My busy messy gardens. Hannah update too...

A post by a friend AC, got me thinking about my own gardens and yard. The mowing is done by a zero turn and push mower and it looks pretty nice. Unless you count all the overgrown areas of pasture [not safe to mow] and weeds growing around old equipment.

So I've always tried to make a very colorful and brilliant bunch of little gardens.

They may be messy and weedy, but the birds and the bees are really enjoying them.

Creeping Thyme flowers.

Morning Glories on the porch.

Self seeded Sunflower in the yard.

Happy Birds

Sunlit Nasturtium. These flowers literally take over the SE section of the porch.

 

Not a hummingbird.

Blazing Stars being watered.

My outhouse garden looks amazing and is nearly surrounded by Bee Balm plants. I can sit on the back stoop and watch bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds dodge around in the flowers. 

If I move closer and am patient I can get photos of them.

The East garden. It is one of my free for all gardens. I have creeping thyme, vinca, iris, day lilies [not shown] bee balm, zinnias, cosmos, a pumpkin plant...😁 along with nasturtium and corn flowers. Basically I took a jar of seeds to the one side of the garden and tossed them in, raked, and stomped and thought I'd see what happened.

There is actually a hidden path that goes through the garden. The dogs and I use it.

Yes the garage is still there crumbling slowly. No word from Frank on when he is thinking of tearing it down. I'm okay with waiting because Frank is also busy with working on two farms with crops. He also raises cattle and runs a Excavating and Gravel business along with hauling things for farmers. His wife believes he should clone himself.

Below is another mess. I had Borage Flowers that grew to 4 feet tall and got taken out by last week's winds and 6+ inches of rain. But the surviving flowers are filling in. I don't do a strict border, but just mow close to the plantings. Love in the mist, Borage, Morning Glories, and it looks like some self seeded black eyed susans are going to appear between some marigolds and nasturtiums. I like my untidy messy gardens. Lots of crazy textures to admire.

I've ignored this spot-- below.... 

But this spring I had a tiny field of tall Sweet William which I just let grow. I'll probably save some plant seeds from these and dig the whole thing up this fall to start over or let it grow to grass. It is a mess and overgrown.

I'm going to pick my battles and do less next year as it is obvious I can't keep it all up. I didn't have time to properly care for it last year either. So perhaps it is time to go. Though I hate to dig up the black eyed susans that put themselves here too!

My one tidy garden is this one.

I may do the same for the other half of the porch next year. But I'd rather have cosmos and zinnias along with all the reseeded Love in the Mist flowers.

I love looking at tidy well done gardens, but for the life of me, I like to mix up as many things as possible and see what happens with no rhyme or reason.

I'm finding out what flowers like to grow together on my own and which plants like which places the best.

I suppose I could study some garden books, but the gardens they suggest are too rigid. I like wild and untamed.

Hannah and I saw Dr. Grimm, she is an awesome vet and Hannah loves her! Hannah does have what is called a seroma or pocket of fluid that is to the side of the incision. Her surgical incision is healing perfectly, the seroma is a small concern and we want to stay ahead of it.

So instead of my solution to keep her from licking it open...we changed tactics.
The area must be open to the air yet keep her from irritating it. 

I have a cleanser to swipe the spot twice a day.

So not a gross shot but here is a photo of the incision and the area points to what seems to be a seroma: Clear fluid that is next to an incision. 

Doc and I want to stay ahead of this as it could be serious and hard to treat if not taken care of.

I learned something today!

She has a new look with a PJ top from Olive's house, she gave me some shirts that her kids didn't wear anymore.

So Doc gave me some cotton balls in a solution to swab the sight and she came up with this to keep the area aired out and keep her from licking it.

It is a toddler t-shirt with leg holes. It is super easy to do and she was embarrassed at first, but is not bothered with it by bedtime.

Humming birds/moths/Infrared tour

The Clearwing Hummingbird Moths have finally showed up to feast on the Bee Balm. Of course they generally show up on the hottest days of July, but if you wish to see them, you have to sit patiently and watch for them.

I was fairly far from the flowers... on the back step to the house which was in the shade. 

 Remember the crooked and ancient looking outhouse in March? It looked SO pitiful! 

Well, it looks like an aged old beauty right now. Maybe that is why I've kept from demolishing it.

I enjoy trying to 'catch' the hummingbirds doing their thing with the Bee Balm also.

This is 3 shots combined into one. 

Thankfully, the camera has an exceptional image stabilizer and ON1 allows for layers to be aligned when loaded!

I like to do these kinds of shots, they just seem so fun to look at. I think I'm going to do a bird calendar next year for all of my favorite birds shots from this year.

I can't wait to capture some action with some butterflies. I would hope to see some Swallowtails and Monarchs just because they are so incredibly beautiful.

