Viceroy Butterfly

This little cutie was fluttering around the garden the other day.  Most people think these are monarchs but the black band across the back wings is an easy way to tell the difference.  I think people are used to monarchs as a name because they get so much of the news about butterflies and these guys really do look so similar.

Other visitors to the garden are toads.  We've had multiple toads at a time hopping around looking for bugs.  I keep the garden well watered and thus attract insects like mad.  The spiders know this too and often I have to knock down a web just so I can get to all of the plants.  Sorry, not sorry?

Maybe I'll get some toad pics up soon. 

Mysterious Bugs

Found these little guys clinging to the underside of a branch of a crepe myrtle tree.  At first I thought they might be a kind of butterfly but, as I watched and came back later to check on, the never moved.  Pretty sure they're dead already.  Not sure what could have killed a small group like this but I'm suspecting the torrential rain we had a week or so ago may be the culprit. They were obviously trying to find shelter and all had the same idea but the rain was pretty hard and may well have still drowned them or at least made conditions not suitable to live.  Again still not sure what they even are.

One coworker said she found out what they were and had told someone but apparently quickly forgot and still can't remember what she said or even where she got the information.

The closest thing I can find that even resembles them is lady bugs.  Yeah, not so sure but that's my closest guess. If you know or have a guess of  your own, please feel free to leave a comment.

Butterfly on Cherry Blossoms

Apparently around the same time I was taking pictures in Las Vegas, our friend, Monica, was taking pictures just south of Dallas at Cedar Ridge Preserve.

Where I only got a picture of a plum tree she got a nice picture of a western tiger swallowtail. Granted, I didn't see any butterflies at all in Vegas.  I'm glad to see the butterflies are starting to show up around here already though.  It should be a nice spring soon.

Unusual Visitor - Orange-Barred Sulphur Butterfly

It took a little searching to figure out what this little girl was. I say girl because the males are more orange, thus the name.
I don't know why she came up this far north. Usually they stay in the south, only occasionally visiting south Texas. More often you can find them in Brazil or possibly south Florida. I guess she was atracted by the turk's cap she was feeding on.
Unfortunately I didn't have the pleasure of taking this picture but my wife did along with several other pictures of the yard and gardens.

Chopsticks!

That could easily be an exclamation. It's also my non-patented way of dealing with tomato horn worms completely organically and chemical free. Well, ok, I use plastic chopsticks but I don't think that the plastic leaches out enough chemicals to consider it to any degree, otherwise I would also have to stop using the garden hose and city water since I know that the lines going to the house are PVC.
Anyway, I found that the little buggers are not as fond of the tomatoes as they are of one of the pepper plants. He had nearly chewed through the entire plant when I found him this morning. The tomato plant he started on was only slightly chewed before he spotted his goal.
I'm going to have to be more strict when examining the plants in the back now. Once the horn worms come they don't seem to stop that quickly.

Harvester Ants

From what I can tell these guys were harvester ants. I snapped this photo at the lavender festival at Blanco by the side of the road where the booth was located. They didn't seem to bother anyone, the little black ants did more of that.
I tossed a few pebbles on top to see how many would come out and defend the mound, not big pebbles mind you, just big enough to get their attention. Not many did but besides horned lizards I don't think many things mess with them.
I didn't see them bringing anything into the mound the ants mostly sat there and guarded the entrance. I guess it's the slow season for them.

Fall Yet?

They said it would get cooler yesterday.
Then they said it woud be cooler today.
Then I stopped listening to them and just waited like everyone else.
Granted, it was a little cooler today. I stayed in the truck more with the AC running. I've been out doing surveying work. The worst part is the mosquitos atacking. As I was swatting them away from my head with one hand and a hat, I failed to notice my other hand. By the time I looked down there were nearly a dozen on the one hand alone, not to mention my jeans where they couldn't get to me anyway. I smacked them off and red smears were left.
All things said though, it is a little cooler. Not as much as I would like just yet but it'll be here soon enough.
We'll be cruising out of Baltimore November 4th. Then I may just be thinking why I wanted the cool weather to come so soon.
The cantaloupe is still growing. It's been netted for some time now and just hasn't ripened. So far I haven't found a reason for this. In the mean time I guess I'll keep it watered and fed.
The cooler weather has done wonders for the weeds in the yard too. I pulled out a bunch of them recently just to have them replaced with a new batch.

