In the garden, and RAIN!!!!
POSTED BY: SIGNYM
UPDATED: Thursday, December 25, 2025 04:27
VIEWED: 1005090
PAGE 7 of 1154
Today I saw what I'm pretty sure is a common redpoll. It was far enuf away to be mistaken for a house finch or purple finch, but the very red cap flashing about, and red face and black around the bill indicates - I think a redpoll. It was eating the cosmos seeds.
Redpoll
House finch
Purple finch
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You can't build a nation with bombs. You can't create a society with guns.
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It's been a while since I posted here.
I'm still saving that parking lot tree, six (sometimes eight) gallons at a time. So I'm still that crazy lady with the milk jugs full of water, watering that Bradford pear. Although it suffered some permanent dieback due to extreme neglect, it's looking a lot better than last year. I hope that next spring it will be full of blossoms again, since the tree as had enough water to set buds. Those flowers... they stink, but they look pretty; and when the pears are full of bloom the petals drift down like snowflakes.
The garden still needs... oh, about 100 more plants to be complete. Who would have thought that a xeric garden would need so many plants?
My inspiration is here ... https://cynthiasnativegarden.wordpress.com I know I've linked this before, I just wish I had her "eye" for arranging plants so nicely.
I'm still seeing a lot of different birds around, although not anywhere near as much as at my sister's house! Scrub jays still come to visit now and again; they're such a pretty blue.
I did encounter one kind of wildlife tho that was a little disturbing .... I had put the hummingbird feeder in a bucket and was on my way inside when I saw what I thought was a large praying mantis on the feeder, so I took the feeder back out and carefully placed the mantis (?) on some plants nearby.
And then I decided to look up what I thought I'd seen, and what I saw was this
Yep, a scorpion. Oh well, it's a good thing they're not TOO toxic!
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I think it's time you disabused yourself of that pleasant little fairy tale about our fearless leaders being some sort of surrogate daddy or mommy, laying awake at night thinking about how to protect the kids. HA! In reality, they're thinking about who to sell them to so that they can get a few more shekels in their pockets.
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This weekend's heat wave ... 100+ ... I hope is the last hurrah for summer. I've been giving that parking lot Bradford pear 8 gallons every weekend; good thing too because of the heat!
Refilled the hummingbird feeders (which I do once every two weeks now; the hummingbirds migrate so I guess they migrated out of the area?) refilled the birdbath and ground tray (which I do twice a week) and soaked the avocado trees ... ran water for four solid hours for them. I'm sure our water bill will show that! But I think that will help them weather this latest heat wave, and I shouldn't have to do that again until next summer. I hope.
Not much going on, the veggie garden has been squeezing out just enough tomatoes, eggplant, and peppers for weekly home use. The zucchini failed, again, this year, after producing just a few squashes. Some day I'm going to figure out what's wrong with them! Raccoons are digging up the mulch looking for grubs. A typical end-of-year lull; and waiting for a more persistent cooling down so I can plant some plants, and the beginning of the winter rains in December assuming we get any.
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I think it's time you disabused yourself of that pleasant little fairy tale about our fearless leaders being some sort of surrogate daddy or mommy, laying awake at night thinking about how to protect the kids. HA! In reality, they're thinking about who to sell them to so that they can get a few more shekels in their pockets.
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RAIN! Rain last week, and rain last night!
Now for you non-southwesterners, 0.31" and 0.08" of rain doesn't sound like much, but after 6 years of drought, it sounds like heaven.
But the reason why I'm posting is because ... I can't believe it... I saw a HAWK in the birdbath! A real live hawk, in my very sub-emphasis-on-URBAN landscape!
And, I'm still watering that tree. It's doing pretty well!
Hillary is a WAR CANDIDATE, and that's just what we need, right? More war?
G, THUGR, MAL4: Oh BTW, please define intelligence.
http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?bid=18&tid=60903&p=4#1
018100
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I've been told that there are over 550 bird species in So Cal. Though I think that a fair number must be transients.
The only hawk I'm really familiar with is the red-tail, and their tails are truly a distinct brownish-orange. Like the towhee, E sparrow, scrub jay, mourning dove, crow, acorn woodpecker, and mockingbird, they're seemingly EVERYwhere here. They supposedly do really well in urban landscapes which is why they're so commonly seen.
