David's Images of the Day Photoblog
First Monarch Butterfly of the season on a Red Cosmos flower in my wildflower meadow. I have seen them along with yellow and black swallowtail butterflies the last few days, but finally found one that stayed in place long enough to have its picture taken.
We had a lot of rain last night. Good for the small wildflower meadows, and good for the few tomato plants that haven’t been nibbled by the deer. I did an early morning walkabout to view the wildflowers. I am still getting a lot of Poppy blooms, as well as Cosmos, Coreopsis, Zinnia, Blackeyed Susan, and others that I don’t know the ID. Some of the Sunflowers are starting to bloom (those that the deer didn’t find). I also saw that the Burma (Bottle Gourd) bloomed last night with a big white flower.
The kitchen renovation is progressing. All but one of the IKEA cabinets have been assembled. Still lots of work to do. After the contractor left, I went back out to the wildflower meadow and saw a Clearwing Hummingbird Moth. It made my day knowing that the work to create the trial wildflower garden/meadow was worth it…
The deer keep sniffing around my wildflower meadow. There are several young fawns with spots that pass through the yard with their herd every day. I don’t mind when they eat the grass. Many more wildflower pictures, several with bumblebees working the flowers. I was pleasantly surprised to see a Clearwing Hummingbird Moth. It is smaller than others that I have seen, so it may be the Snowberry Clearwing Moth. The other interesting thing I saw in the garden were Japanese beetles that appear to be eating the hated “mile-a-minute” vine that has become invasive. As long as the Japanese beetles don’t eat too many of the wildflower plants, I am going to leave them alone.
I have been taking pictures of the backyard wildflower meadow, but have not been keeping up with processing the images. I’ve also been juggling several home renovation projects. Someday, I need to share pictures of the inside projects. The outside patio is also moving along.
A different type of Black-eyed Susan with a red circle showed up in the small wildflower meadow I planted last year. I didn’t add any new seeds to this section this year, so the flowers that are showing up are either perennials, bi-annuals, or got reseeded from last years flowers. So far the flowers that appeared in this section include (sort of by date) Italian (Crimson) Clover, several types of Poppies, several types of Daisies, Bachelor Buttons (Cornflowers), and now two types of Black-eyed Susan. Just before the Daisies started to bloom, a deer got in and nibbled on the flower buds. Since then I put up a seven-foot mesh (not electrified).
