Shadow Grasses

           I’m calling this week Shadow Grasses not because there’s a grass with that name and not because of the shadow grasses cast but because it’s both things I want to talk about this week; my shadow and grasses.

          Raini is my little shadow. As time passes, I see her getting more and more attached to me. Even when we’re walking about outside of the fenced yard, she doesn’t go more than a minute before she comes back to check on me.

          I had Raini out this past week and I was noticing all the varieties of grass and I started taking pictures.

          I don’t know my grasses and since it’s already Sunday afternoon, I’m not going to take the time to research them. I thought they were beautiful.

          Buts and —err, rather, bugs and wildflowers are more my jam. Funny how changing one letter can change the whole word. My fingers are on auto pilot while I’m writing. I just think a word and let my fingers type it out. I’ve been doing this so long I don’t even have to think about where the letters are on the keyboard or how to spell it. As you can see, from the start of this, my fingers sometimes anticipate a word before I think it.

          While on a walkabout with Raini, I spot this guy and I do know what he is. He’s a Golden-backed Snipe Fly.

          Then I spot this guy. I always try to take a picture when I first see them because I may not get another chance.

          In this case, this Little Wood Satyr followed us on our walkabout and he sat for a better portrait.

          These are the tiny little flowers of Bedstraw.

          This is a wild rose.

          This is a sedge grass called Bottlebrush.

          This is another instance of taking a photo fast because I may not get another chance.

          Then I did!

          This strange looking insect is in the Ichneumonidae family.

They’re a parasitic wasp, capturing their prey and sealing them in with their larvae as their first meal.

This is a geometer moth.

           Raini comes to check on me then she’s off again. She’s not a very big dog and swims in the sea of grasses.

          Silky Dogwood is blooming.

           This is another sedge grass.

          “What are you looking at mom?” and Raini sniffs the beetle I was trying to flip over.

          I’m pretty sure this is a wild lettuce plant.

          At the pond and my shadow is checking on me as I take pictures of another sedge grass.

A Red-spotted Purple Butterfly. No second chances at him.

      Cedar-apple Rust after a rain.

     

                   Black Medic.

          I love the Oxeye Daisy! Such a simple, unassuming flower.

                    Raini comes to check on me. “Are you okay, Mom?” 

          “Mom?”

          Another sedge called Blunt Spikerush.

Plantain is blooming.

             And so is the Herb Robert.

This wildflower has been used in the folk medicine as a treatment for diarrhea, to improve functioning of the liver and gallbladder, for toothache and nosebleeds, and is useful in healing wounds.        

Freshly picked leaves have an odor resembling burning tires when crushed and if you rub it on your body, the smell is said to repel mosquitoes.

Raini walked right past this little Ribbon Snake and never saw it. Since I didn’t want her to kill it, I didn’t tell her about it.

          The Mountain Laurel is blooming at the Kipps'. 

          It’s blooming other places as well but I took this picture in the Kipps’ yard.

          Speaking of the Kipps...

          We were visiting with them on the front porch when Raini got her leash wrapped around an iron chicken roosting on the step above where I was standing, leaning against the rail. She pulled it over and right into my shin.

          OUCH!

          I ended up with a knot the size of a goose egg on my shin and almost two weeks later it’s still there, only smaller. And talk about tender! I didn’t realize how much Raini brushed against or leaned against my legs until it caused a burst of pain every time she did it.

          Raini plays ball like a boss! She asks me to play first thing in the morning as I’m stumbling to get out of bed. And she'll play as many times a day as she can get me to toss the ball for her.

          It’s her job, I realized one day. Heelers love to have a job to do. It’s her job to get the ball and bring it back to me.  

          And jump! Oh! My! Goodness! Raini loves to jump and she can jump pretty high, too.

          Sometimes my pitches go astray. If it goes over the roof ridge, it gets stuck on the long flat part on the other side and I have to climb up on the roof.

          Sometimes it comes down on the side and gets stuck in the valley created by the chute.

          Raini comes back to me without the ball and whines. Since I didn’t hear the ball hit the ground, I already knew what happened.

          “Uh-oh!” I say and Raini leads the way to where the ladder is propped against the wall on the patio. I never take it back to the garage anymore since I use it so often. In this case I don’t need to climb up on the roof. I get the ladder and Raini leads the way back to where she knows the ball is. I lean the ladder against the chute and use a stick to push the ball off the other side.

          Raini supervises.

          Sometimes, the things Raini does surprises me.

          I buy frozen soup bones for the girls. I might only give them one a week. This week, I looked at Raini and asked, “Do you want a bone?”

          What surprised me was Raini turned, trotted to the fridge, stopped, and looked up at the freezer door. She knew!

          And this is what happens to a little girl when she sits under where Mom’s sanding a board!

          There was an awful lot of squawking going on out at the bird feeders one day. Upon investigation, I see it was a baby Purple Finch crying for food. I stood at the kitchen window and took a bunch of shots as the baby got fed.

          “What are you working on?” you ask.

          I just finished a porch sign for Miss Rosie. My old friend in West Virginia suggested Sweet Summer instead of Hello Summer like I was going to do.

          And, by the way, I want to thank everyone who gave me input on making signs. I may not always do what you suggest but I always do appreciate your ideas.

          “Which side should I show her first?” I asked Mike.

          “Fourth of July. It’s the side I like best.”

          And I like the summer side better. Nothing says summer to me like finches, Queen Ann’s Lace, and Bull Thistle.

          The thing I like best about making gifts for Miss Rosie is I get to make what I want to make. Miss Rosie always has the option to refuse a sign — or anything else I make her, for that matter. If she doesn’t like the looks of this one, I’ll make her a different one.

          But she loves the sign.

          “Which side do you like best?” I asked, thinking for sure she’d pick the side I like.

          “I think the Fourth of July side,” she said.

          Mike smirked like the Cheshire Cat. “It’s more colorful,” he said.

 

          I was playing ball with Raini before bed one night. I looked over at the soft glow of the porch light in the early evening and thought how warm and inviting it looked.

          You probably just think some old mountain man and his woman lives here.

          Let’s call this one done!