More birds, fewer bugs

I wonder if I’m paying more attention to the birds because it’s time to resign myself to not seeing any Monarch butterflies this year. I saw plenty of other big orange and yellow butterflies, but not one monarch, not even in passing. What happened to them?

A Grasshopper in autumn

Now we’re getting proper fall weather: cool, sunny, blue skies. The bees are buzzing. The birds are crowding the feeders. All’s right in the world.

Bowl of guppies

Remember the guppies that were outside swimming under a water lily? Probably not. Well, if you know anything about guppies, you might be relieved to hear that I brought them inside about a month ago, when the nights began to cool.

123, yet another bee

Yet another little black bee turned up in the asters. I have the name of the species, Lasioglossum coriaceum. but that’s it.

A plea for a pitiful pea

I just have no luck growing peas. All my pretty little pea shoots — a few here, a few there — have dwindled down to one plant. Peas like cool weather, but I’m not holding out a lot of hope for this one. Still, it’s pretty.

Sneaking up on the wildlife

The funniest part of going out to fill the bird feeders is the frantic flutter of dozens of little brown wings taking fright. It’s like all the sparrows at once are shouting, Cheese it! But not everyone flees so fast.

Not the last gasp of a wasp

One of those snapdragons in the shaggy garden photo yesterday, turned out to have a wasp clinging to a leaf. The orange antenna mean it’s a European Paper Wasp. The rakish curl in those same antenna mean it’s a male, holding out for one last good time before the bitter end.

No snow!

I totally freaked out over nothing last night. The snow was wet, this spot is sheltered, and the rain washed away the layer of white that tried to stick on the ground. Perhaps this is a messy photo, but live tomato plants are messy. And smug.

Snow?

Snow? Snow? I don’t remember moving to New Hampshire. It’s coming down in big fat thick flakes. Which my camera isn’t quite capturing. Rats. Maybe in December we can get snow like this, but it’s only October. This madness must stop!

An odd little fruit

Hidden away among the branches of the wintercreeper euonymous that the tomato likes to lean on are more tiny fruits. Little orange fruits clasped in a white. When they first appear lots of orange specs dot the variegated leaves. Then they disappear. There must be birds eating them, though I’ve never seen them. This one […]