Eight Bull Thistles

I’m sitting here editing pictures for my weekly letter blog and I see there are eight pictures with a Bull Thistle in them. I made a note to that effect thinking I’d segue into those pictures with that little fact when a thought pops into my head, I should name it that. So, I am. And let’s kick this week off with those eight pictures.

A pretty metallic green Sweat Bee on Bull Thistle.

That may be a spider lurking there.

A male Monarch on Bull Thistle.

“Peg, how do you know it’s a male?” you ask.

Easy. The male has a black spot on his wing that the female doesn’t. I’ve heard it called a scent gland but another website says its scales.

Look at the life the Bull Thistle supports! There are at least four different insects on here at one time.

I watched this bee dive down into the thistle head first.

His little butt was sticking straight up in the air!

            Walking on a flower. What must that be like?

Our final image with Bull Thistle is one with a different kind of bee on it. This is a Plasterer Bee. These half-inch bees — also known as polyester bees — mate while rolling on the ground or while flying, joined to each other in midair. The males fly off to finish their lives sipping nectar while the female takes care of business all by herself. She digs a foot-and-a-half-deep tunnel as wide as a pencil, dug straight down into the ground. Eggs are laid in pockets, or brood cells, dug into the sides of the tunnel. She lines each cell with polyester secreted from her abdomen spreading it on the wall with her paintbrush-shaped tongue. She’ll pack the cell with nectar and pollen, lays an egg suspended over the food, and seals the cell with more polyester, closing it like a zip-lock bag. She’ll plug the tunnel entrance with soil, packing it down with her abdomen, then goes off to dig a new one.

They don’t know how the bees make this flexible waterproof plastic that resembles cellophane but they’d like to. It biodegrades in five years and they’re studying it to try and make something like it.

I found that to be very interesting.

Mike and I ran an errand to Wysox and somewhere along the road were these two old cars. I don’t know what they are and to me it doesn’t matter but it did bring back a memory that makes me chuckle every time I think of it.

“It was right before Christmas and Poppy was in the hospital,” my handsome brother David told me. He was the 16-year-old driver that day for several of us youngins. “We were coming back from church and I was on the center line. Somebody else came around the corner and they were on the line too. That was on the hill going up to Craley. When I got over, I got over too far and hit the guiderail then a pole.”

But the part that makes me chuckle every time…

“And Paul (my then ten-year-old brother) yelled, ‘GET OUT! IT’S GONNA BLOW!’” I told Mike and laughed. “Do ya think we watched too much TV?”

I told you last time that I saw my very first Monarch caterpillar. I’m interested in helping the Monarchs so we let as much milkweed grow as we can. I’ve tried to plant more but the seeds didn’t take. I cleaned my butterfly house and brought the caterpillar in then I went in search of more. I found these eggs on the underside of a milkweed leaf. I didn’t know what they were so I left them. I’ll just keep checking and see what comes out, I thought. Two or three checks later the eggs were gone. Not gone as in not there gone, gone as in hatched or struck by disease gone. There was a black spot and a little residue where they’d been. My friend Google says Monarchs lay a single egg. These are ladybug eggs.

Another day, another caterpillar search, I see an orange and black spider. Did I have my camera with me?

NO!

I hurried back to the house and luckily, he was still there when I got back. Only I saw through my zoom that he’s not a spider at all. He’s a ladybug nymph.

And I saw this guy. He’s a Citrus Flatid Planthopper

           This guy? I just don’t know. He’s got a fuzzy butt and I don’t know if he’s an aphid or another kind of planthopper.

I was watching these two. An Orange-spotted Ladybug above a Spotted Lady Beetle. Both these guys are friends of our gardens because they eat the dreaded aphids.

Lady Beetle took off and Ladybug headed for the edge of the leaf.

A milkweed bug pokes his head up, sees me, and falls over dead.

            “You’re not foolin’ me,” I told him and walked on.

I’m not finding many Monarch caterpillars. I don’t know if it’s just early or if the mama Monarchs don’t like my milkweed this year. However, having said that, I did find two teeny tiny caterpillars and brought them home. There are plenty of predators of Monarch caterpillars. Flies, bees, spiders, assassin bugs, toads, as well as mice who’ll eat the chrysalis.

I only had my big caterpillar for a day before he climbed to the top of the house. After a day of just sitting there he finally hung himself upside down in a ‘j’.

I checked on him all day but he didn’t change at all. The next morning, I found a chrysalis where he’d been hanging.

And look how much my two babies have grown in just five days!

The shades for the church windows.

The paint didn’t cover the Lowe’s logo very well and that’s when we decided we should’ve used primer. But it’s the outside so we didn’t worry overly much.

Jody had to go back to work so I did the other side by myself. You may notice the numbers? The windows aren’t all the same so the shades were custom made for each window.

