In one of my recent posts I know I mentioned that it seemed that all lepidopterans had taken to a quiet spell around the yard, though we would have a friend visit on occasion. This dun skipper would be one of those friends to visit back on June 20th, however after our recent rain over […]
Egg to Caterpillar, Giant Swallowtail (Papilio cresphontes) | Wildlife Wednesday
Over a month ago now, I noticed a giant swallowtail ovipositing on the rue. I had bought pots of rue a year or two ago just for this reason and to have another source of food for when they came through and found my citrus instead—it was a place to relocate them as necessary. But […]
June Blooms
Argentine Skies salvia June came and went. If parts of spring seemed to crawl by, June and the rest of summer are zooming by. Someone up north posted about noticing signs of fall migration beginning and I thought, NOOOOOO! But I too have noticed a slight change in the light already, life is shifting for […]
A Bee & A Butterfly | Wildlife Wednesday
June has proven to be incredibly busy for work so any of the intermittent downtime I had in April and May has gone *poof*! Which is one reason my writing here has tapered off once again. I did want to share two little nature bits from the yard yesterday evening that I took with my […]
Lauren’s Grape Poppy | Flower Friday
Several years ago now we had a great bloom of Lauren’s Grape Poppy in the flower garden. I’ve always wanted to recreate that year but have never been successful. This year a single poppy came up, I think from seeds I dispersed last year, and proceeded to put on blooms! It was so beautiful and […]
Variegated Fritillary (Euptoieta claudia) caterpillar | Wildlife Wednesday
A few weeks ago I was deep into one of the edible perimeter beds by the blackberries, weeding. I’ve let a small crop of native violets grow in there because they are edible and also pretty. I’ve been transplanting some of the ones that crop up in other parts of the garden to the flower […]
Late May in the Garden
Yesterday I spent the majority of the day moving a load of mulch and doing various gardening tidying activities. I had wanted to move this particular load of mulch back in March after we moved a different load of mulch but then everything shut down and that didn’t happen. I was getting tired of weeds […]
Hibiscus Sawfly, Atomacera decepta | Wildlife Wednesday
A couple weeks ago I noticed something chowing down on our Turk’s cap hibiscus and took a few photos thinking they were caterpillars. I wasn’t having any luck with iNaturalist so I grabbed the caterpillar book and started flipping through. A few Families gave me some ideas but then I continued to hit a dead […]
Gulf Coast Penstemon, Penstemon tenuis | Wildflower Wednesday
A year or two ago I purchased this gulf coast penstemon from a nursery. Or maybe I started it from seed. I honestly can’t recall at this time. But I’ve been watching the basal rosettes of this particular plant and several others and biding my time for blooms. Every so often the deer come by […]
Iris Season by the Pond
It’s been a good spring for the irises down by the pond. The species plants of Iris virginica have really thrived and grown into large clumps over the last few years. Chris has also been adding various cultivars of Louisiana iris as well and those have really added some color to the pond fringe! Don’t […]
