A Garden of Many Dreams

 The garden in front of our house -

Hum-m-m, how do I give it justice?

We mow the weeds by the street, so diligently,

and pretend it’s grass without any class.

 

And add a lovely row of mulch to give definition,

between those wild ones with heads still attached,

and those defiant rebels mowed to a wee bit of stubble,

and still - we never, ever pull ourselves up into first class.

 

That row of woody chips has melted quite a bit,

crossing the line of demarcation into enemy territory,

and causing a teeter-tottering effect when walking,

if you dare…

to stare at the flowers that aren’t always there.

 

I sit on the porch in the cool of trees

that have defied the pruning given each year,

boxing with the eves when the wind is high.

Next year, I suspect, they’ll be half way to the moon.

I’ll just watch it all engulf me,

as if I am food for thought for dinner,

While cicada songs crescendo and decrescendo around me,

As the earth spins into that world of darkness.

What the..?

 

A spider spins its silk, back and forth, between chair and door,

A mosquito comes with friends to eagerly dine,

A cockroach silently scampers past the toe of my shoe,

While a strange feeling sends shivers up and down my spine.

 

Has it passed through the grapevine -?

That invitation to come and dine as you are

With some daffy lady still on her front porch,

As the darkness curls around and swallows her up.

Joe Pye Weed flower buds, Eutrochium fistulosum

Hibiscus moscheutos, the Swamp Rose-mallow

Flower buds with fuzz that sparkles like sugar, 

or appears as if velvet.

Tiger Bee Fly, Xerox tigrinus

Bee Flies are true flies.   

The female tiger bee fly deposits her eggs in places 

where carpenter bees have laid their eggs. 

The bee fly larvae eat the carpenter bee larvae.

Always the mallow flowers have been light pink.

I think seeds that fell from the seed pods last fall sprouted this year.

The flower colors are variable in the white, pink, and red range; 

so one never knows what color of flowers the new plant will have.

Anavitrinella pampinaria - Common Gray Moth

Moths enter a state of torpor to rest. 

Torpor is a resting state where the insect 

slows its brain function, metabolism, and heart rate.

Mourning Doves, Zenaida macroura, at the bird feeder

Not the best photos, but I'm working on improving them.

American Goldfinch, Spinus tristis

Northern Mockingbird, Spinus tristis 

House Finch, Haemorhous mexicanus 

Insects are attractive things and very human, or perhaps we men and women are like bugs. I have known dragon flies, swift-motioned, gleaming; and hornets, unbeautiful but effective; some people are like honeybees, engaged in sweet unselfish labors, while others are crickets that only chirp; some are butterflies, flashing in the pure light, while others are noisome, creeping things that lurk in dank shadows. Some persons are fireflies, lighting up dark places for others, while there are those who are house flies, inquisitive, annoying, noxious... Yet there isn't anybody who isn't interesting, and so there is no bug that doesn't repay you for studying it. I wonder what insect I am like?— my family would doubtless say a mosquito. 

~Dorothy Scarborough, "Entomology on a Country Porch," From a Southern Porch, 1919

Rose Mallow Bees resemble bumblebees, 

These bees do not resemble bumblebees, 

therefore, I do not know what kind of mallow bees these are 

that visit my rose mallow flowers.

There is a third, much smaller bee in the flower

that ignored the mallow bees fighting.

At first glance, it looked like a ball of bees rolling around and around,

but it turned out to be just two bees.

I observed this behavior on three separate occasions.

I think this is a mating behavior, where the male bee 

rests in the mallow flower, waiting for a foraging female bee.

Males will chase away or fight with other males 

that try to land on their flower.

I could be wrong :)

They could be protecting their food source. 

Twice one of the bees flew away and one bee stayed.

Once both bees flew away.

These bees are solitary bees, meaning the females 

nest individually in hard-packed soil.  

Eggs are deposited into brood cells 

provisioned with masses of pollen and nectar,

Predation in the larval stage is most commonly from 

parasitoid wasps, fire ants, and assassin flies

This is a mallow bee after the other bee 

it was fighting with flew away.

This is a mallow bee resting or hiding in a flower,

maybe waiting for a female mallow bee to visit.

This is a bumblebee resting with its legs clamped to the flower petal.

Along the fence behind the house.

Autumn Minaret Daylily

Flower stems are as tall a me.

Phlox paniculata 'Jeana' with Carpenter Bee

Bumblebee on Purple Coneflower, Echinacea purpurea

Unripened berries of Spicebush, Lindera benzoin 

Bumblebees

Phlox paniculata 'Laura'

Bumblebee on Hairy Sunflower,  Helianthus hirsutus

Stylophorum diphyllum, commonly called Celandine Poppy.

It blooms late spring, and usually goes dormant before summer's end.

These patterned leaves are showing signs of drought stress.

Plant Hopper Nymph (True Bugs)

Order Hemiptera, Family Aconaloniidae

Feeds on juices of seeds and plants.

Secretes a filamentous wax from glandular tissue 

at the tip of the abdomen.

The waxy coating sticks to their preditor, 

and while the preditor is cleaning itself off, the nymph excapes.  

They don't stick to spider webs, 

and the waxy coating also helps them float in water 

and swim to safety.

Pale Bordered Field Roach, Pseudomops septentrionalis

Native to Mexico 

A rare example of a new invasive insect that is not a serious pest.

On a Turtlehead Plant, Chelone lyonii 'Hot Lips'

not yet blooming.

They only live outdoors where they are scavengers,

and do not harm plants.

Five-lined skink, Plestioden fasciatus

 Natural habitat is moist woody places with a place to sun.

Sunning in front of neighbors fence on our concrete wall,

where the huge blue flowered violets grow.

Orb Weaver Spider on a front porch column.

Begins to spin a web at dusk, and takes it down by daylight.

It hides during the day.

And,

of course,

my most favorite critters

taking over Dustin's bed before he passed away ~

Miss Charlotte and sweet Austin.

* I'm working on our desktop computer whose chair hurts my pinched nerve beyond toleration.  My Dell laptop is being sent to their service center to fix a hard drive problem.  My first cataract surgery is this coming Monday, and right now my neck is giving me lots of problems.  I'm going on with the surgery anyway, as I don't think feeling better is on the table any time soon.  I love all of your blogs, but my laptop has been impossible to work on for months, and I am so far behind on catching up that it's not going to happen.  I'll comment on days I feel okay.  

Love you all.

Thank you for all the lovely comments you have left me in the past.

This Post Is Linked To:

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day

Saturday's Critters

My Corner of the World