November 2, 2025

Another week, another month.   We've celebrated Halloween properly for the first time in ages - I don't usually buy stacks of candy for the little spooks and spookettes that come to the door - but for the first time in a long time I got LOTS of candy and cookies to set out for the children.  I must say, Chaim stayed up longer than I do so was more the magnanimous host.  But I felt good thinking about the kiddies and their happy faces and hoping that they would at least brush well before bedtime.  The cottony Cotton Thistles are still vigorous and look as if they can continue to glow in the the afternoon sun for a few more weeks, and meanwhile their Bull Thistle friends continue to flourish.  I don't know if you remember this, but I had planted both kinds of Thistles for the thrill of watching them become healthy plants for next year's Critters.  In past years, I'd enjoyed seeing the little treehoppers that live in the various kinds of plants in one's backyard.  I got to know their names and what to expect as they hatched from eggs and grew, especially in the thistles.   But the past year, Chaim invited some of the local children to help us get rid of a lot of the local thistle-loving treehoppers - by pulling up the thistles they love, and so this year I had to start from scratch, planting thistles and encouraging the growth of some of the treehoppers that would hopefully enjoy eating said thistles!  I had even succeeded in finding a source online for treehoppers similiar to the ones that had been such good photographic targets last summer.  Yes, one can actually search online for "pests"!!!  (Just spell that "pets".  So here are pictures of a) the "Cotton Thistle" and (b) the Bull Thistle.  For those of us who are impatient to see the little treehoppers we miss so much, we need now to wait only until NEXT YEAR to see if they will come.  In the past, the Thistles only neeeded to get to a nice age (a year or a couple of years) before the Treehoppers would suddenly sense their presence and move in.  Let's see, maybe NEXT YEAR?  I know how very much you want to see the moving in, but I'm afraid that it won't be till NEXT YEAR.  Please don't grieve, but reconcile yourselves to waiting for the next year.  It will happen!  By the way, one sign that your Thistle will be old enough to tolerate an infestation (er, visit) from treehoppers is that it will finally have vertical growth, unlike this year's, which is all horizontal!

So here we are in fall of 2025, and the trees and bushes in the Back Yard are beginning to pink up.  We must just put on our waiting costumes to see what happens in the remainder of this year.  On the right, you can see the construction crews have not finished YET with the renovations to the water and sewer lines under Burr Oak Street stretching to Michigan Avenue on the north.  (But the trees know it is fall and that winter approaches.)

Of course by now you know that the American Gray Squirrel on the left and the black version on the right are the same species.

The above two Squirrels are actually the same species, but our American Red Squirrels, which I started seeing last week, are a different species altogether.  This Squirrel is not an allover bright red color, but its tail certainly gives it away!

Time to switch to a new topic.  Spiders sounds good to me.  Here is a tiny white one climbing on the bud of, maybe an Aster?  Followed by another couple of new ones.   

Here are a few kinds of Spiders.  I havnen't identified most of them, but just to give you an idea of the differences in size and shapes!  In picture 1 below,  I wonder if the spider picked its shape to confuse us when it sits on that flower bud!  Anyway, reader sicarius_clov recognized the third one as a Crab Spider.

Well, folks, we are now about half-way through North American Autumn.  Maybe you can hear the North Wind blowing from where you are?  I plan to keep wearing warm clothes when I go out for my afternoon walk.  Otherwise, this sinus thing will think I WANT it to continue.  Love to all and best wishes for your environment.  Love again, Martha.

Oh dear.  When I reminded you that we were so well into Fall, I forgot to add that Daylight Savings Time would end on November 2, which it now IS!  So Spring Forward but Fall Behind!  Take that any way you like!  I am now officially setting my clock for the Festive Fall Season.