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 […]

Tomatoes are hanging

At the market today, you could see that lots of tomatoes got picked very fast last night. Now they’re on sale as “Native field ripened tomatoes 1.50 lb”. Not bad! My own tomato plant is still in the game. The worst that the chill did was kill off the leaves that weren’t looking so hot. […]

Is this the last harvest?

It’s going to be cold out tonight, as in near freezing. Poor tomatoes! This just might be the last vine-ripe batch I get to pick this year.

Orchids to come

Just as the outdoor garden is chilling down, here’s my phalenopsis orchid putting up a new flower shoot. Just like last fall. What a nice orchid, so faithful!

Re: Clad in Gossamer

One thing I’m finding in Nancy Kress stories is really good portrayals of jerks. In “Clad in Gossamer”, her take on The Emperor’s New Clothes, you know everyone’s a jerk, so it works well.

Squirrel’s eye view

Chirrrick-rick-rick-rick rruck rruck rruck! What’s that, Mr. Squirrel? The crew is about to mutiny?