In the garden, and RAIN!!!!
POSTED BY: SIGNYM
UPDATED: Thursday, December 25, 2025 04:27
VIEWED: 1005090
PAGE 173 of 1154
Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
well, the plants that planted themselves - CA poppies and cosmos - are dying down. Time to pull up the dead and dying plants and see how the perennials are doing.
Everywhere I look in the garden, something is fluttering, or buzzing, or scurrying. Goldfinches are perching on cosmos stems, eating the seeds. They're so light they barely bend the stems. Mourning does are pecking away at the poppy seeds, butter-butts are looking for tiny bugs and mockingbirds and crows are looking for bigger prey. At any time during the day there are at least two and sometimes up to four butterflies in the backyard of all kinds- skippers, swallowtails, cabbage and sulfur butterflies, mourning cloaks, painted ladies, monarchs and some I don't recognize. Bees of all types are nectaring; we had a wood bee make a home in our woodpile. (It left a gint mound of frass that I thought was a bad termite infestation which caused us to ssort and restack the wood). Hummingbirds are dicing for the best nesting spots in our climbing roses and poking into nasturtium and alstromeria. Ladybugs, millipedes, rollypolies, fence lizards and the occasional skink. , When I go out at night to let the dog our for her last potty break of the day there are moths everywhere.
I just released predatory mites last week, I hope that they will protect the avocadoes.
But the yard is a mess. sigh. Between the dog-walking and painting and shopping and cooking (for a very picky hubby and food-sensitive daughter and food-allergic self) and general cleanup and re-org, I've not been able to attend to the yard like I should. Weeds are still everywhere, and when I try to do yardwork during the day someone is always tugging at me to do something else or be somplace else, so I think the schedue will be an early dogwalk and yardwork, when everyone else is asleep. It will be coooler then, too, and with summer coming up I think that schedule will work better.
I was inspired to write this because I was amused by a small flock of goldfinches in the frontyard, By size and color it looked like daddy goldfinch, mommy goldfinch, and three junior goldfinches. So cute!
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
"The messy American environment, where most people don't agree, is perfect for people like me. I CAN DO AS I PLEASE." - SECOND
America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876 .
I don't have all of those problems, fortunately, but then again, the only plant life I have that I care about is my hastas that pretty much maintain themselves. Get some rabbits that like to feed on them sometimes, but they really don't eat them that much.
Nothing here but these goddamned ants.
I didn't pull out any stops this time. Started off spring using an entire gallon bottle of liquid poison around the perimeter of the house and garage. I love the pump style they used with this bottle. Instead of having to pump it a lot on the ground, the trigger itself has a pump that you just pull twice and it lets you spray a good deal before you have to pull it again.
I also dumped a whole bottle of that Amdro a further bit out around the house and all over the patio pavers.
Zero activity in the house, although I can't see what's under the vapor barrier in the crawl space and I don't know what's under the siding. No activity on the front concrete slab porch so far either.
I've seen some ant hills pop up on the patio paver cracks, but nowhere near what I'm used to seeing. We've still had quite a few cold nights down in the 40's though, so they may just not be out in force yet. Tons of rain too, and I don't think they're very active when it's this wet either.
I'm off for a few weeks after tonight. Going to buy some more Amdro and wait to see for activity and lay it on heavy anywhere I see it. I might even buy a b
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Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
I've seen at least 1 seagull out my balcony window this morning.
Just trying to decide what to do.
Balcony guard?
https://bird-x.com/bird-products/electronic/ultrasonic-2/
Do Right, Be Right. :)
Nah, we get sea gulls flying through my city all the time. It sits on the mighty Frazer river which is a major river in my province. Then it empties into Vancouver harbour and that is part of Boundary Bay which in turns flows into the Pacific ocean.
There are fish boats that dock in my city and another spot a little farther up river called Steveston. There are also fish boats that dock in Vancouver.
So there are gulls all over the place.
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What do ants have to do with man made ditches?
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Quote:When you start off speaking another language, those typos throw out the translation attempts.
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
well, the plants that planted themselves - CA poppies and cosmos - are dying down. Time to pull up the dead and dying plants and see how the perennials are doing.
Everywhere I look in the garden, something is fluttering, or buzzing, or scurrying. Goldfinches are perching on cosmos stems, eating the seeds. They're so light they barely bend the stems. Mourning does are pecking away at the poppy seeds, butter-butts are looking for tiny bugs and mockingbirds and crows are looking for bigger prey. At any time during the day there are at least two and sometimes up to four butterflies in the backyard of all kinds- skippers, swallowtails, cabbage and sulfur butterflies, mourning cloaks, painted ladies, monarchs and some I don't recognize. Bees of all types are nectaring; we had a wood bee make a home in our woodpile. (It left a gint mound of frass that I thought was a bad termite infestation which caused us to ssort and restack the wood). Hummingbirds are dicing for the best nesting spots in our climbing roses and poking into nasturtium and alstromeria. Ladybugs, millipedes, rollypolies, fence lizards and the occasional skink. , When I go out at night to let the dog our for her last potty break of the day there are moths everywhere.