Sunday morning I had to run an errand in town to pick up some milk and other 'stuff' you know, the stuff you forget the last time you shopped.

Since I went very early [hubby's early morning nap time], I took a little more time driving to town and back. I took my Infrared Camera with me. The fog here was dense and it had been such a l-o-n-g time since I'd been able to get out and admire the morning light and take some shots.

Along a ridge road --> a not shortcut road to town. The fog was so dense there was no sky but I thought the telephone/power poles made a neat shot with the road curving off into the distance.

The fog started to lift as I came through this ridge towards the county road that leads to the highway....that leads to town!

I just love the undulation of the different strips of crops and lines that the eyes wouldn't see in regular color.

Here the morning sun comes out on another cut across gravel road I took. 

A bit further down the road the sun came out peeked between clouds. I was following buggy tracks. The buildings on the left side of the road belong to a few Amish families. 

More photos taken on the way home from town on another gravel road between the highway and the county road. One of my favorite ways to go home.

This shot was taken on our road as I headed home with a cooler of ice cream and all sorts of good veggies to make cold meals of fruits and veggies. 

I had hoped to get some nice steaks. I looked at some steaks that I've purchased a month ago for $25 to $30 bucks. That would feed us 2 suppers and one lunch.

The sticker shock of $45.00 stopped me in my tracks. I won't be able to afford to eat beef! I picked up pork chops and chicken. 
Hubby is going to have to forgo eating steaks [which is what he is so into right now].

It makes me sad to think I let my little beefers go a few years ago. I am also thankful that our friend Steve has supplied us with some amazing fish and venison.

The sky and ridge as I turned onto one of our gravel roads.

And then....

down this lane and into the woods to our place....

All these shots were done with a camera that was modified to take Infrared photos with different 
filters of different wave lengths. I use the 665nm filter for all shots. 
I normally take this camera out a lot when driving to and from places when

there is an interesting sky. 

Today is supposed to be blistering hot so I did all the chores before 7am and even did my last bit of mowing with my little mower. Boy that mower hated the wet tall grass, but I got it done, cleaned the mower, and put it away.

Quiet Riot at the Bee Balm Patch...

The last shot is something that used to be impossible without modern cameras.

Getting several shots in quick succession while keeping things in focus used to be nearly impossible in the film days.

Now there are cameras that 'track and focus' on whatever you choose to follow. It is quite amazing. I love 'shooting' butterflies and hummingbirds as they move from flower to flower.

I miss a lot of shots even with the fantastic modes in my camera. It may take me a few days worth of trying to get anything decent, but it is always worth the extra effort.

The Swallowtail shot consists of 3 shots blended together later in a program I use called ON1. It is so much simpler [and cheaper] than Photoshop.

Anyway. 

Enjoy my Quiet Riot at the Bee Balm Patch.

 PS~ I did get a visit from one of the Tree & Brush Folks! Yeeehawww!

Luck, Flowers, Trees

 Did you know that spotting a Hummingbird Moth is supposed to bring you good luck and prosperity?

Did you also know that they like Bee Balm, Verbena, and Phlox as their favorite flowers and food?

I didn't. However, by sheer luck I have all three types of flowers around my house. 

The Bee Balm below is next to my outhouse.

The Phlox is on the west side of the house, but next year I will be moving another group of them to the east side also.

I have verbena in pots on the porch in a couple of colors. I had no idea they were attractive to Hummingbird Moths until a year or so ago when I planted a bunch of them and saw my first Hummingbird moth! 

4 O'clocks are also a Hummingbird favorite along with Zinnias. The seeds I gathered last year for the Zinnias haven't done well this year. 

5 years ago I got two little patches of Creeping Thyme from one of the neighbors. She had a garden from the previous owner that she was just going to cover with plastic and river rock. I 'rescued' some plants and now I have large swaths of creeping thyme. Right now they are in bloom.

There is almost no maintenance to these delightful plants. They grow low. They spread, they smell wonderful and the flowers attract so many tiny bees and larger bees!

Okay. Enough about that. Remember that Dunnum fellow I talked to? He said he'd be out over the weekend. No show, no contact. 

I contacted him again and gave him some more time. After 7 days of waiting for an estimate, I have contacted two other companies. 

Now I'll wait and see who may come out and do the work.

I understand being busy, but if you have a potential customer wouldn't you at least message that customer to set up a definite date and time ... AND deal with it or message that customer with a reason for the no show? I assume that this person doesn't want my money. Cha-ching.

I'm determined to get this project done this summer. Last year was the driveway. This year, the trees that are dead and dying that will impact my sheds and house need to go.

However!!!!

Here is a guy that I can always depend on to show up for work daily. 

