your night sky is filled with
starlight
as Cassiopeia makes her rounds
In the celestal dome of ebony,
yet your sadness transends this beauty
like floodgates overflowing with sorrow
as you hide in all this darkness
without a tear to be shed.
Hear the night whisper its lovesong
as it wraps itself around you.
Fill your inner emptiness with you
and as you drift in this pensive mood
reflect at what matters most
what will bring you back to life.
Let go, let go, the night whispers.
I cannot, she whispers back.
What makes my life, my life
it's all still here, tethered to me.
Let go, let go, the night tempts once more.
I... I cannot, she whispers once again.
The night gives up its hold
washed out as the day appears,
and she feels the sting of solitude
as its thoughts resonate within her.
She wishes the night to have lingered longer
as she struggles to make sense of it all,
as to how one begins to dig up
that forgotten sense of purpose.
She wonders if any of it really matters,
if it will always be beyond her reach.
She flounders in her little pool of pity
as the thought of judgement of her peers
overwhelmes like a swarm of stinging wasps.
She wonders if wondering really matters -
she's thinking not, besides, what's the point.
Yet, she illuminates with this morning
as if she is hand in hand with the sun,
rising to begin her search
for crumbs of meaning of her life,
to stitch them all back together
with the broken threads of her existence,
this enigmatic lady of earth.
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Northern Cardinal
Saturday, October 4
A late appearance has turned my breakfast of old-fashioned
oats with a chopped Honeycrisp apple and pecans thrown in laced with cinnamon,
vanilla extract, and a bit of maple syrup into a welcome noon outdoors on my
deck as I am serenaded by a lively mockingbird shifting through his repertoire
of lovely tunes.
Gentle breezes wash cooling air over me when they decide to
grace with their presence. As I gaze
past the deck railing, the towering swamp sunflowers fill my vision as if they
are a chorus of angels shouting hallelujah, fall is here.
The tiny white flowered aster that came with the yard and
has stuck around like a visiting relative no one can persuade to leave, I think
is Calico Aster, Symphyotrichum lateriflorum.
We decided to make peace with it this year and let it cover all the bare
spaces.
It grows too tall and sprawls over everything to shade out
that which we already planted, therefore we pruned the main stem of each one
about a foot off the ground to make it act like a ground cover. Insects adore it, so it is a win with
supporting their lives in the garden.
Several hours before breakfast I spent in the backyard
pruning two small Arborvitae shrubs so I could reach the prairie garden with
ease. We didn’t quite put the ease in
there, but that is for a next time pruning.
It’s been decided that the only way to navigate all areas of this yard
is with an all-terrain rollator.
A Bluejay is loudly calling, and wonders of wonders, I still
have my tree frog who lives somewhere under the siding or in the gutter by the
sliding glass door. It’s loudly chirped
a few times, and I suppose it’s thinking about migrating to the garden to
partake of dinner.
Vic worked on his garden chores, then it was pleasant talk
with the going home traffic really reeving up to overly loud with some horn
blasts thrown in for good measure, you know, the type of person who thinks if
they keep blasting the horn as they follow the culprit on down the street it
will actually make a difference. Vic’s
off to get us potstickers and steamed broccoli for dinner outdoors, since no
mosquitoes are out.
A red wasp is checking all the deck posts to see if a morsal
might be found for a late nest tidbit.
The Merlin App said we heard a Red Shouldered Hawk cry earlier in the
day, but we never could find it. It’s
been pleasant waiting for dinner. A few Cardinals and one Chirping Sparrow
stopped by the bird bath I can view from the deck, otherwise, everything is
quiet except the never-ending traffic.
Saturday, October 11
It’s late afternoon, and as I sit listening to some
chattering from the Bluejays, a Katydid chimes in for a while. It’s a downer day for me, meaning I’m still
processing news of a dearest friend being incurable. At my age, any loss is magnificent. Vic
joined me for an afternoon of chatting and observing insects being carried in
on the wind or wings. We are never
totally alone. The insects make
themselves welcome at our table.
It's been decided, and Vic’s off to Burger Republic for our
dinner outdoors. The swamp sunflowers
are filled with large and small bees, skipper butterflies, and other
insects. The side prairie style garden,
and the front garden in the sunny areas are covered in masses of Aromatic
Asters blooming abundantly and filled with insect life.
Traffic has picked up, and it amazes me how many people get
off so early. Just heard a cricket make
itself known. I love listening to
crickets. I have a quirky sound going
off in my right ear once in a while, sounds like a cricket is living in
there.
Squawking Bluejays and a very vocal Red shouldered Hawk were
creating a commotion earlier in the day, but the Blackhaw Viburnum shrub
covered much of the view from the deck, so I saw nothing. Very frustrating.
Tuesday, October 14
We saw the Red Shouldered Hawk as we were returning home
from the chiropractor. Not up close, as
it was circling high in the sky over our neighborhood. Quite a large bird, so it is an exciting find
to add to the list of birds that visit our garden. I’m sure the Bluejays have been quite excited
also trying to not become dinner.
Life’s sort of okay.
