The butterfly bush works

I’m beginning to resign myself to not seeing any monarch butterflies this year. It’s strange. I saw several last year (or possibly the same one taunting me), and the year before streams and streams of them in the fall migration. This year, not the merest sight of a monarch. Not that there’s been a shortage […]

Fussy bumbles

The Latin name for my bumblebees is Bombus impatiens, and when they’re foraging on raspberry flowers, they really earn their name.

Re: The Years of Rice and Salt

You probably already know that The Years of Rice and Salt, by Kim Stanley Robinson tells an alternate history where the Black Plague wiped out Christian Europe, which leaves a world dominated by Buddhists and Muslims. This gives you a good excuse to explore parts of world history we don’t hear so much about. As […]

Vegetable last hurrah?

The squash blossoms haven’t been totally confused. I’ve been watching the usual acorn squash ripening under a pear tree. And I see I should have plucked up the inevitable swallow-wort sprout before I took the picture. That stuff is a plague! But I don’t want to talk about that right now.

Bee-vouac

The cool weather seems to be confusing the squash plants. Usually the flowers are closed by noon, but this was still wide open to what little sun warmed the gray sky this afternoon. What I wanted to know is whether there were any squash bees inside.

Re: Newton’s Wake

Newton’s Wake, by Ken McLeod has a terrific beginning, in which Lucinda Carlyle leads her team through a gate to another planet, on an expedition of combat archeology. They storm a henge and awaken an alien technology that unleashes war machines on them. And in the wake of that battle, the book reveals a grand […]

Syrphid flies

Today felt almost summery, so here’s some more bugs from earlier in the summer. Syrphid flies this time. I admire how much they look like bees until you get close enough to spot those big fly eyes. Sometimes I don’t even realize what I saw until I upload the pictures from the camera, they’re so […]

Ladybugs

Still rummaging through the archives for pictures to post. Just to make up for the horror yesterday, here’s a nice, cute ladybug. Also this picture is from the three weeks of summer we got earlier, just like today we got about three hours of sun in the afternoon. Anyway, ladybugs are relevant now, as in […]

Robber Flies

It’s too wet and rainy to do much today, so I’m digging into the archives. Let’s see, what have we got here? Hmm. How about more weird flies?

Re: Lizard Music

When I think of Daniel Pinkwater, the first book that comes to mind is always Lizard Music. It’s funny, intense, goofy, and light, sometimes in turns, sometimes all at once, in a way that leaves you off balance and finding something new every time you read it.