CREEPY bugs

UPDATED to reflect change in identification by Dr. Art Evans :) entomologist extraordinaire. He has a regular segment on the local radio and is the author of National Wildlife Federation Field Guide to Insects and Spiders & Related Species of North America. Thanks Dr. Evans!


These things recently landed on our doorstep- quite literally!

It is called a Fishfly, from the Chauliodes genus. From the photos on the link Dr. Art Evans sent me, it looks like the Spring Fishfly.
They are HUGE. Oh and you can click on the pictures for nice BIG detailed versions!

Which makes it rather creepy to open the door and see them. Not sure why they are there, I shall have to research them.

They seem to be attracted to lights, and for some reason hang around our back door well into the morning. Weird things!
The kids are fascinated (7 year old daughter) and repelled (11 year old son) by them. But I am pretty sure that this covered nature study this week ;)

Signs of Spring Outdoor Hour

I was excited when I saw Barb's challenge last week was 'Signs of Spring'. Because- well because we'd been watching them ourselves!! Somewhere in the house, the kids have journalled their signs of spring.
Unfortunately I think they might have had their work appropriated for display!

First sign of spring in our garden (apart from weeds) is always my sorrel:
It has a tart lemony flavour, and one day I will find a recipe that is great to use it for LOL One of my first plants of the year is my first edible too :)

The hyacinths were next to appear. This is a bulb which has been in the garden a few years- which is why it doesn't look as full as normal ones. Typically hyacinths do this. Still smells good though!

Speedwell and it's cultivated cousin, this particular Veronica sp. are frequently the first bloomers in the garden. I like the colours of the cultivated one better- the flower near the top on the right is in front of one of the wild ones, so you can see the contrast :)

I have never planted daffodils- we transplanted these from some wild ones growing down our hill. I love them for what they mean- it's spring!!

If you look back in my files, you'll see other photos of our Vinca major from years past... it always blooms early :)
The Bradford pear blossoms are beautiful- but they really don't smell very nice! Still, they look good on camera ;)

My kids HAD to have some strawberry plants. I think they are hoping for a crop- well they'll definitely get a couple of berries if nothing else :)
The best part about the first few days of spring, is that it finally gets warm enough to sit outside and draw.

And I actually have things to draw!! You can see I have actually drawn some of the things I photographed :)
I can tell you now, we also have grape hyacinths and a few peach blossoms. Photos to come later!!


P.S. Yes, there is a new look to the blog, I am still working on it though, so it might well change :)
Blogger has allowed new template adjustments, so I am messing with them ;)

Signs of Spring

Signs of Spring
Originally uploaded by Spinneretta

It happened suddenly. The weather hopped up 10 degrees, maybe as much as 15 degrees between one day and the next, and spring arrived.
The first week of March was cool- in the 40's and 50's (that's between 4 and 12 degrees C). By the second week we were hitting the mid 60's (17C) to low 70's (22C).
Spring is here. We'll ride the rollercoaster of temperatures between the mid 50's to mid 70's over the next month, before gradually evening out into our summer temps by the end of April, but in the meantime, we are going to enjoy the progress of spring.

I have already seen my first crocus- hidden down in the woods and discovered by the kids. In some parts of the neighbourhood, daffodils are blooming- while they remain stubby leaves in my beds right now. My Hyacinths are ready to put forth flowers, though they will never be the showy blooms we got that first year (apparently that is perfectly normal, though I do wonder why).
So on a warm, but overcast day, I sat outside and drew some signs of spring.
I do it every year now.
A year ago, the crocus and daffodils were out and our neighbour's Bradford Pear was in blossom I have the pictures to prove it.
2 years ago I have pictures of me doing the gardening :) I didn't have a scanner then, so I have to actually look at my journals :) According to those, we first got into the garden in mid February and by this time in March, the trees were all blossoming and the henbit was out. So you can tell we have had a longer winter this year!!
In my picture, you can see the wild speedwell (the cultivated is not yet blossoming), purple deadnettle (Lamium purpureum), daffodil leaves and Pennsylvania Bittercress (Cardamine pensylvanica).

Cowbirds

Cowbirds
Originally uploaded by Spinneretta

With the arrival of warmer weather, we took the opportunity to put our solar powered fountain back out. This has always been a huge draw for the birds, and sure enough we were inundated with them.
Even when I am outdoors, sitting at the patio table, the birds will happily come and drink from the fountain just a few feet away from me!
So while in the garden one day, I decide to draw the fountain and any birds that visited.
Of course THAT day, the kids stayed near me and no birds would visit while they wriggled around, so I drew the pair of brown-headed cowbirds that had visited the day before :)

I can't say that cowbirds are my favourite bird, they are notorious for their bad behavior- they are the cuckoos of North America!! The females lay their eggs in other birds nests, usually at the expense of the other bird's own offspring!

Nature Journalling...

