Tag: summer

Monday (01-July-2019) — New Jersey

First Day of July. Backyard Nature in New Jersey.

More wildflowers than what I know what to do with. THe deer are staying out of the electric fenced in wildflower meadows. They will nibble on any of the plants that grow out of the area. The Goldfinch love eating the Bachelor Buttons (Cornflowers). Also, lots of insects are attracted to the wildflowers. Some of the flowers include allium, baby’s breath, baby blue eyes, bachelor button (cornflower), black-eyed susan (coneflower), cosmos, coreopsis (calliopsis, tickseed), leopard bane, morning glory, poppy, siberian wallflower, sunflower, yucca, zinnia — and others that I haven’t identified.

Doe Outside the Electric Fence. Image taken with a Nikon D5 camera and 500 mm f/4 VR lens (DAVID J MATHRE)
Doe Outside the Electric Fence. Image taken with a Nikon D5 camera and 500 mm f/4 VR lens (DAVID J MATHRE)


Cosmos. Image taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens (DAVID J MATHRE)
Cosmos. Image taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens (DAVID J MATHRE)














Daily Power Use (50.1 kWh) from Sense and Solar Production (87.6 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. You can see from the power graph, that there were very few clouds and this is about the maximum amount of solar power that my system can generate.

Current Weather Conditions

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Sunday (30-June-2019) — New Jersey

Last Day of June. Backyard Nature in New Jersey.

It hasn’t rained for several days, and is quite warm out. The wildflower meadows are filling in nicely with lots of new flowers. A band of American Goldfinch moved in and started eating the Cornflowers (Bachelor Buttons). Several Sunflowers have opened up. I now have one sunflower plant that is nearly up to my roof.

Backyard Wildflowers (Coreopsis, Cosmos, Poppy). Image taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens (DAVID J MATHRE)
Backyard Wildflowers (Coreopsis, Cosmos, Poppy). Image taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens (DAVID J MATHRE)






Daily Power Use (51.8 kWh) from Sense and Solar Production (72.14 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. Power use is up since I did laundry, two loads of dishes and the Geothermal A/C was running. Since it is both the end of the week, and month I’ve also included additional power & solar graphs.

Current Weather Conditions

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Friday (21-September-2018) — New Jersey

Last Day of Summer — Backyard Nature in New Jersey.

Even though the rain has stopped, the sky remains overcast. I have  used more electricity than my solar panels have generated so far this month. Yesterday, the Sheep Shearer caught up with me for my annual hair reduction. My neighbor’s cat that normally runs away when it sees me, came up to me and allowed me to take her picture. So the cat noticed…

Post Sheep Shearer Portrait. Image taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro OIS lens (ISO 200, 80 mm, f/5.6, 1/400 sec) (DAVID J MATHRE)
Post Sheep Shearer Portrait. Image taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro OIS lens (ISO 200, 80 mm, f/5.6, 1/400 sec) (DAVID J MATHRE)
Neighbor's Cat. Image taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro OIS lens (DAVID J MATHRE)
Neighbor’s Cat. Image taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro OIS lens (DAVID J MATHRE)

There were a pair of garter snakes mating in a tree in  my neighbor’s backyard. The female is the larger of the two snakes. He said they have be up there for at least a day.


With all the rain we have had in the last few weeks, mushrooms are popping up all over the place. I’ll have to let the house trolls go out hunting tomorrow.


Individual images in the slide show can be viewed here.

Sunday (16-September-2018) — New Jersey

Late Summertime Backyard Nature in New Jersey.

Today was the second day in a row that the sun showed itself. Several young bucks with new antlers paraded through the yard. They appear to like to eat the acorns that have fallen onto the driveway. The ground is still very wet with mushrooms popping up every night. I caught one of the house trolls admiring the two types of mushrooms. For the last several days, I have been seeing some rather large spiders in the garden. Today, I got images of one with a funnel like web. The other one had an egg sack the size of a marble that was attached to its posterior. Finally, I still have a number of flowers and wildflowers in bloom. Behind an electric fence to keep the deer away.





Individual images from the slideshows can be viewed here.

Saturday (15-September-2018) — New Jersey

Indoor Late Summer Nature in New Jersey.

In addition to all of the crickets making noise outside, I heard one in the house last night. When I woke up this morning, I found Jiminy in the laundry room. He stayed still long enough for me to grab a camera with a macro lens. Afterwards, I helped him find his way back outside to be with his friends.

Jiminy Cricket. Image taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 OIS macro lens (ISO 200, 80 mm, f/2.8, 1/30 sec) (DAVID J MATHRE)
Jiminy Cricket. Image taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 OIS macro lens (ISO 200, 80 mm, f/2.8, 1/30 sec) (DAVID J MATHRE)