Little things...

I've been thinking about little things.

Little things that lots of people don't notice.

Things like leaf skeletons.

Leaf Skeletons

Things like the 7 porcupine quills

Pulled from Libby's lower lip.

Each end so very sharp.

Porcupine Quills 

This black monarch butterfly caterpillar.

Found in the garden on a dill sprig.

Came close to squishing him,

But decided to find out what he was.

My curiosity saved him.

Black Monarch Caterpillar

So today

When I heard a hummingbird 

Making a big fuss.

I went over to see what the little green thing was on the hummingbird perch.

A praying mantis.

Being somewhat misguided, I thought that the praying mantis was in danger.

Praying Mantis

So I did what any nature loving gal would do.

I removed the praying mantis from his high perch,

and placed him in some lower bushes.

Can you find the praying mantis?
(Just below the middle of the picture.)

The hummingbird continued to come around.

It dived bomb me a couple of times, 

which it has never done before.

It was obviously stressed, 

So I came inside.

Hummingbird

Curious about praying mantis and hummingbirds,

I did a search and found that 

Praying mantis have been known to ambush and kill hummingbirds.

They can kill birds, frogs, lizards, scorpions, snakes, fish, and even small rodents.

Woah!  Perhaps they should be prEying mantis.

I have always liked them, 

But now I feel a little creepy about them.

I'm glad the hummingbird was astute enough to realize

 that the praying mantis was laying in wait on it's rusty garden perch.

And here I thought it was the praying mantis that should beware of the hummingbird.

A good year to garden...

Planted the hops 5 years ago.

First year that the hops actually has hops.

Pepper plants are loaded,

And the corn is coming on.

A great year to be a gardener.

Earliest that we have ever had ripe tomatoes.

Lots of potatoes, onions.

Lots of everything.

A friend once said,

"The only problem with the Willamette Valley is you can't eat it all."

But we can try.

New Word...

Petrichor (/ˈpɛtrɨkər/ or /ˈpɛtrɨkɔər/) is the scent of rain on dry earth.

Our first rain in almost two months.  The petrichor permeates the air as we take a late evening walk.

Not for the squeamish....

The processional.....

An elk cow had been laying just beyond the pond for a day and a half, when we realized that her hind legs weren't working well and she was dying.  A slow death of old age or injury is acceptable. However, our fear was that coyotes would find her before she was dead. So we called the state police and asked that an officer be sent out to put her down.  By the time he arrived, she could no longer walk.  In fact, seemed like she didn't even know that people were near her.

Yesterday morning we watched as her herd came to pay their respects.  The new calves simply laid down in the grass as the herd elders stood for a half hour almost motionless watching her body.  Then the lead cow slowly led the herd away from her, past the pond in a slow procession.

Anthropomorphizing?  Maybe.  But this is what we witnessed.

Wildlife.....

Out by the barn, I saw that something had been digging into a dirt bank. 

Maybe a raccoon or a skunk.  

Looking closer, lots of eggshells.  

About an inch and a half long, and an inch wide.

Also, found a large snake skin.

Thinking that these might be gopher (aka bull) snake eggs.

They are the only snake around here that lays eggs rather than having live births.

No idea what got in here and rummaged through the nest for dinner.

More and bigger wild life.

Lots of elk out today.

Cooling off in the pond.

May all of our lives be a bit wilder!

A strange and bitter crop...

I just feel compelled to make this NPR link to Billy Holiday's signature song.

stay together, learn the flowers, go light....

For the Children

The rising hills, the slopes
of statistics
lie before us,
the steep climb 
of everything, going up,
up, as we all 
go down.

In the next century
or the o­ne beyond that.
they say,
are valleys, pastures,
we can meet there in peace
if we make it.

To climb these coming crests
one word to you, to
you and your childern:

stay together
learn the flowers
go light

Gary Snyder