Butterfly Attractions

No, it's not butterflies on parade. Rather it's things that attract butterflies.
Several years ago we helped out with the Butterflies in the Garden exhibit at the Fort Worth Botanic Gardens. The butterflies really lilked the shirts they had for us. They were mostly yellow with a little black writing on them. It was just after we had taken a photography class from UTA and had some slide film left. We don't get to look at those very often.

We went back out to the botanic gardens recently and took a few pictures. The butterflies were out in full force.

This one didn't seem to be doing very well since he had a deformed wing. He was flopping or fluttering, depending on how you see it, in among the salvia. I wouldn't have seen him except that I was sitting on the ground next to the bush. He had plenty of flowers within reach and may still have lived however long he was supposed to for reproducing.

This on however had fully formed and colorful wings. He was in mid-flap so it isn't as vibrant as it could be but it was one of the better pictures.

Lantana was blooming everywhere.

Tree Moth

We usually have small moths visit us but as I was watering the front yard area I plashed the oak tree and down fell a large moth. It fluttered a little, I say fluttered because the wings were so large but it eventually settled down and let me take a picture.

Winter produce (I ate part of it)

Besides the sweet potato which I already ate there are a lot of plants still doing very well in my garden.
For instance there are a few garlic plants still sprouting green tops and some even splitting. This one is splitting into four garlic cloves.

The onion is doing the same although not as impressively as the garlic. I think it just doesn't want to steal the show.

The cabbage likewise is forming multiple heads. Maybe four but I might thin it a little to make sure all of the heads have room to grow.



The beets are still growing and the foliage which withered a little during the cold has sprung back up and growing well again.

I don't know what kind of lettuce this is but it, along with several others, is doing great. We recently had a rain and you can see some of the drops still on the leaves. Mind you there is still a little bug damage but I don't think they will be bothering it again for a while.

My strawberry plants are shooting off new leaves again. If I keep them protected further then I expect to have a good early crop.

I don't really care for leeks but they seem to grow anyway. The french people, and I know this becuase I read it in a book and asked a real french woman from France, love leek soup. Of course it's not just leeks in a pot of water but neither is tomato soup just a bunch of tomato in water.

Cilantro grows like weeds. In fact these are currently classified as weeds since they are growing out of the specified area for cilantro to grow. There are also cilantro plants across the yard and driveway. Possibly some too in my neighbor's yard across the street. Who knew?

Lastly is the monster carrot. Thst is my hand in the picture. This carrot was the only one to get bigger than my finger and it got a lot bigger than that as you can see. I think the ants had something to do with it though.

This isn't the best picutre in the world but if you click on it you can see the detail and the little sugar ants crawling inside the cracks. All I can say is that at least they aren't fire ants!

Kaffir Lime Tree

I believe I will finally start calling it a tree. It's still not very big but it has to face some big problems. Winter is coming and the cats can smell the dirt about to be brought into their domain. Even outside though it has had to face caterpillars eating it's leaves and outside cats knocking it's pot over.
For it's resiliance in the face of these obsticlesI believe it has earned the right to be called a tree.

Hanging Out

Bugs aren't my usual thing but while I was at work today a coworker pointed out a very large bug hanging outside her window. It looked like a large grasshopper with a leaf attached to it's back.
I didn't know what it was but was pretty sure it was in the same family of bugs.
Fortunately we have a bug book in the survey department in case the surveyors come across any really nasty ones, mostly stinging types, and there it was six pages into the sub catagory where the grasshoppers were, the broad winged katydid.

"You can't see me. I'm hiding on the side of this smooth tree."