You know, sometimes I forget to update this blog, even though I am still recording nature in so many ways :) So I thought that I'd use this opportunity to show off some nature pictures, and some new resources I ran across :)

These little frogs are all over our garden- I think this one was a tree frog- we found it on an old stump and it's feet looked like tree frog feet :) I know next to nothing about North American Amphibians though...

it's windfall time of year here- raspberries are out for the second shot and pawpaws are falling from the tree- WITHOUT being pushed by squirrels!! They are actually delicious! I recommend growing them (two or more) in your garden :)

These caterpillars are mildly poisonous- the side spines sting like mad! I have a photo of him too ;)
There you go- he is only about an inch long, and he is eating a persimmon leaf. Apparently they like orchard fruits :)

I should really learn to make jam with these- there are so many!


and I actually got a number of these this year too :)

Now for some new resources:
An excellent nature notebook resource, the Nature Sketchers blog is a great addition to the Flickr group. I highly recommend checking out the individual artists on there too- most have their own blogs.
In fact, Elizabeth Smith just started her own nature art blog, and it looks to be a fantastic place to find a nature journal :)

Baby Opossum

We found a baby Opossum in our garden yesterday- I shared the story over on my main blog if you are interested (with photos ;))

The Story of Pinky Part I
The Story of Pinky Part II

Nature Notes 19th March

Signs of Spring in my Garden
Orginally uploaded by Spinneretta
Click to enlarge picture

I have been doing numerous nature journal entries, which you can see over on my Main Blog. I thought you might like to see it her :D
This is today's offering- signs of spring in my garden :)

First Harvest

It's that time again! Lettuces have been picked, peas and radishes have produced, and the first tomatoes are on the vine!!

Last Thursday, we picked our English peas. Virginia is a pretty hot summer climate, so we really only get a couple of weeks tops of peas being produced in the springtime. This year, I got about a week's worth :o Never mind... I shared the joy of picking these with the kids:


And shelling them into these:


Which we ate raw because they are so SWEET! YUMMY! Their life is pretty much over now, what with the weather getting into the upper 80's and 90's (from around 28 through 34 degrees C). Peas find it hard to tolerate that range!

Our garden is abounding in roses, and has been the entire month :)

This is the Virginia rose, discovered in the 17th century by the colonists. It has a sweet, very light fragrance, and the bumblebees were going mad over it this morning!

These small things were popping up all over our circle recently... ladies and gentlemen, we have here a Shirley Poppy. They are relatives of the red corn poppy you see... same poppy, new cultivar. Quite beautiful!
I am hoping to see the monarch caterpillars soon. Our milkweed relative, Pleurisy root, is blooming.

This is a stunning, firey orange. I planted this from a root many years ago, and it still pops up every year. Sometimes the monarchs find it. Sometimes they dont!

This fellow, at about 1 3/4 inches long, was a scary find on the side of our house a few weeks back. The photo is not great because in direct sun I can barely see the screen to tell, but I can tell you that he is a "Big eyed Click Beetle".

They are not really eyes of course, just markings on the thorax. He was quite alarming at first, but when we found out that the adults apparently eat very little, we decided to like him :)

Finally, my pride and joy.

This absolutely stunning, intense orange bloom is a pomegranate. I got hold of a pomegranate bush some years back, at colonial Williamsburg. I wanted one because they had one... in spring it was covered with blooms this colour. In autumn it is covered with fruit this colour. I don't know if mine will make it to the fruit bearing stage... local wildlife will insist on denuding our trees of fruit, BUT I really liked it for the blooms anyway :) If I get a fruit, thats just an added bonus!
This is the very first year it has bloomed for me, so I am extra excited about it!

I added a few things to the garden recently... some basil and dill, and some parsley. Today I pulled up a 'weed' from our peonies, before realising it was a volunteer squash. I transplanted it in the hope it would survive ;)
My green beans just suddenly sprouted, and one or two navy beans did too. (Those were an experiment ;)).
Lots of things are growing, though not as many as I would have hoped, but you win some, you lose some! I had a terrible time with the pumpkins... all of which did not want to come up. I may try once more, and hope for the best!

Happy Gardening!

Caught in the Act!

We had a visitor this morning. I suspect he might just be a vegetable thief... but he has apparently made a home in the hole on our hillside!



Each of the kids has requested that we capture him and keep him as a pet, or let him roam wild and keep him as a 'pet wild rabbit'. I told them wild rabbits don't make good pets!
It does make me wonder if the horrid cat down the road did kill a baby rabbit... I saw it with SOMETHING in its mouth the other day!

Green Hour #9

I had it all planned. We'd do a little gardening, and while we did that, the kids would pick a square foot (just like Barb describes) and study it.


It didn't work out that way at all! You see, this weekend, we had one nice sunny day and one wet, rainy day. The sunny day was Saturday, errand day. Go to the store and get stuff day. And it rained on Sunday.

So, we did not get to do the square foot thing (which I was sure made a wonderful 'occupation' activity). I knew I should have done it on Friday!
Instead we built a Teepee and watched this fearsome spider!


Never mind, the kids did experience some outdoor time on Saturday.

First we watched a Red bellied Woodpecker build a nest in an OLD maple at the far end of our garden. That was a little too far away to catch on camera... but then we saw an old friend!
Toady came back for a visit! I know I have blogged him before. Here is at least one post where we met him (before he was identified as a TOAD and not a frog!)