Mike came out on the patio and visited with me from time to time but my true entertainment came from watching this little wren feed her babies.

A cricket.

A spider.

            A couple of I-don’t-knows. 

Another cricket.

A moth.

Trip after trip she made, never being gone long between trips. I’m not happy she booted the Downy Woodpecker from this nesting site but you have to hand it to her. She’s a good mother.

An Amber-wing Dragonfly. 

A little Pearl Crescent.

Vervain, also known as Verbina, has been used for a plethora of conditions including headaches, fevers, nervous exhaustion, depression, and gall bladder problems. Externally, it’s used to treat minor injuries, eczema, sores, neuralgia, and gum disease. The leaves and flowering stems are an analgesic, antibacterial, anticoagulant, antispasmodic, and mildly diuretic.

Queen Ann’s Lace. One of the very first wildflowers I learned the name of because of my beautiful friend Trish. She taught it to my kids and from there I was hooked learning the names of wildflowers.

Queen Anne’s Lace is in the carrot family and is also called Wild Carrot. You can eat the roots in soups, stews and in making tea. Leaves can be chopped and tossed into a salad. Flower clusters can be ‘french-fried’ or fresh flowers can be tossed into a salad. The aromatic seed is used as a flavoring in stews and soups.

Queen Anne's Lace has been used for centuries in herbalism. It’s used for digestive disorders, kidney and bladder diseases, and in the treatment of dropsy. The seeds can be used for the relief of flatulence and colic.

And here’s a fun fact. Legend has it that Queen Anne, the wife of King James I, was challenged by her friends to create lace as beautiful as a flower. While making the lace, she pricked her finger, and it’s said that the purple-red flower in the center of Queen Anne’s Lace represents a droplet of her blood.

Having said that, they don’t all have the dark center flower.

This one is Spotted Knapweed. An invasive. Cattle and other critters don’t eat it so it causes a real problem for farmers. It crowds out the native food they will eat.

A Red Admiral Butterfly on my Bergamot.

And most everybody knows this one. Pokeweed.

The tiny little flower of Herb Robert. I may have done this one earlier in the year but I just need to take pictures for you. If you remember, this is the one that if you crush the leaves it’s reminiscent of burnt rubber.

Butter and Eggs.

This is called Large Milkweed Bug. 

  

Our carpenter bee trap is a bust. We did get a few bees but none of them are carpenters.

Another beautiful friend of mine — have you ever noticed that all of my friends and family are beautiful or handsome? Ya know why? Because they are!

Anyway, much to my delight, Jody asked if I’d make her a couple of face masks. I said I would.

I started gathering my supplies one afternoon and set everything up at the table. I picked out material and went looking for the pattern to cut the masks. I looked and looked and looked! Finally, I found it under the treadle sewing machine where I’d had my supplies stored. It must’ve floated off the top on a current of air. I cut out the pieces I’d need and started joining the pieces together. That part went smoothly. I had two layers of cotton and two layers of filter. I fitted all four layers together and sewed along one edge. When I was attaching the ties I realized when I went to flip it the filters would be on the outside instead of inside where they belong. I had to make like a frog and rip-it. Thank goodness I’d bought a seam ripper. So, I got it apart and reassembled the right way and sewed along the edge for the second time. Then I saw I’d failed to turn one of the cotton panels the right way and the seam would be on the outside! OY! A second time I ripped it out. Put it back together and started to sew the seam for third time.

It'd be just my luck the bobbin thread will run out now, I thought. Self-fulfilling prophecy or not, that’s just what happened. I pulled the bobbin and rewound it. Rethreaded the machine and I don’t know what happened but something did. The stiches were all catawampus and the bobbin thread was tangled in it somehow and I had four threads coming from the machine to the material when I pulled it away instead of two. Once again, I cut and ripped and reassembled and started over. But I got the job done. I spent hours and hours and only got one mask made.

I’ve been asked for another two masks so now I’m happy as a lark to have a reason to make something.

And speaking of making things, I made another two concrete leaves. Look at the size of those burdock leaves, would ya! My foot, in a size 6 boot, is there for perspective.

“Peg, what are you gonna do with them?” you ask.

One is semi-promised and I’ll probably just paint the other and put a solar fountain in it for a birdbath. I only made these because I had half a bag (or a little more) of concrete I wanted to use before it sat around and got hard. Plus, I wanted to get them made before they mowed the sides of the road and mowed down my big burdock leaves again.

I was out taking pictures of our sunset the other night. And just to show you how much focal point matters, these two pictures were taken within seconds of each other. The time stamp indicates they were both taken at 8:37. If I focus on the sky you can’t see the deer standing there.

If I focus on the deer all the color is gone from the sky.

          A possum crept along the weed line, not minding at all that I was standing there taking photos of the sunset. Didn’t I just get done telling you I haven’t seen one of these guys in a while?

