The New Year

My apologies for the length of time since my last post. I've had the pictures, but not a way to upload.
Working from the library computer today, but let's keep it our secret.

Frost Bloom on Verbesina

Evening Primrose seedpods

I saw a bird eating seed out of these... but wasn't quick enough with the shutter.

Fava bean blossoms 

The Hellebore are blooming... 

These little yellow warblers made an appearance, scratched up my flower seeds out of the beds, and then left for parts unknown. Cute...

I had a yard full of butterflies today, but when I fetched the camera... couldn't get any of them to say "cheese".

Equinox Blooms

Agalinis purpurea in full flush.

Cottony goldenaster and gulf fritillary

Dalea pinnata in full bloom

 Heavenly blue morning glory

 cosmos

Sunflowerz

I planted the sunflowers, morning glory, and cosmos seed in the last week of July, along with some squash, beans, and cow peas.  The beans and peas are about played out already, and the squash bugs and squash vine borers destroyed the squash, pretty much as soon as it started to produce.

physostegia

 pepperz

 nettle leaf sage

Long tailed skipper visits verbesina

forked blue curls  (Trichostema dichotomum)
 

Surprises in the weeds... Interesting year for watermelon this summer. My other patch produced early, and then developed a problem of blossom end rot, or something.
This patch was hit by a late spring frost, and looked like a loss, but pulled out all stops after the temp broke....

 Remember when it hit 108° way back at the end of June?

Since the temp broke in early July, the weather has been pleasant, with unusually regular rainfall. Shame about the rest of the country...

Brrr...

Ice on the goldfish pool...

Frost flowers... Verbesina above, dog fennel (Eupatorium capillifolium) below.

Frosty chickweed... it's so short that I can't hand-pull it... was watching a mockingbird feasting on it... and of course no camera... It flew away before I got back with it....

A blogging friend posted an article on backyard birds

So.... I eventually was able to get a few pictures this afternoon...

 Cardinal onna fence post

 Towhee in the chickweed

Some kinda wren, I reckon

Kinda difficult to get bird pics when you aren't shooting bird feeders...

While I was putting up barbed wire over the last coupla days, I was seeing truckloads of birds... everytime I walked past the garden... Of course.... no camera handy... really woulda needed to shoot action shots... can't get birds on the wing with single pics.... and they rarely pose on posts....

Here's a pic of the fence cutting through a nice thicket of blackberry bushes mixed up with wisteria... Guess which one I'd wish gone?

Hint... it's the invasive wisteria.... the blackberry actually has uses... While I rarely see berries... it's so dry... they wither up on the vine.... The briars make good habitat for the birds... They're also medicinal...

Here's a deer stand right on the property line... they're who the fence is for (poachers & thieves).

 I spoke to the sheriff's deputies... Hunting stand on the property line... nothing I can do...

 Seems like common sense they'd cut a path through the trees on the property that they're renting... put the stand out of eyesight.... at the very least...

Kitty eatin potato peels...

Triple digit heat

It's been reaching 100 and above for what seems like weeks now... In truth, I really missed the heat over the past couple of years when it failed to reach our normal highs.

Rudbeckia subtomentosa

Finally spotted a bug... Not sure why this particular rudbeckia seems not attractive to the pollinators...

Rudbeckia nitida herbstsonne

And the pollinators are wild for this one... Which I have growing mere feet away...

Starting to pick some of the corn... Nice dark colours on the glass gem.

Reds and yellows from the variegated patch... wish I had some chickens to feed it to... Or better yet... an easy way to turn it into flour...
Imagine home-grown tortillas...

Purple pods on the 'trail of tears' beans.

These are supposed to be purple tomatoes... but they seem a bit pinker this year...
They were purple last year...

A black swallowtail pays tribute to the belamcanda.

They're very happy with the lantana

Snake cotton...

 Always enjoy the centrosema...

The plants that aren't getting supplemental water... like this patch of verbesina... are wilting a bit...

Summer visitors

This gopher tortoise was hanging out in the drive, and made no effort to move until after I got out of the truck to photograph him.
The state reptile of Georgia, these guys lend cool factor to the garden.

Indigo bunting, is this guy blue enough for you?

The cow killers are colorful too.
I walk around bare-footed, but I don't think I'd want to step on one of these guys for more reasons than concerns for the critter...

The hummingbirds are adorable.

Manduca rustica caterpillar shows his close kinship to the tomato hornworm.
Feeding on vitex (chaste tree), which I'm willing to share... He crawled off and did whatever shortly after posing for this photo shoot.

Tiny Red-banded Hairstreak butterfly visiting the verbesina