Most trees still have their leaves, but the shrubs have begun to let
theirs drop to the ground, and many of the earlier flowers are merely seeds and
dried stems. The bird feeder hasn’t been
filled consistently for morning feeding, so I fear we have lost our sparrows
and finches for the fall and winter.
It’s exasperating when I no longer control these things.
I’m in my writing room at the end of the day with empty
thoughts, and a vacant stare. Nothing
more to say, as the richness of colors that people always look forward to in
autumn will not appear here until November this year. The Dogwood tree already has it leaves
changing colors, as well as some of the shrubs, but the autumn crocus has not
yet begun its journey to see daylight.
So I bid you a fond farewell until next month, because this month wore me out. I write in the Word program, and when I copied to paste to a blog in progress of putting together like I have done multiple times before, it vanished into thin air. After panicking a bit, I finally gained entrance to the cloud and found my writing to copy and paste back into Word.
Before that I could no longer download clipart, so after consulting the internet, I found my default programs and fixed it. Before that, I wrote the poem, then added to a blog in process of putting together and changed it a zillion times over a span of five months. Nothing comes easy to this youngster.
It's late in the evening, but midnight has not struck the hour yet. I am catless, sitting in an empty livingroom, with a monitor screen staring me in the face waiting for a beautiful ending to these narratives. Sorry...
...I'm going to bed.
Sweet dreams to all of you who visit. You're much appreciated.
Yvonne
a.jpg)
I think, a Fiery Skipper Butterrfly on Calico Aster,
Symphyotrichum lateriflorum
.jpg)
Thought to maybe be an inbred white aster,
the disk changes from yellow to later purplish, thus the name.
a.jpg)
Seed heads from Butterfly Weed, Asclepias tuberosa
that have just escaped the seedpod as a whole;
waiting for a breeze to begin dispersal.
Aromatic Asters, 'October Skies',
Symphyotrichum oblongifolium...
...with European Honeybee
...with some type of Skipper Butterfly
...with a very small bluish black bee.
Green-spored parasol mushroom (Chlorophyllum molybdites)
.jpg)
Seedpod of Purple Coneflower
What is left of the empty seedpod
from a Butterfly Weed as it grows old.
American beautyberry (Callicarpa americana)
Callicarpa americana var. lactea or Callicarpa americana 'Alba' ,
it can be called either.
I think it is a clone of the original plant,
although mine are formed from seeds of the cloned plants,
so no longer clones,
as they are not reliably to come true to form.
Swamp Sunflower, Helianthus angustifolius
Outer Yellow Ray Florets are to attract pollinators.
Disk Florets are the smaller dark colored
individual flowers in the center.
I think the tiny yellow part in the center of each disk flower
is a male or female reproductive organ.
I'm not sure which.
After pollinated, each flower will turn into a seed.
The Disk Floret will eventually contain many seeds.
Winterberry 'Sparkleberry'
Symphyotrichum patens, Clasping Aster
Mine grow between the two Oak Trees,
so they are more prostrate because of the shade,
but they bloom well.
American dogwood, Cornus florida
The smaller green balls are the
immature flower buds for next year.
Does okay in the sun.
We monitor it and when it seems stressed,
we water it.
Leaves beginning to display autumn colors.
.jpg)
No idea of the name of this tiny spider,
on the mock strawberry plant.
Maybe Lerema accius, the clouded skipper,
difficult to tell with closed wings.
Google offers Panoquina ocola, The Ocola Skipper butterfly,
but that's a little iffy, although not impossible.
Tallest Swamp Sunflower stem on left is about 9" tall.
I think all the spring and summer rains helped with it's height.
European Honeybee
Zelus luridus, also known as the Pale Green Assassin Bug
Eggs hatch shortly after laid,
but the nymph (shown below) will molt 4 (sometimes 7) times
before becoming a winged adult the next June.
They produce one generation per year,
but we have quite a few of the nymphs being carried
on the breezes to all parts of the garden and beyond.
We had one join us for lunch,
and one landed on me and had to be removed to safe haven,
a.jpg)
They overwinter in bark, under logs, and in crevasses,
and are semi-dormant during that period.
They are capable of accidently biting you,
but they are a good garden predator, crucial to healthy gardens.
The ones landing into inappropiate areas crawled
onto paper and were transferred to the garden with ease.
Per AI Overview:
Wolf spiders in the genus Sosippus, known as funnel-web wolf spiders,
masquerade as true funnel-web spiders by building funnel-shaped webs.
These spiders, found in the southern United States,
have a hunting style similar to other wolf spiders (family Lycosidae)
but create sheet webs with a funnel-shaped retreat,
which can be easily mistaken for the webs of spiders
in the family Agelenidae. The key difference is the eye arrangement.
This one is living between the window and the window screen,
where it is protected from preditors.
Euthychynchus floridanus,
the Florida Predatory Stink Bug nymph
The nymph of a carnivorous shield bug,
it is considered beneficial because
its diet includes many species of pest insects.
I only went out for a walk,
and finally concluded to stay out till sundown,
for going out,
I found,
was really going in.
~ John Muir
"From ghoulies and ghosties and long-leggedy beasties
and things that go bump in the night,
Good Lord, deliver us!"
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