Its Not Easy Being Green

While geocaching with my daughter,

we discovered a mossy pond with lots of frogs.

We had to look pretty closely to spot them.

They blend in so perfectly.

Plop! 

And they are gone!

Sunday Sentiment

Reptiles!

I attended a reptile demonstration with my grandkids

at the local library.

Interesting....

 

Tree frog

 

  Painted turtle

 

Tortoise

 

 

Green lizard

Skink

Black & white lizard

Boa constrictor

 

What are you looking at????

pfftt!

Green Heron

You've probably heard of a great blue heron,

but have you heard of the green heron?

This fellow, a green heron, was down by the swimming hole. 

They are secretive, but I managed to snap his picture

before he flew off.

Fairy Ring

I'd heard of these, but before today,

 had never seen one, a fairy ring.

Also called fairy circles, elf rings or pixie rings.

Fairy Rings are naturally occurring rings of mushrooms.

There were several in the hay field, half hidden under the alfalfa,

 and I almost missed them, until I noticed a pattern of arcs.

Elfin toadstools

Folklore says that a fairy ring appears when elves gather and dance.

They are also considered gateways to elfin kingdoms.

Hmmmm...

First Fawn Sighting

I finally got a photo of one of this year's fawns.

Not a very good shot as it was hiding behind a tree,

but nonetheless, proof that they are out there.

Mom jumped the fence

and baby ran along the fence line until it figured out it could slip between the rails.

Our Latest Project

Smokey the Bear Sign

Sunday Sentiment

Spider City

This spider community was built over the creek.

Rain, Finally

We finally got rain.

We got about 2 inches, 

not enough to break the drought,

 but enough to lift everyone's spirits.

Drought of 2012

2012 is shaping up to be a wild weather year.

We had a very mild winter, with little snow, and the creek never froze.

Then Spring arrived way ahead of schedule with record warm temps.

Now summer is breaking all kinds of records, 

such as the longest dry spell, 46 days, in over 100 years.

And we've tied or broken 8 records for highest temperature &

are on the way to breaking another record,

most days with highs of 90 degrees or higher.

 Whew, its HOT!

 

Our creek is just a series of shallow pools.

The reservoir near our house is down 6 feet.

Exposed stumps are sticking up everywhere.

Hungry herons

It hard to believe just a few short months ago 

I was kayaking in this bay

Moth Convention

I pulled back the loose bark on a fallen tree

 & found these guys hiding underneath.

Sunday Sentiment

More Beekeeping

Our hives are flourishing, even in the extreme heat.

Our green hive seems to be the strongest,

with lots of bees on the outside.

So I added another super to the hive to give them more room.

Upon checking the hives we are finding capped honey on the frames.

When we opened our white hive, 

we found lots of burr comb.  

This was our error, since we 

added a super without frames, 

to protect our syrup feeder from varmits.

The bees used the space to make more comb & honey.

We had to scrape off this comb in order to insert frames.

But it wasn't wasted, 

we had our first honey harvest and produced 8 jars of golden honey!  

Pink Clouds

Little Kayaker

Eight year old granddaughter learns to kayak.

 She did really well.

And found some small fish.

 Paddling off into the sunset.

Bugs & Blooms

Spicebush Swallotail

great southern white

 butterfly

Tiger Swallowtail

Bumblebees on buttonbush

Red beetle on milkweed