          Someone else who I haven’t seen in a while is Alvin. My little chipmunk is MIA for two weeks straight now. I’ve given up watching for him. I don’t know if he decided to move away to some place with less cats or if one of the said cats got him. If they did, they didn’t present him to me.

Mike and I took a Saturday morning trip to Tunkhannock to pick up a prescription for him at Walmart. We get there and find out the prescription had never been called in. While there I wanted to check for elastic for the face masks (they didn’t have any), pick up some pet supplies, and a container of parmesan cheese.

“Peg, that’s a weird combination,” you say.

I know, right! We’re not in need of much of anything and we always just run into our little town to get milk and bananas, but Walmart has a better price on canned cat and dog food. And the cheese? I have a bad habit of snackin on air popped pop corn sprinkled with parmesan while we’re watching TV at night or even just having it for my supper. I do like my parmesan with a little pop corn in it.

We get the few things we need and head for the checkout. Would you believe that on a Saturday morning there were only two checkouts open and both of them had buggies lined up the whole way around the block! Who’s got time for that!

“You just wanna leave it and go?” Mike asked.

“Yeah. But first, let me register my complaint.” I headed for the Customer Service and met the front-end manager on the way. I wasn’t happy and I bet she could tell. “You only have two registers open and the line is a mile long.” I told her. “That’s just ridiculous! I’m leaving my buggy and leaving.”

Her nose went up in the air a little as she bustled past me. “That’s fine.”

No satisfaction there. And normally, I don’t believe there’s any benefit to doing what I’d just done, namely complain, because they truly don’t care.

Across the road, a brand-spankin-new Aldi’s is being built. “They’ll lose some business to that,” Mike said and I know he’s right. We always get the majority of our supplies at Aldi’s.

Mike drove through McCarthy’s and I took a bunch of pictures of the tractors and old wheels and plows and other implements dotting the hillside but this is the only one I’ll bore you with.

Ginger. My poor baby girl. Can you see the tears just running out of her eyes? It breaks my heart.

Her tumor is much larger and she has another growing on the other side of her neck that’s getting bigger and bigger too. She’s still eating pretty good but her pain meds make her sleep most of the time. When I hold her, she’s limp and she’ll often push her neck into my hands. It’s as if she’s trying to get me to notice there’s something wrong there. “I know, baby,” I coo. “I know.” And I kiss her.

“Peg, you’re being selfish to keep her as long as you can. You should do what’s best for Ginger,” Mike admonished.

I called the vet and we moved Ginger’s go-to-sleep-forever day up to tomorrow, Monday.

“What are you gonna do with her?” Mike asked. “Have her cremated?”

“No. I guess not. Let’s just bury her.”

We picked out the spot. There’s a young pine tree close by that will grow up to shade her.

“We’ll have to get stones for the top so the critters don’t dig her up,” I told Mike.

“Maybe we could find a flat one so I can mow around it,” Mike suggested.

“Jon and Steph said we could have stones from their quarry. You wanna go up there and see if we can find one?”

On the way up the hill I took pictures of the deer stands; one old, one not-so-old.

We found matching stones for Itsy and Ginger. Itsy isn’t sick but she’s 15 and we’re gonna lose her sooner or later. We thought we might just as well get her one while we’re there.  

A grasshopper sat and let me take his picture. I believe he’s a very common kind of grasshopper called Pallid-winged Grasshopper.

We loaded the stones on the golf cart and headed for home.

“Are you gonna paint their names and dates on them?” Mike asked.

Honestly, I haven’t thought that far ahead. “Probably.”

At home, Mike measured around the stones so he could set them down, ground level. I flopped the stone over and he took the sod off. That’s all we got done before the heat called an end to the job. We’ll go out in the coolness of Monday morning and finish preparing it for Ginger. I’m thinking I’ll buy a rose bush to plant there.

And with that we’ll call…

“Wait! Peggy! Just wait! You can’t end your letter blog on such a sad note!” you say.

All right then, how about Mr. Cuteness? I’ve been plucking him from my desk and putting him on the floor when he gets in my way. So now he creeps up and scoots behind my monitor before I can get him. Do you see him peeking out from underneath? I’ve lightened the shadows so you could see him.

“Peg, is your desk getting junked up again?” you ask.

Is that a trick question?

I’m not happy with the name Sparky and I haven’t been. Although he is a spark of joy during this sad time, it doesn’t suit his big personality. Out of nowhere the other day I called him Tiger — and I like it! He’ll grow up to be big and strong like a tiger and he already rules the roost.

Tiger gets up to the window above the door, a place Mike made for the cats to go. I was waiting in the doorway for the girls to come toddling back in when Mike calls, “Watch out above you.”

I look up and this is what I see.

And now, for real, we will call this one done.