stubbed toes and mud pies

[flowerbug]

had a last minute request to go out and pick about a bucket of tomatoes to give away right before Mom wanted to leave. um, give me some heads up there Momma! well, luckily there were enough tomatoes to pick that were not too dirty as the rains we had were gentle and didn't splash much dirt around. got them picked and brought in and washed and dried on time. there's still some out there that might be ok, but a lot of the ones that are left are split or marked and starting to spoil.

we also had some already inside on the counter getting ripe and being MREs (meals ready to eat). a few were also starting to spoil so i had parts of those for dinner - turned them into an approximation of lasagna flavors without any meat involved and then put cottage cheese on them.

 

[flowerbug]

recent good things... i saw a nice sized toad in the bean patch as i was finishing up picking Thursday. we've not seen too many toads around so i'm glad that there was at least one. i've also seen several frogs which also we don't see too many around.

and then also the Blue Jays have returned for their usual haunts and they will be around until next spring. their squeaky wheel calls are always amusing to me as the other calls of our regular birds decline as some migrate further south for the winter.

between Jays and Cardinals it is colorful out there.

just a few minutes ago i took pictures of the window above the kitchen sink where both a Praying Mantis and a Tree Frog were crawling around eating bugs. one of the pictures has both of them in it and it is good enough to post, but in the past i'd never seen a Praying Mantis active at night in any way at all. i've also not seen as many Praying Mantis or Tree Frogs around either so it lifts my spirits to see them any way they are to be found.

 

[flowerbug]

the next morning (yesterday) the praying mantis was still on the window so i got some better pictures and then a bit later went outside to take another picture or two. also saw the tree frog trying to blend in a corner (not very successfully i might add, p.s. i probably spelled that wrong - i just doubled up letters hoping they were right but you know what i meant)... got a few pictures of the frog too then. so now i'm facing the quandary of putting pictures in which place (maybe both will be required?) because i have a page for bugs and another page for critters but not the combination... the good thing though about doing a web page of your own design is that you can put the picture in one place and reference it from as many places as you'd like. so... eventually... both it will be... but not tonight.

 

[Shades-of-Oregon]

Can’t wait to see some mantis and frog pics. They are both my fav lil critters .

 

[flowerbug]

Can’t wait to see some mantis and frog pics. They are both my fav lil critters .

if you've not seen this page perhaps it will help hold you over until i get those pics put up.

Frogs | Anthive

We have a lot of frogs around here, funny frogs, treefrogs and Toads too...

www.anthive.com

the bugs show up in:

Insects | Anthive

Interesting insect related pictures...

www.anthive.com

 

[digitS']

The greenhouse film required a little repair work and I was stunned by the number of honey bees that has died against that film this Summer. Usually, there are hornet bodies on the foundation wall. The door is open through the days. The high vent and the exhaust fan are open day and night through the Summer months and into Fall. Still, they must fly instinctively towards the largest area of open light when they try to exit, and continue, and continue ...

Five were carried outdoors by  gloved hands, yesterday. One seemed to be exhausted to the point of only being able to crawl but I caught all the living ones at that moment except 1. She may have been so active that I scared her away from that wall enough to make her escape.

The mailman told me a few days ago that he buys honey from someone nearby. I certainly have seen more of the workers in the flowers (unsprayed) and the lawn clover (untreated) in recent years. I have never thought that I would be in a honey bee rescue effort in the greenhouse.

 

[flowerbug]

... I have never thought that I would be in a honey bee rescue effort in the greenhouse.

i do see some tired bees from time to time here too, but they do not come in the house or the garage. we do have bee hives in the back that the bee keeper puts back there so there are always honey bees around until he moves the hives away in the fall. he ships his bees all over the country when things are in bloom that need bees to pollinate.

the old fashioned hornet traps work by attracting them in and then they just want to go to the light and never make it back out. we've got two of them but never actually baited them and used them as i think hornets and native bees all should be left alone if at all possible.

yesterday i was picking some cosmo seeds and there was a bee working the zinnia flowers that were mixed with them. i had to remind myself to grab seeds carefully as one time many years ago i got stung by a bumblebee that i didn't see that i accidentally grabbed going for some cosmo seeds. right on the palm zapped me good. my mistake. i apologized.

 

[digitS']

i think hornets and native bees all should be left alone if at all possible

Absolutely. Left alone, hornets, especially.

Maybe I will attempt to move 1 of those out but it would only be if he is on his last legs.

 

[flowerbug]

Absolutely. Left alone, hornets, especially.

Maybe I will attempt to move 1 of those out but it would only be if he is on his last legs.

when they get on the windows or doors inside the house i round them up with a piece of paper and a jar or cup. put the cup over them and then slide the paper in between them and the window and they have to go in the jar. and then carefully move them to where they can fly away.

 

[flowerbug]

they've been digging at the neighbors place out back. when i talked to him last year he said he was going to have his pond dug out deeper so i'm pretty sure that is what they are doing, but i'm not sure what else is going on... seems like a lot more than just a pond being done.

finished getting one garden ready for .... we did have some rains but the ground is still pretty hard and fairly dry. didn't see any worms they're all hiding or gone. the next garden get into for cleaning up will be much easier - in places i can even poke my fingers into the soil.