Category Archives: Pets & critters

Deer, Gardening & Shrubs

By

There’s a new fawn in the neighborhood. I was able to get a photo of it and its Mom. They’re so pretty.
~*~
Our tomatoes are finally ripening in larger numbers. We like the Roma variety quite well. We eat them like regular tomatoes. They also make delicious juice.Now that our tomatoes are coming in, our squash is coming to an end.Our garden is pretty much at an end. My husband mowed everything down except the tomato, squash and cucumber plants.
~*~
I’ve always wanted a ‘Rose of Sharon’, I was delighted Friday when my husband surprised me with a lovely white one.
Saturday, we went for a ride and found a garden center that was having a 50% to 75% off the shrubs. We bought 2 crepe myrtles, a pink rose of sharon and 2 garden phlox.Sunday evening, We transplanted the shrubs in the yard. I’m in high hopes they’ll thrive and bloom and attract more butterflies. We’re happy to have lucked up on such a good deal.
~*~

I hope you all have a great week.

.

Unique Fox Squirrel

By


I noticed this unique looking fox squirrel snacking on something at the side of our driveway. The odd coloring of this fox squirrel is called Piebald. It’s a genetic trait and sometimes happens when there’s not a lot of new members in the breeding population. This is only the second fox squirrel I’ve seen around here. I think it’s sad that there isn’t more fox squirrels around here. It’s because in this area, though rural it may seem, the woods are being destroyed for profit or housing.

I apologize for the quality of the video. I took it through a window with a screen so I’m lucky it’s viewable at all. Unfortunately, I don’t have a very steady hand at holding a camera for taking videos, but thankfully the video host I use has a pretty good stabilizer that’s helpful to make my video sort of float smoother and not appear as shaky.

I hope you all have an enjoyable weekend.

.

WildLife Wednesday – Black Swallowtail Butterflies

By

6 Black Swallowtail butterflies have emerged from their chrysalises.  They’re so quick and sneaky that I haven’t had the priviledge of watching any of them emerge.
There are 3 males and 3 females. That’s pretty neat to have an even split.

There’s 1 chrysalis to go. It’s getting super dark and clearish. At this stage you can kind of see the yellow speckles of the wings. I figure it’ll hatch(?) within the next 24 hours.

It’s been very interesting dealing with the birthing of butterflies. However, I don’t plan to bring anymore caterpillars in this year. I’ve read that at some point the black swallowtail caterpillars build chrysalises to overwinter (diapause). I don’t know when that’ll be, so I’m not going to chance it. I figure they’d be better off overwintering out in nature the way God designed them too.

The butterflies have been an enjoyable part of this 4th of July holiday. I’m happy our Grandson got to see the chrysalises and new butterflies. It was an extra bit of fun to share.

Happy Wednesday!

.

Wip Wednesday – Joy In The Journey, Potato Bloom & Chrysalises

By

Only one of these are truly my work-in-progress and the other two is the wip of Mother Nature.

I’ve started working on my ‘Joy In The Journey’ cross stitch that I strung on a frame last January. I used regular sewing thread and gridded the fabric off in 20×20 stitch blocks to help me with the count. I like the look of the grid so well that I’m going to leave it. I think the grid gives it a sort of nostalgic look. It’s slow going, but it’s coming along.My potato plant in the bucket has started blooming. I think potato blooms are so pretty. This experiment is moving along pretty well so far.We ended up with 7 Black Swallowtail Butterfly Chrysalises. We brought in 5 caterpillars that are now in the chrysalis stage. Then the other day after a storm we found two chrysalises in the top of our fennel plant. They’re the ones on the left side of the photo. We brought them in because where they were in the fennel they were too tempting to birds.
I’ll take the individual twig of the chrysalis outside as the butterfly start to emerge. I look forward to seeing the lovelies emerge.

Wishing you all a success with your works-in-progress.

.

We’ve got a chrysalis

By

We’re so happy to see that one of the caterpillars has reached the chrysalis stage. Hopefully, sometime in the next couple weeks we’ll have a new Black Swallowtail butterfly. I’ve got a fairly good set up for the caterpillars. I keep them in the aquarium until they go into the next stage of their metamorphosis and then I move it to a nursery. I’ve moved the nursery to my craft room where it won’t get as much vibrations of normal life. I put a small bowl with a bit of water in the nursery because I read that the chrysalis needs to have some moisture in the air so it doesn’t dry out. Hopefully the water bowl will help keep enough moisture in the air.

I hope you all have a pleasant rest of the week.

.