Truffula Tuffs



Mimosa Tree in Bloom

Catclaw Sensitive Brier in Bloom

Thank you little lady bug! Eat as many Aphids as you like!

Lady bug eating an aphid

Lady bug on a tomato plant eating aphids

Bean Sprouts

Boat Ride

There is nothing that delights Zane more than a simple boat ride. He enjoys watching the water swirl and the dog swim around us. We spy fish and listen to frogs. Sometimes we are lucky enough to swim with ducks or spot a blue heron. Zane loves the country and cried yesterday when we put his boat on top of the truck. He cried when he woke up from a nap to find himself in town. He sobbed, "No town house, go home!" His town house is just a house to him; he already misses his country home! We are seriously thinking about when we are going to move back to Owls' Knob!

Fire Loving Beetles

 The fire beetles, Melanaphila, are metallic wood borer beetles who are attracted to fire. The beetles has special infrared sensors in their antennas that are far more sensitive than any man made device. These beetles can sense heat and smoke from over fifty miles away. They swarm to freshly scorched landscapes or sometimes backyard grills. The male and female beetles are charcoal black and mate on burnt logs. The female fire beetle lays her eggs on these freshly burnt logs sometimes she will even burn her feet off trying to lay her eggs as soon as possible! Being the first insect on the scene after a disaster has some advantages. When the grubs hatch there are few competitors or predators. The grubs feed on dead and burnt wood, they are detritivores, a type of decomposer, and they don't harm living trees. After a year of breaking down dead matter in a recovering forest, the grub goes through a metamorphis and flies away as a beetle in search of a forest fire. Scientist study these beetles in conjunction with firefighters to try to design a device that can sense fire as well as these fire beetles. These tiny creatures have much to teach!

As big around as a half dollar...

Iris

Peach Tree Update

When I bought my house last May, I had very little hope for the three peach trees that were in the back yard. They looked half dead, with more braches rotting than growing! But during the winter I cut all the dead wood away. I didn't actually "prune" any live branches because once I had cut away the dead wood there wasn't much of a tree left to cut on! So I mulched with leaves, watered, and waited...

Sure enough, the trees bloomed and small peaches are forming where the petals fell away. At first there were half a dozen fruits trying to grow on every tiny twig. So I pruned most of them, leaving only one peach on each branch. This way maybe the tree will have enough energy to make a few edible peaches instead of working hard to make a bunch a scrawny ones. I haven't gotten a peach yet, but I have high hopes that these trees will live and florish to produce peaches for many season to come!

Plastic Grass?

While at the local farmer's market last weekend, I stopped by a wool and yarn booth to admire the woman's art. In passing, the woman pointed out a basket of green wool that had been loosely pressed together into rough roundish forms. "This is Easter basket liner, an alternative to the plastic green stuff." I thought that it was a great alternative! I hate that plastic green stuff. My mother would complain about the plastic strands, (which always seemed to escape and get everywhere) for weeks.
But when I told John about the wool liner he looked at me with that 'daft hippy' glare and said, "Why not just use grass."
Grass! How ingenious! Why hadn't I thought of that before! So I found some nice tall grass at the edge of the yard and garnished it with some lawn flowers.
How did the tradition of padding our Easter baskets turn from grass, which is freely growing everywhere, to plastic green stuff, which takes a lot of dirty energy to produce and will be in landfills long after we are gone? I am sure it is because many people live in apartments where they do not have a lawn. Nevertheless, I am from the country, and still my nature-loving parents always stuffed my basket with green plastic. I am ashamed that it took me so long to realize something so simple could replace something so complicated.

This year I also dyed Easter eggs with natural dyes. Red cabbage, beets, and onion with a little cumin or turmeric all worked pretty well. You can find recipes online but basically just boil the vegetable, strain the water into a cup, and then add a few tablespoons of white vinegar and salt. The results are not as sunning and brilliant. But then again, pastels are traditional for Easter!

Ladybugs

Ladybug nymph

Ladybug

Turtle Rescue Update

I found this turtle today...

It gave me hope for the turtle that I helped out last week!

Make a Wish

Aaahhh

Phoooh