When Ed and I walked down to the mailbox, I snapped this picture of my Purple Flowering Raspberry, Rubus odoratus. It looks like after several years this native plant is going to live up to its name. That is exciting news! When we stopped to sit on the bench in the shade before heading back up the hill, we saw a big black squirrel. He was very fast and chasing the gray squirrels. I have seen black squirrels before farther north in the state, but seeing the first one here is big news.
I found the very first Monarch caterpillar of the year while I was weeding the onion bed. The picture is larger than life. This little guy was about half an inch long. The first piece of Monarch frass of the year is on the leaf to the left. I love butterflies so this is great news for me. It might not be great news for the onions since the milkweed growing as a weed is shading them.
Also while weeding the onions for the first time I found the body of a snake without a head. It was medium sized garter snake. It is now resting in peace in the compost. No picture is shown here because I consider that kind of gross news is not fit to print.
1 comment:
Very exciting news. It's always great when plants hit their stride. It's also always exciting to find monarch caterpillars on the Milkweed. I've found quite a few eggs this spring and gave them to a friend who's raising them with her daughter. I'm traveling this month, but when I get back, I'm planning to raise a few, myself. A headless snake? Yikes!
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