Despite the summer’s remarkable heat and drought in the northeast, I still spend quite a bit of time outside. Mostly early in the morning on my walks. One of the places I walk most days is down this shady path. It’s so pleasant.
Not so pleasant, when I left the house the other morning I saw this:
Someone’s re-opened the hole in my front garden. I didn’t have a tool with me, so I just sort of pushed dirt back in with the toe of my sneaker, and it has stayed the way I put it for several days now. I have absolutely no idea what any of this means.
Two days ago I saw this very cool looking beetle on the fence post.
To give you some idea of perspective, how big that bug is…
If anyone has a clue what this beetle is, I’m interested. UPDATE: Theresa clued me in…this is an Ailantus webworm moth. This link has better photos, but there’s more info here.
So back to my walk, for several days in a row, the roof of this house was covered in pigeons. No pigeons on any nearby houses. No pigeons in the nearby trees. Only on the roof of this one house. Weird.
At the Roycroft Summer Festival I reverted to an audience participation weaving, a community weaving project. It didn’t work exactly as I’d planned, nor was it as lovely as the first one I did with tulle a few years ago. I think the narrowness of the warp was a definite creativity inhibitor. I had to do some filling in after I got home; I don’t know how long it’ll stay hanging on the arbor in my yard, but it’s there now.
To close this post with something marvelous that’s not in my yard or on my walk…a week or so ago I went kayaking on Irondequoit Creek with my son, daughter, and grandson. We were in 2 two-person kayaks. At two different points we came across a pair of swans and their cygnets. The first family had 3 babies, and I thought it remarkable that we got within around 30 feet of them. (CORRECTION: they had 4 babies. See comments.) Then we came across this family.
Five babies, and we got very close, probably within around 12-14 feet. You can see a bit of our kayak in the photo. Amazing!
A very cool looking beetle. No idea what it is but I’m betting your local ag extension or college entomologist would know. Gee, those four cygnets could have been George, John Ringo and Paul! 😉
Beautiful path. Maybe you have a squirrel that has some deep nut storage? Bunny bolt hole?
I couldn’t help but think of the names of the Beatles, too, Theresa…great minds 🙂 And your email DID get me the beetle, which is actually a moth, so thanks!
I think the world has lost out on something if we don’t capitalize on Rusty’s naming talents!
I agree, Alma. Can’t wait to see if this trend continues as he ages.
First family had 4. I know this because Rusty asked if he could name them. I said I thought that would be fine, and he promptly dubbed them John, Paul, Dave and Squeak. Obviously.
Oooh, I remember that now. You are clearly correct about the number of baby geese. I should have asked Rusty before I posted. 😉