Though I was lucky enough once to see what I think was a Cooper's Hawk, identified by its small size and by its very long legs.
And YAY!!! for keeping the tree alive!
Let me just point out that the author left out vital relevant facts in the opinion piece. Doing that is known as cherry-picking. And whether you do that in the news, in discussion, in debate or in opinion, when you distort the facts, you've changed the nature of your communication into propaganda. But WE don't have any of THAT in the US, do we?!
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I just wanted to add - that you had a hawk IN YOUR YARD!, IN YOUR BIRDBATH! says something AWESOME about your yard!
Let me just point out that the author left out vital relevant facts in the opinion piece. Doing that is known as cherry-picking. And whether you do that in the news, in discussion, in debate or in opinion, when you distort the facts, you've changed the nature of your communication into propaganda. But WE don't have any of THAT in the US, do we?!
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i take it you're in an area that's white, and rain is more a nuisance and less of a blessing?
Let me just point out that the author left out vital relevant facts in the opinion piece. Doing that is known as cherry-picking. And whether you do that in the news, in discussion, in debate or in opinion, when you distort the facts, you've changed the nature of your communication into propaganda. But WE don't have any of THAT in the US, do we?!
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Okie dokie, for all of you outdoor-types and naturalists.
I have another kind of critter in my yard (and maybe my house).... not so welcome as some of the others, and this kind BITES, damnit.
Whatever it is, is small. I don't notice the bites until 2-5 hours later, but once they start to itch I know I'm in for 2 sleepless nights and 3 days of misery. The bites are intensely itchy, and it seems as if I scratch them (unavoidable as I scratch them in my sleep, which is how I wake myself up) I spread whatever it is that's been injected into my skin and cause a 2" itchy welt. But, if I manage NOT to scratch, the bite has a distinct red dot in the middle, and once I scratch the red bump, it reveals an actual hole in my skin, which weeps serum for days.
And I've tried Chinese balm, benadryl gel, hydrocortisone and clobetasol cream, and oral benadryl, and the only thing that seems to help is oral benadryl because at 150 mg at least it knocks me out!
So, I know it's not regular mosquito bites bc I sure know what those are. Not fleas, not wasp or bee stings, not ants.
I've more-or-less narrowed it down to chiggers, no-see-ums (yes, there really is something called no-see-ums), or the new imported Asian tiger mosquito or yellow fever mosquito (Aedes albopictus and Aedes aegypti, respectively).
I think the narrow bore-hole in my skin is an important clue. Any thoughts???
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Quote:
I've more-or-less narrowed it down to chiggers, no-see-ums (yes, there really is something called no-see-ums), or the new imported Asian tiger mosquito or yellow fever mosquito (Aedes albopictus and Aedes aegypti, respectively).
It's one of the two new (imported, illegal alien, invader) mosquitoes. I saw one biting me, and interrupted its blood-feed, but what I got was the same extremely itchy welt, albeit smaller than the others. I looked at it rather closely n didn't see the black-n-white stripes, so I believe it is the Aedes aegypti mosquito, but I seem to have an exaggerated allergic (histamine) response. Be on the lookout for it in your neighborhood! http://www.dailynews.com/health/20160907/zika-prone-mosquitoes-found-i
n-san-fernando-valley
Well, at least now I know!
But the reason why I'm posting isn't because of the mosquitoes or because of anything particularly new, but because I saw, in quick succession, two infrequent visitors in my garden: the blue jay and the Anna's hummingbird.
That blue-jay screech. It takes me back to my childhood: it's the same from coast-to-coast, and the streak of blue is so rewarding! And the Anna's hummingbird male, whose entire head is a bright tinfoil-shiny rose! What beautiful flashes of color!
I'm still watering THAT TREE. A few leaves are turning deep red; and soon the tree will be deep red, orange, and purple. And then, I can stop watering it so much, because it won't be evapotranspiring through so many leaves!
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"Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor"- William Blake
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I'm glad you figured out the critter that's biting you!
YAY! for keeping the tree alive through the abysmally dry weather. And congratulations on seeing the birds coming to you 'CERTIFIED WILDLIFE HABITAT' yard. I'm sure it's a haven for them!
How did your beloved 'democratic' party fuck up so badly?
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