I just released predatory mites last week, I hope that they will protect the avocadoes.
But the yard is a mess. sigh. Between the dog-walking and painting and shopping and cooking (for a very picky hubby and food-sensitive daughter and food-allergic self) and general cleanup and re-org, I've not been able to attend to the yard like I should. Weeds are still everywhere, and when I try to do yardwork during the day someone is always tugging at me to do something else or be somplace else, so I think the schedue will be an early dogwalk and yardwork, when everyone else is asleep. It will be coooler then, too, and with summer coming up I think that schedule will work better.
I was inspired to write this because I was amused by a small flock of goldfinches in the frontyard, By size and color it looked like daddy goldfinch, mommy goldfinch, and three junior goldfinches. So cute!
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
"The messy American environment, where most people don't agree, is perfect for people like me. I CAN DO AS I PLEASE." - SECOND
America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876 .
My aunt is a Birder. She keeps feeders out her South side, which has windows the whole length. I call them Welfare Birds.
Is butter-butt a slang?
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Just finished watching "Game of Thrones" and just 1 word for it. Wow!
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Today I said "Oh Shit!"
Out loud, I was so surprised.
Was heading to Walmart, noticed a side road was closed off by cops. Looked down past, saw a car had taken on a train.
Guess who won.
I've seen such on video clips, and TV, never saw one in real life before. Walmart guys were Yeah, yeah, third one this year. When the train blasted it's horn, everybody was wondering Who Doesn't Hear That?
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3 more boxes down. One just had some paper in it.
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Got rain? It is up here and suppose to rain all week. Out in a bit to run some errands.
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Quote:"oh shit" is right. Do you think perhaps this might have happened in the dark?
Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN:
Today I said "Oh Shit!"
Out loud, I was so surprised.
Was heading to Walmart, noticed a side road was closed off by cops. Looked down past, saw a car had taken on a train.
Guess who won.
I've seen such on video clips, and TV, never saw one in real life before. Walmart guys were Yeah, yeah, third one this year. When the train blasted it's horn, everybody was wondering Who Doesn't Hear That?
I almost got clobbered by a train once. The gates had been down, the bell had been ringing and the lights blinking for five minutes and .. no train! So the first of a long line of cars cautiously went thu the barrier, then the second, third, and eventually it was my turn. I looked down the tracks carefully, saw the light from the locomotive, judged it wasn't moving (short trains sometimes idle on those tracks, triggering the barrier) and went around the gate ... when I looked in my rearview the train was rocketing thru at about 40 mp. For some reason the dark had fooled my sense of motion. I guess there was nothing to compare it to in the background, and I really thought the engine was standing still.
So, like I said: In the dark, maybe?
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
"The messy American environment, where most people don't agree, is perfect for people like me. I CAN DO AS I PLEASE." - SECOND
America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876 .
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Quote:"oh shit" is right. Do you think perhaps this might have happened in the dark?
Originally posted by SIGNYM:Quote:
Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN:
Today I said "Oh Shit!"
Out loud, I was so surprised.
Was heading to Walmart, noticed a side road was closed off by cops. Looked down past, saw a car had taken on a train.
Guess who won.
I've seen such on video clips, and TV, never saw one in real life before. Walmart guys were Yeah, yeah, third one this year. When the train blasted it's horn, everybody was wondering Who Doesn't Hear That?
I almost got clobbered by a train once. The gates had been down, the bell had been ringing and the lights blinking for five minutes and .. no train! So the first of a long line of cars cautiously went thu the barrier, then the second, third, and eventually it was my turn. I looked down the tracks carefully, saw the light from the locomotive, judged it wasn't moving (short trains sometimes idle on those tracks, triggering the barrier) and went around the gate ... when I looked in my rearview the train was rocketing thru at about 40 mp. For some reason the dark had fooled my sense of motion. I guess there was nothing to compare it to in the background, and I really thought the engine was standing still.
So, like I said: In the dark, maybe?
Nope. About 1 or 2 pm, at the highest point of the sun for the day.
And that train moves at a crawl. Do you know how much distance is required for a train to stop? This one stopped within the length of the locomotive. We got to see where the impact originated after the train was cleared to leave, and then the Fire Dept sweep up all the debris from the car on the roadway. We did not see any obvious scratches on the locomotive. That section of tracks is a spur loop, supplying businesses, with some very tight curves. That train probably cannot move fast, and I used to work at a business a few doors from this spot, and the train never moved very quick that I saw.
The bay doors were open, so all of the Walmart Auto Repair center mechanics HEARD it happen, but none saw it happen.
Did your train honk at you?
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