And July is over

 It’s my last chance to squeeze one more blog post into July! It’s such a busy time of year in the garden. It makes summer pass far too quickly. I love “shopping” in the garden every afternoon for supper. I’m doing better this year at using the herbs I grow. Often, I just end up drying them at the last minute before the frost. So far I have made two new chicken recipes with fresh herbs, and am very proud of myself. Forgot to take pictures, though. I made fresh pico de gallo with tomatoes from the high tunnel, and onion, peppers, jalapeno, and cilantro from the outside garden. I don’t recall what variety of jalapeno I bought, but I have named it “Ass in Space.” Good Lord, it’s hot! And huge! The peppers are a good 4” long, which is big for jalapenos. Hoo-wee!

Pico de gallo made with fresh everything

We did not get any peaches this year, in spite of Terry’s early prediction that we would. Jane and I split a box of peaches from the fruit truck that brings them up from Georgia. I’ve eaten most of my fresh with yogurt. I made a cobbler last week. Even cooked, the fresh ones are better than canned or frozen.

Peach cobbler

Speaking of things that are only truly awesome in the summer, we started eating sweet corn two days ago. Terry planted varieties with different maturity times, so most of it isn’t ready yet. Soon, though.

Sweet corn tasseled out and maturing rapidly

We said goodbye to the orioles. We could feed jelly to every other bird on the property forever, but enough is enough. Terry took the jelly feeder down. At least one cardinal dad is still feeding a fledgling.

Papa Cardinal feeds sunflower seeds to his baby

The 13-striped ground squirrels are stocking up on sunflower seeds, as usual. The stretch of their cheek pouches is impressive!

How much more can it stuff in there?

One evening as we were closing up, Terry noticed a tree frog in the glass greenhouse doing its best to look like a watering can. The frog had moved on by morning.

I'm just part of the watering can. Move along. Nothing to see here, folks.

Terry mows most of the field to keep the invasive Canada star thistles from taking over the whole world. He leaves one strip full of milkweeds for the monarchs and another grassy strip for ground-nesting birds. Personally, I think the ground-nesting birds need a great deal more real estate before starting a family, yet weed control is important. Anyway, I walked out the the “milkweed forest,” as Terry calls it, to see what was going on. Terry often reports seeing “monarchs everywhere” when he is mowing. I saw one and could not get a picture because it would not sit still. I have looked for monarch caterpillars in previous years without finding any. This year, I found one!

Rare sighting of a monarch caterpillar

I also saw numerous red milkweed beetles. Evidence suggests that these little critters are responsible for most of the leaf damage on the milkweeds.

Common sighting of a red milkweek beetle

I also saw some honeybees

Honeybee on open milkweed flowers

And the ubiquitous Japanese beetles. This one is cheating because it is eating the flower before it opened and therefore not doing anything helpful such as pollination.

The ubiquitous Japanese beetles

The bee balm (genus Monarda) is in full bloom and attracting lots of insect attention. I was able to get a not-so-hot picture of a red admiral.

Uncooperative red admiral that would not open its wings for the camera

I took about a million pictures of insects that looked like tiny flying crayfish. When I looked at the photos, I saw that I had two different species of sphinx moths, a hummingbird moth and a bumblebee moth. My Golden Guide to Butterflies and Moths came through for me again. I’ve had this little book since I was a wee child and am just amazed at how comprehensive it is. Of the ten thousand or so butterfly and moth species in North America, I’m impressed that the authors of the Golden Guide included every species I’ve ever come across in a pocket guide of 150 pages. This means I only see common species, but still.

Flying crayfish

This is the bumblebee moth. The Golden Guide doesn’t do a great job of describing the difference between it and the hummingbird moth, saying only that it has “an unscaled cell on the front edge of the forewing near the body.”

Bumblebee moth with clear area on forewing, maybe

Hummingbird moth without a clear spot on the forewing, maybe

It’s not that easy to see the wing, as the wings move very fast. In fact, these moths are also known as “clearwings” because the scales fall off shortly after they start flying due to the excessively vigorous flapping. When the Golden Guide was written, I expect there was an assumption that the moth would be killed for close examination. Those were the days.

Google produced more useful information to identify living species, namely that the bumblebee moth (a.k.a. snowberry clearwing, Hemaris diffinis) is black and yellow and the hummingbird moth (a.k.a. hummingbird clearwing, Hemanis thysbe) has red coloration.  

Here’s the hummingbird moth with its proboscis curled up.

Curled up proboscis, obvious red pigment on abdomen

Here it is feeding. Imagine trying to manipulate a tongue that is as long as your body.

Hummingbird moth with proboscis in beebalm flower

Pretty amazing little creatures!