Little Richard:

And...I leave you with one last flower photo...

My wagon wheel of Morning Glories with Bee Balm and Milkweeds...

Wish me luck! 

The Hummingbird Clearwing Moth is supposed to bring me some!!!!

Flying Things

I have only seen about 3 Monarchs so far this year, but the Swallow Tail Butterflies have been very busy!

This patch of purple bee balm has been the HOT spot.

On these hot afternoons I sit in the shade on the north stoop and watch the activity.

In May I used good old compost dirt to fill in a dip in the yard. It took a few loads of BS dirt to make a nice spot.
I then planted sunflowers and spread packets of wildflower seeds and stomped it down. 
It has produced beautiful little flowers as well as the bachelor buttons and others that I can't identify.

Below is a 'magic' shot. I use ProCapture shooting [on a tripod] to catch the butterfly on the right landing. I merged two photos to get the sequence.

I got braver and thought I'd try it with the one Swallow Trail. The result is not perfect, however it was a fun challenge to do. Edited in ON1 Photo because I won't be a slave to Photoshop's rental.

The downside of shooting like that is getting a TON of photos to sort through which include a lot of misses. 

The ProCapture feature is really cool. When you press the shutter half way down, it starts to cycle when you hold the shutter down it saves the previous 10 shots [or whatever you program it to] and then up to 70 shots [I programed mine to a mere 5] of when you release the shutter.

So you have pre shots, and after shots to go through. As well as those taken while you held down the shutter.

However, it seems to be a great way to 'shoot' unexpected action.

The downside again, is having to go through those shots. However, I can see this as fantastic for trying to catch birds, butterflies, and equine running? I can also use the other two sequential modes for fast action. 
I'm still experimenting.

The butterflies and other insects move so fast, it is nearly impossible to time it with my slow finger on the shutter.

I used low sequential for these two shots. The Clearwing Hummingbird Moth was so exciting to see! Not only that, I got it with a bumble bee on the opposite side of the flower with both in midflight.

I spent over an hour by the back step watching these incredible insects fly about. 

I'm learning to be patient and observe things. This is something that was very hard for me to do.

However the intense heat and humidity actually helped me sit tight and watch from the shade.

And finally, my patience paid off with the spotting of a Monarch.

HOT Afternoon

After mowing the hill and sweating out buckets [yeah, the little mower is self propelled but it doesn't propel well UP a steep hill], I decided to chill out and sit on the back step in the shade.

I could have gone inside and cooled off in the AC but I don't like spending summer days in the house.

I reserve days indoors for rainy days and frigid frightful snow days.

I noticed a lot of activity near the old outhouse. The Bumbles were very active along with tiny bees.

I decided to go grab my mega zoom lens and set it on a tripod. I pointed it at the plants and simply watched. 

I don't know what this butterfly is. Maybe someone will recognize it. I noticed that it seemed quite battered. 

I'd heard a segment on the radio regarding hot weather and insects. Apparently Hot Weather makes the insects' metabolism speed up and thus they are very active during hot spells.

This butterfly is caught with a downward wing stroke which I thought was pretty cool. I used what is called a High speed setting which takes 11 shots per second. Wow! Imagine that!
Usually I toss all but one of the shots taken that way. 

It is cool to get an unusual shot like this. I always imagined butterflies with their wings up.

I've been lucky enough more than once to catch a Bumble coming in for a landing. 

Let's play Where's Waldo with the Hummingbird!
This bird kept resting inside the plants. It was hard to spot him/her.

Learning to be patient is paying off.  

Here is a Ruby Throated Hummer tasting the bee balm. 
I think I will let the Bee Balm take over this section around the outhouse and move other plants this fall.

I grabbed two plants last year from my neighbor who has a huge disdain for flower beds and gardens.

Lucky for me, the former neighbor had planted so many beautiful plants around the house. I have been able to dig some up and add to my collection.

Here is the Hummer playing hide 'n go seek again!

Some Tweety Birds I caught while watching the patch of Bee Balm:

Goldfinch

House Finch?
Purple Finch?

Not sure!

A huge surprise! The Orioles

have not left yet!

Fledgling and Parent?

C130 skimming the tree tops. 

Not a bird in the wild sense!

The C130's from Fort McCoy fly low over head just skimming the tree tops. 

I bet you are wondering about what the mules think of it.

Not much. They rarely even lift their heads. They will look up when choppers come through doing the same thing. 

Charlie is not so calm about it. He thinks we are being invaded by 100's of UPS trucks or perhaps the world is ending.

Today looks like another muggy and hot day. That means I get my outdoor work done early and do more very late. 

Looks like we will have rounds of heavy and possibly dangerous storms tonight. Oh goody! Not.

Stay cool and comfortable.