Asters, Milkweed And Monarchs

The garden has gone a bit wild,   New England Asters are the outstanding plants in the garden on these warm Autumn days.  This clump has milkweed fluff caught in its flowers.  It will take a strong wind to dislodge the silky parachutes from there.

These are the glorious days of the purple of asters and the gold of goldenrod.  I think they make a beautiful combination.  The Monarchs love them too.  With so many Monarchs soaring over the garden it's not so hard to snap a great  picture.

I pushed my luck and tried for a picture of two Monarchs feeding next to each other.  In the blink of an eye one of them was gone.  I was a little disappointed sure I had missed a great shot again.  It was not until I loaded the pictures that I saw that I  caught the second butterfly in mid flight, inverted no less.  Who knew they could fly like that.  I'm going to call these two Maverick and Goose.  I always thought the hummingbirds were the fancy fliers in the garden. Many of the birds have already headed south.  The Monarchs will go soon, but until that happens the garden is a delightful place to be!

Black Friday In The Garden, Photos by Amy

  After a busy day with terrific food and family time yesterday, I awoke very early this morning.  It was not to hop in the car to go shopping.  I don't do that on the day after Thanksgiving.  I was feeling dizzy and queasy and thought the day was going to be a disaster. Then while sitting in the kitchen eating breakfast, I noticed brilliant flashes of blue outside the kitchen window.  I immediately thought of bluebirds, but that seemed like wishful thinking.  A few minutes later a bird came back and sat on top of one of the bluebird houses.  Both Amy and Ed saw him.  The brilliant blue, reddish throat and white tummy made it definite.  Bluebirds on November 24 would have to go down as something special in any garden journal!  Just seeing them made me feel a little better.

 Bluebirds and beautiful blue skies called for a walk in the garden with the camera and Amy.  Actually she did most of the walking and I spent a lot of time sitting on the garden bench in the sunshine. Here we have  the backside of a sunflower.  What an interesting place to leave your sunflower seeds.

Howling winds have blown most milkweed seeds away,  but these two pods are still waiting for these seeds to have a chance to fly away on their silken fluff.

This milkweed seed is hung up in the top of a catnip plant.

Cold has turned the hens and chicks a lovely red.  The prickles on the end of each leaf are perfect for snagging milkweed fluff.  I don't see any seeds here. Perhaps they have been eaten or maybe I will be pulling tiny milkweed plants out of the hens and chicks in the spring.

This unknown Sedum was a stowaway in the pot of another purchased plant.  I planted it on top of Ed's curved wall.  It shows an interesting tangle of textures, shapes, color and light. 

Prickly and soft, red and white, light and shadow make this photo a favorite!

Moss and lichens adorn the top of this stone wall.  Hazelnut catkins add a little more interest! 

The side view of the same rock adds another dimension.  There are always interesting things to see in the garden. Walking there with someone special who notices is perfect!

First Tick Removal Of 2017

Recent warm days found me wanting to be outside working on something.  Frozen ground placed some limits on reasonable choices.  We have a sizable flat meadow that has been ignored for years.  Goldenrod and milkweed are now the dominant plants.  A few Japanese honeysuckles and conservation roses also dot the field.  Last year a process of reclamation was started.  I believe that the goldenrod will soon give up if it is mowed several times a year.  The milkweed will likely persist but that is fine with us since we like to help Monarch butterflies.  The second honeysuckle was cut off flush with the ground.  That was my outside work for the past two fabulous days.  I also slowly drive my truck across the previously unmowed area.   Truck tires flatten last season's weeds.  They also safely roll over small woodchuck burrows and protruding stones.  The stones will be levered out and the burrows filled.  So far these precautions have made possible safe mowing.  A surprise was waiting at the end of a truck pass.  High up in one of the white pines I saw this!

At first glance, I thought that this might be a humming bird nest.  That idea was quickly cast aside since the nest is far too large to have been built by a humming bird.  The tan base was likely a larger bird's nest last summer.  The white fluff is milkweed silk.  Mice frequently line their winter quarters with this.  It must have required a huge number of trips to find and carry this much up the tree.  Just thinking about it makes my mouth feel like I am chewing cotton.  Becky had to see this so I drove front to get her.

I usually do not drive on the area near the pines but to take a good picture of the nest I had to back the truck up close to the tree and climb into the bed of the truck to get my picture.   Waist high dead plants surround the trees.  This is where Becky walked to look at the nest and to avoid being hit by a truck moving in reverse.   Later, before bed, she found a very much alive tick attached to her calf.  We were stunned.  Our careful tick checks do not usually start until warmer weather.  Wrong again.   We have a pair of high quality tweezers whose jaws are at an angle to the handle.  This allows a fair sized section of tweezer to rest on the surface of the skin.  From that position it is a simple matter to close the jaws of the tweezers on the mouth parts of the tick.  No bodily fluids are pinched from the tick and it is pulled free completely intact. Since she could see the wretched thing but could not reach it, I had to remove it for her.  January and another tick season is already underway.  Yuck!