The large Luna Moth is a beautiful creature. The Luna Moth (Actias luna) here was badly damaged and missing its long tail, but it was alive when my friend found it in her back yard. She put it in a casserole dish and began her researches. Her moth was a female and even in its ravaged state it began to lay eggs. Ordinarily females will lay between 100-300 eggs about 4 to 7 at a time on the…
My Monday Record is a day late because I have been so busy with all the weeding, trimming, pruning and planting. There is so much left to do that it seems I am not making progress, but I am! The roses are making progress too. This is a rose bush given to me by the Purington family on Woodslawn Farm in Colrain. The flowers are small, about one and a half inches across, but intensely fragrant - and…
Yesterday we again saw turkeys walking across the field; they came right up to the end of the road. Turkeys are no longer a rare sight in our neighborhood, however - - - one day I was visiting a friend and he showed me this - and asked if I could guess what it was. I could not. It is a well filled turkey crop, that part of a turkey that is an important part of its digestive…
Saturday morning I substituted for our wonderful Assistant Librarian, Lyra, who is on maternity leave and tending lusty young Jupiter. Needless to say the three chickens I had lost to a weasel during the week was a topic of conversation with library patrons. I said we put out a rat trap and a Havahart, but did not think that peanut butter was the kind of bait to attract a weasel. Everyone agreed that peanut butter did not sound…
I have no affection for groundhogs, but Groundhog Day is one of my favorite movies. Made in 1993 it has come to be lauded as one of the best movies ever made. "The film is number thirty-four on the American Film Institute's list of 100 Funniest Movies, and was named the number eight Fantasy film inAFI's 10 Top 10. Roger Ebert has revisited it in his "Great Movies" series. After giving it a three-star rating in his original review, Ebert acknowledged in…
The November/December issue of The American Gardener: The Magazine of the American Horticultural Society arrived the other day. As I was browsing through it last night I was surprised, but thrilled, to see Ellen Sousa, who lives in Central Massachusetts, quoted in Kris Wetherbee's article Garden Cleanup Reconsidered. Ellen's own landscape is not only a Certified Wildlife Habitat, it is a Monarch Waystation so it was no surprise to hear her say, "instead of doing the traditional fall…
This past weekend we were invited to a celebratory 60th birthday party at our local Butterfly House. We thought it was an apt site for the party because while most of us are familiar with the 12 animal Chinese zodiac, the reality is that the complete Chinese zodiac requires going around the 12 year cycle five times - when you begin again. The 60th year can be challenging, but it can also be a time of new beginnings.…
In spite of spotty frosts that we have had all week, the cosmos in the new Front Garden, as well as the Shed Bed are still blooming. They are protected in both spaces. I was able to take a big bouquet to church with me yesterday. While the cosmos still look summery, it was time to get down to those autumnal chores. My husband took a break from splitting firewood to dig sod and enlarge the southern Lawn…
Last week I set out the sprinkler to water the vegetable garden for 45 minutes. I have not NOT watered anything else for weeks. Then I turned on the hose to water the chickens. I heard the phone ring and ran into the house. When I got back to the hose - it was dry. I turned off the spigot, went into the house and turned on the taps. No water. We have a drilled well, and have…
Just when I was preparing a handout for my Heath Fair talk on Native Alternatives to Invasive Plants, I learned about a new group blog www.beautifulwildlifegarden.com that is being written by some of my favorite bloggers, many of whom I got to meet in Buffalo. Beautiful Wildlife Gardens will give you lots of information about the natural world around us - in different parts of the country. Informative and engaging. Which is what you might expect from a…