This female Black Swallowtail (Papilio Polyxenes) lives in my garden, unhindered by her damaged wing, fluttering and feasting on the self-seeded verbena (planted last year) that pops up every so often in the beds. She keeps me company as I pull weeds, sip coffee, sweat, and sneak in some green time before the heat and to-do […]
On my studio doorstep, in afternoon sun, I found half a luna moth’s wings. I’ve longed to see this favorite in the wild, and this is as close as I’ve come. It was left at my feet, like my cat used to leave birds and lizards, in offering. Like most, I haven’t been feeling especially grounded, and […]
A Silver-spotted Skipper (Epargyreus clarus) purloining from a single Drumstick Allium (Allium sphaerocephalon). It kept flying away to sample others in this cluster, and even my hand at one point, then returning to its steady focus. Today I learned these critters are nectar thieves—they don’t pollinate in return for their delicious dinner. Even worse than […]
A Broad Necked Root Borer, aka Prionus laticollis, went a-courtin’… Nah, the males are just attracted to light… insistently attracted.
Teeny tiny acrobats braved the summer breezes in my Karl Foerster grass this afternoon. Japanese Beetles are known to ravage gardens (as though the damn deer and woodchuck were not sufficient), but are also of the Scarabaeidae family, and so, feel lucky–especially when (determinedly) getting lucky.
Eastern cicada killer wasp and the echinacea she thinks she owns.
This weekend, dear friends came up to stay in our guest digs and meet us on the porch for some experimental socially distanced revelry. On the fourth, we spatchcocked a chicken (along with grilled peaches and grilled Caesar salad) and christened our new-to-us bbq, but first hiked a nearby conservancy we’d yet to visit. The […]