth is very cool!