It finally rained! After a month of no rain and high temps, the skies opened up and it rained all night Friday. I woke up to full rain barrels and plants that weren't thirsty. Hooray!!! Now if I could just get it to rain for about an hour every other day from 4 - 5 am, that would be fabulous!!! Wishful thinking!!!
I've had a lot of butterflies in the garden this summer, but unlike bees, by the time I grab the camera and run outside, they're gone. The bees seem oblivious to the activity around them and focus completely on the task at hand. They're linear and acconplishment driven and are easy to track. They are the Type A super achievers of the insect world, thus making them easy to photograph. The butterflies, however, alight for just a few seconds before fluttering away and seem to prefer the flowers out of reach of my cameras sad little zoom lens. By the time I run outside to photograph them and set up the shot, they're gone. Today I saw a huge Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly flapping slowly around the rose of sharon, and quickly ran for the camera. No camera. Anywhere... It slowly floated back into view, and determined to take it's picture, I grabbed my cell phone and ran outside. The picture doesn't due this amazing butterfly any justice, since it's wing span can be almost six inches across.
I've also seen spicebush swallowtails, giant swallowtails, fritilaries, sulfurs, cabbage whites, mourning cloaks, and a lot of little skippers. If I could just get pictures of them!!!
Good afternoon TS, Your garden is looking mighty lovely this summer. Those rudbeckias sure are stalwarts. Hopefully your area has received some rain by now though? Could your sap sucking bugs be aphids? If they are small soft bellied fellas then maybe. I just hose them off with a strong stream of water.
ReplyDeleteI was reading your dog run stories. Here we try to keep our dogs away from the boundary fence. It is funny you want them in there. That is a good idea though as it looks like they do a fantastic job of keeping weeds down. The trail is quite cute and makes for clean up of the yard. Our five dogs really make a mess in mine. I have a dog that looks just like Baby but he is a dachsund/chihuahua mix. He thinks he is the boss here but has gotten so old he can barely walk now. Not so bossy. I thought Baby was like his twin. Anyhow, you have a great rest of the day. I hope it rains. I'm off to check out Prairie Moon nursery on your advice now.
Hi Tina!
ReplyDeleteWe finally received quite a bit of rain and my rain barrels are full! Hooray!!! Weeds in the dog run?? Not a chance! With five dogs (my three plus two long term fosters)anything with the audacity to pop up through the mulch, is mowed right down. :0) Occassionally the bird seed germinates, but it's easy to pull. Instead of working against the dogs by trying to keep them out of the garden, installing the dog run was an easy way to create a compromise that made everyone happy instead of only creating mutual misery! Plus, it's cool and shady and offers excellent squirrel watching!!