Last Summer

So, this is a picture taken of a Luna Moth at my old appartment building down here near RDU. This big guy wouldn't fly away and after a few minutes of trying to catch it I decided to stop torchering it.

In the Morning there were fragments of wings all over the ground. but no moth.

Considering the large quantities and varieties of frogs hanging out in the hallways the end was inevitable.

Bluebird of Happiness

Yes that right - we have Eastern Bluebirds!

Again I am very excited because this is another bird that is very hard to find. And again I attribute it to the pipeline keeping land open.

Check out the Bluebird here!
http://www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov/id/framlst/i7660id.html

Sleet and the Last Few Days

We've had actual winter weather here. Our deck is not wet but is covered in many little beads of ice. Some counties around here have cancelled school for a half inch or more of snow!

Two days ago Mark told me that two strange dogs came to our yard and one of them, a little white dog, played and had a great time with Bluew. The other, a small terrier type, cautiously sat back and watched. I can only assume that our Ms Ginger stayed indoors with her magic purple ball.

Perhaps Ginger is a living model of that great saying, "Life is what happens while your busy making other plans". She is always so focused on her ball, from 6 am to 9:30 pm that she can hardly stand to be out side, she can barely stop to drink water or go to the bathroom or eat. These are things we coax her towards, but always she wants to be with her ball and give it her entire focus. Also in this way I suppose she is also a wonderful illustration of Codependence in that she does not think the ball is o.k. if she is not watching it. So much so that she does not enjoy her own experiences with grass and sunshine. I suppose in this way what we as a species have bred into sheep herding dogs is the emotional imbalance of codependence.

That being said, Bluew had a wonderful play time and spent his Sunday sun bathing on the deck and Ginger dedicated her gifted mind to caring for and watching after her rubber ball... and to her I hope that was satisfaction.

Sometime on Saturday as I was walking around the yard, trying to keep Ginger from running back to the house to watch her ball through the back door, I heard a lovely bird call. I hear a Eastern Meadowlark. Eastern Meadowlarks can be as hard to find as Blue Birds because true, undisturbed feilds and meadows are very hard to find. Wildfires are not allowed to create more open spaces and most others are farmed or developed. I believe we live very close to the gift of an extended meadow. The pipeline on the back side of our property is mowed once every year and that is all. I can not be developed. Therefore it has no trees, crops, or builidings but a true variety of bugs and wild flowers.

I heard my first Eastern Meadowlark last fall and I was thrilled. Several weeks after hearing it however I found a dead Meadowlark in the far back part of the yard (a part of the yard that will become the orchard). This find confirmed my identification of the bird through its song but also depressed me. So hearing another one this weekend was wonderful. I was able to also stalk the bird and get close enough to get a visual ID (all the while calling to Ginger to keep her from sneaking back to the back door).

Check this really cool link to see and hear a Eastern Meadowlark:
http://www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov/id/framlst/i5010id.html


Also save this link in your favorites, it is a wonderful tool for Bird ID Confirmation:
http://www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov/id/framlst/infocenter.html

Hope

I found my little Post Oak survived the massacre. Check out the link below to see how cool this tree really is. The leaves are perfectly symetrical and the trunk is straight as a post. The leaves also evoke the image of the cross which helps me to remember the species name stellata.

http://www.cnr.vt.edu/dendro/dendrology/syllabus/factsheet.cfm?ID=77

If I am reading this address above correctly it orginates from one of my alma matters, Virginia Tech.

Also while walking in my yard I spotted a Pecan Tree seed just laying on the ground at the backend of my property. I am hopful that this is a genuine sign that there is areal Pecan tree on my property.

The Disappearence

There are trees in my backyard that I consider nusance trees. They are the kind that grow like one huge hedge of mess and you can't tell one individual tree from another. Just many saplings all clustered together for fifty feet or so. The cheif problem tree I would say in the Black Willow (Salix nigra). They are not particularly attractive when mature though I understand they have a natural abundance of salacitic acid as do there cousins the Weeping Willow. Better known as aspirin to the rest of us the substance in these trees served natives and modern adventures well. Simply pull off a twig and suck on the inner bark and sap to alleviate minor aches and pains. It's true!

However I do not need such an abundance of these trees. I have aspirin in my cabinet. During the fall I decided to mow down (even though Mark pointed out the John Deere was not meant for saplings) all the stray Black Willow. Mature Black Willows that are about 7 years old now own the back 75 feet of our property and I thought that enough. These guys were everywhere else and I suceeded in mowing almost all of them down except one very small section.

Every time I tried to mow this one section, approximately five feet in diameter the mower would get hung up and I would have to rock it of the dirt chunk that always seemed to be in my way. One time I had to climb off the mower and push it loose... all this mind you when Mark wasn't looking. So those lucky few saplings had one more winter to laugh at me. In the mean time I've been trying to figure out a new angle.

Here's where the story gets really interesting. There gone! So are all the Black Willows just on the other side of the property line in our new neighbors yard. We know someone bought that house next door and we knew they wanted their property mowed before they moved in. The landscapers obliged but skipped the Black Willows.

Now we never see anyone come or go from the house next door but our backyard has been violated. Ofcourse I feel like I should be greatful they are gone but could someone please tell me why a stranger keep cutting down trees in my yard? (The survey company took down our favorite Tulip Poplar in the fall when they were resurveying the yard for these same mystery neighbors).

I'm afraid it might happen again and I am very sad because I know that very near all of that where two volunteer trees I loved and did not consider nusance, a Post Oak (Quercus stellata) and a Green Ash (can't remember). They surely looked just like sticks and were no higher than 3 feet each. I'm sure they are gone. A moment of silence for those caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.

New Trees

I recently found a nice garden center that I loved shopping in. When I recently went back to check and see if they still had some Oak trees for sale I discovered the entire store was going out of business.
After a quick consult with my friend and husband I went back to purchase a hand-full of nifty trees.
Though they didn't have any Red Oaks they had two Live Oaks and a Magnolia tree which I purchased. While I was there I also picked up two Cypress type trees called Caroline Saphire and an Allspice bush. As soon as I came home I had the gardening bug. So "real quick" I dug a bunch of holes about 4 inches deep and placed every tree so they wouldn't blow over.
It has been wonderful to see these trees surrounding the house when I pull up our driveway or when I leave each day. My holes apparently are not deep enough to protect the Cypress trees from the wind. I will have to secure them in the ground fairly soon.
LAst night we had a great time at our neighbors house watching the Super Bowl. We headed home around nine and after quieting Piper/Bo Bo (more on Piper later) we crossed through our neighbors yards. As we approached our house I was very excited to see that with the help of a street light one of our Live Oaks was casting a shadow on our house.
I can't wait to finish getting these treasures into the ground.