I induced M'Lady to touch him and stroke him. She actually rather enjoyed it, and was most upset to be called in just a little later.

And we investigated the new flowers (which will be added to Rebel's list very soon!).

This pretty little flower is on some kind of grass. I think it is in the flax family, but I can't remember :-o

I bought this spiderwort at the Herb Festival last year. We have two kinds now ;)

This is the famous Tudor Rose (Rosa damascena versicolor). Some people think the Tudor Rose was the Rosa mundi rose, but those in the know have decided that this is the offspring of the White Rose of York and the Red Rose of Lancaster. (I think I got those right! I know I got them right because I checked... and at first I got them wrong ;))

This is Rosa pendulina a new addition to the garden just this year... and we already have a bloom!
Now, if the rain manages to let up over the next two days, we'll try to squeeze out some square time and maybe we will read this book:


(One Small Square) Backyard by Donald M. Silver

Weekend Gardener

My husband and I do a lot of our gardening on the weekend. It's just easier that way! This week though, because of predictions for rain (which never appeared) on Sunday AND Saturday, and promised 80 degrees plus (which DID appear) on Friday, Jacobite took the day off and gave himself a long weekend.
It was lovely, although not really restful, we did get a lot done in the garden!

It was a warm day on Friday. Sunny- enough so to burn me despite my wearing sunblock. But this meant that the bugs were out. I have a few mosquito bites on my leg, and these photos to prove it!

An Eastern Tailed Blue Butterfly... next to a maple seed.

M'Lady spent a good deal of time, patiently watching the butterflies (there were about three of them at any one time) and then she decided she wanted to hold one. When one finally crawled onto her fingertip, she was ecstatic!

M'Lady holds an Eastern Tailed Blue.

Meantime, I was making a trellis. I got DH to cut the CPVC pipes for me, and to bang the rebar stakes into the ground. The design comes straight out of Mel Bartholomew's Square foot Gardening, although I used string and not netting for the middle.

My Pea Trellis.

On Saturday, we grew fed up of being scratched to death by the roses around our path, and invested in an arbour.

Before the arbour.

This decision has only been three years in the making, the last two years we put it off and regretted it. This year we did it and are VERY happy with the results!

After the arbour! No more scratches!

The kids got in nature study too... watching a green snake, the butterflies, the ants... and planting garlic :D (yes I know these are best planted in autumn!)

For our butterfly identification, I used this PDF File.

Want More Nature Crafts?

I discovered these wonderful nature diaries on the Crafty Crow this morning! Enjoy!

A Day in Nature (Green Hour Assignment #8)

After what seems to be weeks of rain and cold and clouds, we finally get a break. It's not supposed to last very long, just a few days, but it is enough to send spring springing on its way!

So out the kids went. Back they came for binoculars. Out they went. Back they came again and again with things for their nature boxes and more things for the nature table. Out I went with my camera... and back again for the blog :)

Our Nature table (there are more things in the boxes ;)). It is inspired by the one linked in my sidebar over there---->
Ours is not quite so exciting... we have a dead hornet, not a dead wasp. I am supposed to be mailing it on though ;)

A peek inside Rebel's recently finished box. :)

Rebel's observations: "I saw my first dragonfly of the year!", "Look, how much would this lichen cost if I sold it?" (he wanted to sell it as a dyestuff). "These violets are beautiful!"

M'Lady: "Wook!" **waving a large old stick at me**

A pine 'flower'. These things produce copious amounts of pollen, which make the cars very yellow at this time of year. Later the centre part will turn into a pinecone.

Then there were the unspoken observations... does shaking the pine tree to make the pollen fall off all over them count? Or using their binoculars to find more lichen? :) It was an informal week for nature study, and if we can find the booklet, the 3 dragonflies and other things will be noted!

There is the robins nest we watched being built:
And as we watched later, a crow tore through it, looking futilely for eggs.

Or perhaps my rapidly growing peas:
Which don't quite make up for the loss of at least one of the giant pumpkins. I planted two more seeds in the hope that they will sprout, only this time I put them OUTSIDE in the ground.


Along with onions.

And carrots and radishes planted from seed.
The kids watched as I hilled over some sprouted potatoes. Not the small one you normally get, but ones I bought to eat which sprouted :)

There are the budding roses:
Getting ready to bloom next month. Or our beautiful lilacs, or the creeping phlox in our circle.


There is the fig tree which is leafing out.

I have hopes of seeing fruit this year. I suspect they are futile, but I hope anyway :D

And there are the insects, our favourite helper bugs are reflected in my daughter's chosen rainwear:
I'll have to show you her raincoat another time :) There were pollen-speckled periwinkles:
Which are quite dusty with pine pollen in their habitat around the mailbox. The local dogs fertilize them regularly for us (since urine is almost pure nitrogen, these plants often get quite a lot of it!).

Indeed, there was a lot to see in our garden today, and the kids loved it. Even if they were coated with pollen.

So our Green Hour for the week went. I make a note to buy a few magnifying glasses. OK they have only been on my list for a couple of months now, but perhaps I'll get them this time!

Enjoy your time in the garden this week :)