our maine home – zone 5b
We put up a short fence of hardware cloth all around the hoophouse. It’s buried in the ground about six inches. I don’t know if it will work, but can’t hurt. We lost a lot of greens last winter to voles.
Escarole, arugula, kale, spinach are planted in the beds. Ready to overwinter. The squash are in there curing.
It’s always wonderful to see a large bird in the yard. This owl visited this morning. We observed it for awhile, and it seemed to be observing us as well. I wish it would catch some more voles that seem to be flourishing in the yard and garden. Hello owl!
The deer have not been in the yard very much but today they came up quite close to the house. We usually chase them away but sometimes I like to observe them.
I think this is the first time I’ve seen a frog in the garden. We’ve had a lot of rain this year, which makes it a wetter place to be. I was happy to see this chubby one, first hiding under a red cabbage leaf and then staying in place for a photo with weed tendril adornment.
A drizzly morning. The spiders have been hard at work outside. These webs were high up and seemed impossible to string between the house and these trees, but the spiders manage. They were hard to photograph, but gave an eerie haunted-forest ambiance to the yard.
It’s not that unusual to see a cardinal. But it is unusual to be idly looking out the window at the birdfeeder and watch a cardinal swoop in from the woods and then have it stick around for a photo. Not a great photo, but I wanted to remember this moment which seemed like a gift.
Lesley took me up the trail to check on the bluebird babies. Sure enough, there they are! We estimated five of them.
Something seemed strange about the center of this black-eyed susan. Upon inspection, I saw this strange yellow spider with pink stripes and eyes and weirdly outstretched legs.
I was happy to get these photos of the very busy Hummingbird Moth. The photos are highly cropped. The moth’s coloration is so extravagant.
The unknown creature below came in on an escarole leaf. At first I thought it was a spot of dirt. I touched it and it disappeared. It turns out it is a winged creature. It was very interested in settling on the kitchen windowpane where it stayed still for a photograph. It seems to be pointing head down. I can’t figure it out. A few different photos to show the scale. It is tiny.
I turned around in the hoophouse while harvesting kale and wow, this tiger swallowtail caught my eye. A surprise! He posed for a photo.
