David's Images of the Day Photoblog
Morning walkabout in the yard with a macro and telephoto lens. Flowers, wildflowers, black swallowtail butterfly, and the immature American Goldfinch that has been pulling the petals off the Zinnia flowers.
Current wildflowers in bloom. Chinese Forget-Me-Not, Delphinium/Larkspur, Cosmos, Zinnia, Black-eyed Susan, Four O’clock, and Phlox.
Individual images in the slide show can be viewed here.
It rained most of the morning, so I wasn’t able to get out until the afternoon to check out the garden towers on the patio. Between the timed sprinklers and all of the rain while I was in Germany, most of the plants survived. Indeed lots of invasive weeds and vines. I was able to pick the ripe Italian and Cherry tomatoes. I had to discard a bunch of the tomatoes that had rotted. There were some giant cucumbers that I missed before traveling. A number of the hot peppers turned red, so I also picked them. There were flowers blooming on the morning-glory vines growing up the trellis on my chimney.
I’m back from a 10-day trip to Germany. It was hot and dry in Germany, but apparently hot and wet in New Jersey. The grass needs to be mowed, the weeds need to be pulled, and the patio garden cleaned up. Some of the tomatoes are ripe, but others rotted. The tomato leaves are turning yellow (too much water, or need nitrogen fertilizer?). Several of the hot peppers are bright red and ready to be picked. There was one remaining yellow squash, and two white eggplants. The wildflower garden continues to attract butterflies and bees. This was the first female black swallowtail butterfly that I have seen this season. A bumblebee was pollinating the basil flowers. There were several Monarch butterflies feeding on the zinnia wildflowers. I also made a quick trip to the local weekly farmers market. It is smaller than the daily markets I saw at several public squares in Germany.
I picked up my new Roadtrek RS Adventurous RV at Campers Barn in Kingston, New York. The RV is built on a Dodge Sprinter body with a Mercedes diesel engine by the Road Trek folks in Canada. I drove the RV on my “Gone to See America 2009” road trip. This trip took me by highway to Bellingham, Washington, by sea on the Alaska Marine Highway to Haines, Alaska, and on road again (through Canada) to Anchorage, Alaska to take part in the Nikonians ANPAT 9, and then back to New Jersey via the Alaska-Canada highway.
