August butterflies

It's swallowtail season.

Tiger swallowtail on butterfly bush

We have skippers too.

Unidentified skipper on hosta

Location:Wheaton MD

Food

This meal used recipes from Laxmi's Vegetarian Kitchen:

Eggplant and tomatoes;
potatoes with peas and raisins;
 okra

The jalapeños, eggplant, okra and tomatoes came from the Wheaton Farm Market, where I found these great peppers a week later:

Blue morning glory at last

Suburban wildlife

At the post office:

Canada geese strolling on Amherst Ave.

In the yard:

Backyard bunny

Quincy MA:

Snail on sidewalk

Natural and strange

Fasciation in Oenothera (Maine 7/13)

Aster yellows deformity in Echinacea (Maryland 8/13)

Odd zinnia:

July blooms

This hosta has big yellow green leaves and large flowers (for a hosta) , pale lavender with interior white streaks.

One lily plant is a bouquet :

The white crape myrtle "Natchez" has started to bloom. The trunk is starting to exfoliate.

It's warm and humid. In the morning we hear cicadas along with the birds: the Carolina wren's "Wichita ", the nasal honk of the nuthatch, the song sparrow on the neighbor's house, the occasional insistent peeeep of the young robins (so far heard but not seen) when a parent returns to the forsythia.

Morning glory

Early Call mix living up to its name.

Red daylily

The camera doesn't quite capture the depth of color.

Souvenir of Maine

I bought this small-flowered day lily probably more than 30 years ago from Philip White in Monroe ME. My mother had heard of him as a daylily grower. On my next visit to my parents the 3 of us drove inland to his remote little farm. He had many daylilies blooming as well as Asclepias ("can you tongue it? " he challenged me). I bought some others but this little one has lasted, surviving even the Great Yard Cleanup. I wish I could remember its name, and be absolutely certain that it is the one I bought from Mr. White, rather than the other similar one I bought closer to home around the same time. It might be either Golden Chimes or the result of his crossing that with something else.

Location:Wheaton MD

Goldfinches

Now that the sunflowers are starting to have seeds we are being visited by goldfinches. So far I have seen only males. They are too quick for photos.

Blackeyed Susans

Rudbeckia fulgida
Probably Goldsturm





Rudbeckia hirta, I think. It has narrower leaves, smaller flowers, a slightly greenish center.

Location:Wheaton MD

Early July

Hostas under the viburnum


Morning glories (soon,I hope!). Interesting that the leaves are different from the heart shaped leaves on the ones I planted in front from a different package.


Butterfly bush. Yesterday we had a tiger swallowtail and one of the black ones. I thought it was a Black Swallowtail rather than the black form of the tiger but I'm not certain.


This week we have seen a male goldfinch twice, after not having any in the yard. We continue to see robins, doves, cardinals, chickadees , nuthatches, occasional woodpeckers, catbirds, house finches, etc. and I just heard cicadas.

Location:Wheaton MD

More lilies

These are from some bulbs I planted this spring. For some reason I thought they would all be taller. The first one is back next to the new clematis Anna Louise. It's about 2 feet high and is paired with a deep pink lily of the same height.





This one is just tall enough to show above the peonies.


These short ones are against the fence toward the back and need to be moved.

Location:Wheaton MD

In the yard

A couple of views of the yard.

Bumblebee

A bumblebee on another volunteer sunflower. This one is next to the lavender plant, also attractive to bees.

Location:Wheaton MD

Sunflower in bloom

Thanks again squirrels!



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Location:Wheaton MD

Hemerocallis citrina?

Lovely, tall, opens late afternoon, with a faint honeysuckle scent.


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Location:Wheaton MD

Eerie Echinacea

This was supposed to be a pink variety. (Magnus )
It's not.



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Hole in the wall

This starling is looking out from a nest inside a concrete block.



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Sunflower (thanks, squirrels!)

This volunteer was almost certainly planted by a squirrel using seed from the feeder. It's about 5 feet high and has a bud at almost all of the leaf axils - 15 so far! The 3 other volunteers are smaller and so far have just one bud each.


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Location:Wheaton MD

Garden mystery

What is this? It is a structure made possibly of mud or something resembling fine sawdust. It is attached to the stem of a sedum. There is a small hole that looks like an entrance. Who made it? How ? Why?



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Location:Wheaton MD

Sunday after rain

Sitting out in the back yard in the shade of the viburnum. A stunning zebra swallowtail visited the dark purple butterfly bush for a while. It was too quick for a good photo.
The chickadees don't seem to mind having me so close to the feeder. They are cautious but keep coming back. Sometimes a nuthatch joins them.


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Spring again, begin again

Yesterday was sunny and warm enough to leave my jacket at home and go out with just a fairly heavy sweater. We had a nice neighborhood walk, roughly 2 miles. We passed a flock of crows up in a group of trees, conversing. I would like to know more about their talk. In the afternoon I stopped at Johnson's, which is showing signs of spring. Pansies were on sale so I got some to plant in the back corner around the toes of our little magnolia.

Backyard birds this morning: downy woodpeckers, house finches, red bellied woodpecker hanging on the bottom of the feeder (showing the red belly) and reaching up for seeds, male and female cardinal, junco, mourning dove. A Canada goose flew over the neighborhood. A black squirrel is working hard on the spilled sunflower seeds, eating some and burying some here and there.

Garden: The shorter early daffodils are still in bloom and the taller trumpets have joined them. The next wave is just beginning: the first orange-centered flat one is opening. I'm encouraged to see buds starting to open on the little star magnolia I planted last fall. I was very careful about cleaning up the fallen leaves, and am hoping for no return of the black spots (fungus?) they showed last year. The forsythia will bloom soon. The crocuses are finishing after a nice show. The sedum is up and in back already shows signs of having been nibbled by finches. I've only seen the house finches do this.

Morning start: 2005 vintage pu-erh. Sun salutations (not many, not too vigorous!)


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Location:Wheaton