I have had my first and second "Harry Potter" themed programs, both at the Cincinnati Museum Center. I have always loved Union Terminal and the three museums inside. I thought of Pam while driving up to it today, due to the history of it all. The building was originally built in 1933 as the Union Terminal train station, and was renovated in the late 1980's and turned into museums. There's the Cincinnati History Museum, the Museum of Natural History and Science, and the Children's Museum. I remember thinking back when they started that no one would want to go there. I have been known to be wrong. Occasionally. Rarely. Okay, it like hardly ever happens.
Anyway, I enjoyed getting in the building through the loading docks, and seeing the "backstage" scenes. The programs are all about owls. and I have a feeling that I will be thoroughly tired of the owls before this is all over. I have 2 programs on Thursday, 3 programs on Friday, and 2 programs on Saturday. All about Harry Potter. And all about owls.


Finally got a nice picture of one of our male goldfinches on the sunflowers. And this time, he is not showing his who-ha.

Plant milkweed for Monarchs, and I get milkweed bugs.
They are pretty though, aren't they?


While sitting on the swing in the back yard, I was stunned to see Isabelle tripping all over herself trying to get to me from the other side of the yard.
She had found a frog in my "pond".

I am assuming it is a young bullfrog. When I saw the spots, I thought maybe it was a leopard frog, but I don't think so now. Another point for Susan Gets Native's yard.
If you build it, they will come!

I love my sunflowers. The sky was a perfect backdrop for them today.

I have been trying to get a nice picture of both of the girls, happy and not fighting or grimacing at the camera. And tonight I got one.

Yep, they're cute. And they're mine.
Look at Miss Beanpole Isabelle. From her height at 3 years, we estimate that she will be 6 feet tall. We have a hard time finding pants for her. She has a 4T waist and 6T legs.
Lorelei, I think, is destined to be of average height, maybe 5 foot 5 in. She's all torso and short legs. My girls. So beautiful.
But for all that cuteness, they can suck the life outta ya.

A worry of mine:
I have another strange bug bite on my hip. I have had these before (a week before my nasty kidney infection) I don't know if the two are related, but the last time I had one of these bites, I spent two days on the couch with muscle and joint pain, like I had pulled every muscle in my body. I think it's time to call the doctor. In my Internet research, the closest thing I have been able to find is Lyme disease. But I am getting these bites in my sleep, under my clothes. That made me think they were spider bites, but I have yet to find any spiders in our bed. And Geoff is not getting bitten by anything. And he's sweeter than me!

I'm a what????

My Liberal Identity:

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I hate Japanese beetles......and some birdy delicate parts

I have declared war on the Japanese beetles.
And in the light of my post on the RAPTOR blog, I had to find something that would get the Japanese beetles and nothing else.
The easy way out would have been to get some all-purpose insect killer, and end up killing all the bugs in the yard. Did you know there is a product called Bug-Free Yard? WTF?
I chose the difficult way out. I had to go to three stores until I found the Japanese beetle bag traps with the pheromone/floral lures. I even went to a store I despise. I won't say the name...but it's two words, the first word begins with an "H" and the second word rhymes with "creepo" They didn't even carry the bag traps. So I finally found some at Lowe's, which is a store I love. Helpful staff, clean, bright.
The other one is like a big scary warehouse you would find in a horror movie.

I was horrified at the selection of pesticides. I watched a very obese woman choose a "snake remover" chemical ( I couldn't help but notice her, because her rather large ass was in my way) and I can't imagine snakes being such a problem here in Southwest Ohio that someone would NEED a chemical to get rid of them! Mice and rat traps, I understand. Indoor ant poison, I understand. Indoor flea and tick spray and powder, I understand.
(I had to get some of that today...forgot to give Nellie her Advantage and she brought them in. Bad pet owner! Bad! Bad!)
But mole traps? Skunk/rabbit/possum/whatever repellent or poison? Full spectrum insect killers???
I say again, WTF?


My Bag O' Beetles.
I went out before sundown to check, and there were already about twenty beetles in there. YES! That will teach you to eat my first wisteria blossoms! I was able to enjoy them a whole 12 hours before they were eaten.

I love our prairie. Every day, there is a new thing to marvel at:

I don't know what it is, but I like it.

I tried to get a few good pictures of a pair of goldfinches sampling our ginormous sunflowers, but they kept turned their butts up in the air.
I almost deleted this one, but I noticed a "small" tidbit...

This is another way you can tell male songbirds from female ones.
During nesting season (and goldfinches are in theirs right now) the male's naughty bits swell up enough to be noticeable. I knew the basics of their reproductive systems, but this is the first time I got a peek at the package, know what I'm sayin'?



I haven't been able to find a single pipevine swallowtail caterpillar for 2 days. I assume they are pupating and are just hiding very well.
But I found a whole new batch of eggs to watch!

I have written a post over at the RAPTOR blog about what you can do (or avoid doing) to help birds of prey and Nature in general. When people begin to think in a global sense, they will begin to make real changes, for the better.
Most of you who read my blog regularly have heard all this before,
but no harm in putting it out there.

Click here.

A very colorful Friday the Thirteenth

Lots of color today...I would really like to see some cool birds, though.

I saw purple:

(Skippers on bee balm, Lake Isabella)

(Bachelor's Button at home)

(Inchworm on chickory)



Pink:

Did you know that before she is a Queen, Anne blushes?



Orange, brown and green...with a touch of more pink:

(Clearwing moth on bee balm, Lake Isabella)

(Sycamore tussock moth, Lake Isabella)


(Look how Lorelei is trying to keep her dress out of the water...like it's anywhere near it!)

(Monarch)



Silver:




Gold:





And touches of yellow:

(Remains of a swallowtail)

(Our sunflowers in the back yard...see that window? That's our second story bathroom.
We don't consider the sunflowers a success unless we can see them out of that window)

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Bit of this, bit of that

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


First, the birds:

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.

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.



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



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



I noticed what I thought was a curled dry leaf.
Then I saw that it had legs:

What the Hell?

It looked just like a dead leaf, curled up and just a bit open at the end.

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.

"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!

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.
: )