Tuesday, August 21, 2018

A wave of Monarchs washed into my yard just now. There were probably between 40 or 50 of them flitting about the butterfly bushes and the ironweeds. They like purple. Just as fast as they appeared, they disappeared right before it started to rain again. Clicking on photos enlarges them.

Last week I found a patch of Queen Anne's Lace with loads of buds about to burst woven into the lace. The first shot is from that initial visit. Today I found the patch again.I believe the yellow flowers are stiff Coreopsis.

No, it's the sun on an overcast day not the moon. 

Lovely though, don't you think.

Bear is a camera hog. He follows me around and seems to be saying, I'm here. Take me! Ignore those plain old goldfish! Irresistible Bear.

Helenium and a few Rudbeckia

Helenium with Clematis

Helenium

Heliopsis

Gamer of Thrones Rock

One Final Tree Stump

My Bench

Gamer of Thrones Rock

One Final Tree Stump

My Bench

Gamer of Thrones Rock

One Final Tree Stump

My Bench

Lake Huron Ships

The San Salvatore Beach 

Saturday, August 18, 2018 - DJH

When I found a dead female Baltimore Oriole this recent spring I was concerned that my male had lost his mate and wouldn't be able to find another even though he had established his territory. I just saw a few immature Orioles so he won the heart of another female and they raised their brood. It's not a great photo - except for me. Every so often I see my male on the Oriole feeding tube. Clicking on photos enlarges them.

I first saw Ironweed (Vernonia) at Fritatta several years ago and was fascinated by their large size, close to five feet, and their brilliant purple flowers. I have several in my wildflower garden near the bluff. The showy flowers are magnets for butterflies, bees, and hummingbirds. The color is very close to the color of Michaelmas daisies, happy precursors to autumn, that come later in September.

This bunch of Queen Anne's Lace proves that even simple and common wildflowers can be beautiful. I noticed several somewhat smaller wildflowers in their midst with buds but as yet unopened flowers. I can't wait to see whet they look like and what they are. Perhaps they'll be yellow-ish?

Cup-plants

Platycodon and Phlox a happy coincidental pairing

Add Heliopsis

I have my late summer wild Clematis virginiana in two spots, one in my back garden and other other in my front garden; fortunately the conditions are not equal so when one grouping is finished flowering, the second grouping starts. This front garden Clematis has a nice Helenium in its midst.

And this nearby one has blue chicory, phlox, and a dandelion look-alike penetrating its white blanket of blooms. David and Carolyn tell me theirs, imported from Rolling Hills via Royal Oak, climbs up the sides of their deck engulfing the edges with flowers at this time of the summer.

It's Saturday so after talking with my older brother this morning, I went to the Farmers' Market in Port Austin. Along the way I saw three clumps of wild Clematis virginiana. I would like to know if any were female plants. However, even if they are, I do not want one! My Clematis has a faintly pleasant odor and, because they are all male plants, they never set seeds so they don't need to be de-budded.

Trapping

Until this year I have not been bothered either by rabbits or deer; foxes and hawks have kept the numbers of the former down and autumn hunters and traffic accidents have minimized the damage done by the latter.

Not true this year. I set out some very old traps to capture bunnies for release into other, more distant realms. None of the traps have worked so far. Kit wanted us to go for a walk in the north woods and it's had to refuse her commands. This morning she woke us all up because a deer had invaded the Hosta garden and had to be chased out. The indignant pack howled out; the huge deer escaped over the fence. I doubt the neighbors liked reveille.

When we got back to the porch after our woods wandering, one of the dogs was missing. Ha! We looked and found a bear in one of the traps. Actually, we found our Bear in one of the traps - silently waiting to be released. Bear has an insatiable curiosity and a hunger for brassicas. All the dogs love cabbage leaves, brussel sprouts, cauliflower, broccoli, which I give them regularly because they are health food for them and me. I used cabbage leaves to bait the traps for rabbits. Poor Bear. He calmly backed out once I figured out how to release him. (Clicking on photos enlarges them.)

Everywhere I've lived for several decades now I've brought along my wild clematis (Clematis virginiana). It is a vigorous grower and hard to keep in bounds but worth it for the blanket of flowers that completely covers my fence in the space of our short growing season, and all the while providing food for many insects and a summer privacy fence for my back yard that is also a neighbor friendly fence. In the late fall or early spring I cut the plants back to two or three inches. Growth is rampant. All the flowers I've ever seen anywhere are male; no seeds have ever been produced. Thankfully. Like Kudzu, they could easily take over if given half a chance.

Wasps as adults drink nectar. However. they search for meat, usually insects but also carrion or leftovers from human picnics, to feed their rapidly growing larvae back in their nests so might be considered beneficial, as long as you don't arouse their ire by attacking or appearing to attack or threaten their nests. I've counted as many as eight or nine different species feeding on nectar and pollen on my clematis and that doesn't include the various wild species of bees including bumble bees and carpenter bees that find food for their young. Honey bees also forage in the flowers as long as they last. (Honey bees are thought by some to be native to India.) The last photo completes or at least adds to the circle of life. A small spider caught that wasp and was feeding on it.

At the base of one of the clematis plants are a struggling few Grandpa Ott's morning glories. I'll have to save some seeds and plant them where they don't have to compete (and lose) to the clematis next year.

Hummingbird young

Cup Plant

Cup Plant

Bergamot/Monarda

Bergamot/Monarda

Dahlia

Dahlia

 (Can you find the ship?)

Voila