June 16, 2024

What a week this has been!!!  Did I say this before?  Oh yes, only every time I start a new blog!!!!!!  Well, I mean it this time!  A few days ago, Chaim had a lovely conversation with the Raccoon (Rocky or one of his twins) about messing around with the Frogs.  And for a few days that seemed to work!  Unlike last year, when they couldn't seem to keep their sticky little fingers off the Frogs OR the lovely pink Water Lilies, this year they seem to have a new sense of respect for that kind of property!   Here you can see two of the Frogs interspersed with Water Lilies!

The little Frogs must be the kind that so often appear in children's literature, where they are always ensconced on a lily pad.   But more than that, they also don't seem to mind plopping THEMSELVES right on the lily flower itself!  In picture 2, you will see that the Froggie Face doesn't mind trying on a nice Lily Hat!  These are both Green Frogs!

Here are a couple of Toads mating (again!)  Then a solitary male and then another.  Number 3 LOOKS like a different species, but it isn't - just another American Toad, yellow this time!

The nice Green Frogs are taking a break while the Toads are so thick.  Lately we have usually seen three Green Frogs, but  this weekend the Toads seem to be pushing out the Frogs.  Still it's going to be all right  - Nature seems to be able to even things out!   Speaking of evening things out, last summer I planted a couple of kinds of Water Lilies.  The Pink ones you've seen above hardly bloomed at all and any others just didn't make it. (One factor in this MIGHT be the Raccoon.  But this weekend  I began to be able to see some odd things in the vicinity of the supposed different species of Water Lilies.  In the picture below, maybe you can make out near the top of the picture something that resembles a stalk with a bud on the top of it.  That does seem to be exactly what it seems - the bud of a new species of Water Lily - one whose lily pads are the mottled leaves arranged almost horizontally across the top of the picture!  We're still waiting to see what the Lily itself will look like!  Possibly by the time I publish this week's blog you'll be able to see a shiny new Lily!  This is a rather exciting new development, especially after all the disappointment last year when the new Lilies didn't seem to be doing ANYTHING except for showing off a smallish pink lily.  Picture 2 shows the big pink Water lily of this summer, and a couple of frogs.  And now finally picture 3 shows the bud of a NEW waterlily.  I watched those Lily leaves all last summer after planting this new lily - but now it seems to be getting ready to bloom THIS SUMMER.  I'm going on 84 this year.  I wonder how many more summers I will have to wait before all the plants I planted in the past couple of years begin to show off for us.  But for now, we should soon be seeing the new lily (seen in picture 2) when it blooms.  I wonder what color it will be!  The leaves come in so many lovely colors! (And for many of us, so do the Frogs!)

So we will wait and watch the Amphibians and the Water Lilies grow and bloom (respectively)...   Tonight after a few very hot (90+Fahrenheit) days, we are awaiting some long-promised rain.  I've already turned off the water that pulses through the system so that the raccoons don't mess with the hoses that are supposed to return the water to the pond (they have a fondness for rearranging those hoses so that they send the water back out into the yard!)  Here are some of the Beetles we've seen lately.  First is a yellow variation on the Asian Lady Beetle.  Second and third are ones that we are still waiting for an ID on.  Oh! Re the second one, I just got back an ID from Boris Bueche - it turns out that that Beetle is the Water Lily Leaf Beetle!   How about that?  No sooner do we get Water Lilies and hence Water Lily Leaves, we start to find Water Lily Leaf Beetles!

Here are some of our favorite Bugs of the week.  I did not recognize this first cute little one, but found out it is an early stage (nymph) of the Eastern Boxelder Bug.  Second is the Obscure Plant Bug.  That's its name, not my depredation!   Third is still unknown (by me!).

More Bugs!  There are lots of Leafhoppers and other small Bugs.  First is a nondescript little fellow, probably a leaf- or tree-hopper.  Flash!  On June 22, I got an ID on it - it's PepsioidesSecond is the Four-lined Plant Bug.  It spends its nymph-hood as a bright-red bug and can go through a LOT of plant material as it grows to this adult.  Third is a very pale little Bug and I don't know its name yet!

I walk around the yard each morning to see what I can see.  If I happen to spot something that I don't know or don't remember, I'm delighted even though it means a lot of time coming, trying to identify things.   Good thing iNaturalist.org has a lot of members who are so kind and try so hard to help each other learn what they are staring at!  Thank goodness for them!  Next up, a few Leafhoppers who have been showing up out there!

More insects - These next two pictures show two pairs of Crane Flies mating.  They seem now to be the same kind of Flies, but as I was taking the pictures, the colors looked rather different from each other.  I almost wrote "to each other", adopting the British usage I used to hear in South Africa.  These are two different pictures but you can see that they are two of the same kind mating...

Here is a little Hover Fly - looks like Toxomerus geminatus.  The second one I don't know, nor the third.  But they're Flies!

So now we leave you to get back indoors and cool down for a while.  Let's hope that the outdoors temperature soon allows us to sit outside for a while and take some pleasant breaths and admire the creatures of the summer (including the breeze, soft rain, soft thunder as we remember them).  Have a handful of black raspberries and relax.  Love, Martha