AstroGypsies

The whole shebang:) from side to side top to bottom, 9 images stitched together! I couldn’t fit it in one single shot, too wide, too high, just TOO big!! One of the brightest longest lasting rainbows I have ever seen, after thirty minutes it was still the same! I love the circle reflections in the water. I HAD to go down to the dock, it was still raining lightly so I tucked my camera under my shirt and trotted down the steps! Those colours, and a double to boot! It was wild. People saw this rainbow all over the county, spectacular Summertime! So would that have been 4 pots of gold? One on each end! Ha!

I was surprised a few mornings ago to catch a flash of orange out of the corner of my eye (no, not a floater or blood spec! Ha!) as I sat drinking my morning coffee, watching our molting male Ruby-throated defending his feeder from the young dashing upstart. Orange? Argh? Could it be! I popped inside, filled up the strawberry jam jar and set it out bedside the suet feeder and sure enough, a beautiful male Baltimore Oriole showed up. Must be family, he knew exactly where to go for that jam! I take it down as soon as they leave (July 5th this year) to keep the bees and wasps from perishing in the jam. This fellow found a buffet later as he went straight for the insects the next day that were trapped there!

They are always a delight to see and hear! Hopefully he’ll stick around for awhile before heading South!

Junior Ruby-throated is getting bigger pants every day. Captain Cranky Pants, my affectionate name for the resident male is getting a workout! I could have sworn I saw two juveniles today! He’ll really be exhausted now!

My flower selection has been limited, just wasn’t my Spring with getting sick so I’ve made do with the bulbs that survived our too warm basement! The Cannas are finally blooming along with a single crocosmia lucifer bulb and a few gladiolas are finally opening! They are all in several pots being held up and together to keep them from falling over with bits of string, old broom handles and baler twine! I keep the pots together so the hummingbirds tend to hover around them! Making a photographers job easier! Ha! and that morning light…perfect!

With the molts starting to slow down, everyone is looking a bit less ragged. The Blue Jays haven’t shown their faces yet, too vain;) but the Goldfinches are back along with the Grosbeaks, feeding their juvenile. The Pa Grosbeak seems to have the bulk of the seed delivery as his responsibility! A motley Red-Bellied shows up from time to time as well.

On my walk out to the mailbox I caught a flash of yellow, A common Yellowthroat sat in the tree by the swamp with a Song Sparrow, maybe a juvie. Beautiful! The Scarlet Tanager have teased me staying just out of reach or just outwitting my slow reactions as I get Mike to stop and roll down the window and aim…and they are gone…mostly! Ha!

The flowers along the road are changing, the Purple Loosestrife is taking over the swamps, the buttonbush is nearly done blooming. The Queen Ann’s Lace reigns supreme this time of year. Did you know the function of the central dark floret of the flower has been subject to debate since Charles Darwin speculated that they are a vestigial trait. It has been suggested that they have the adaptive function of mimicking insects, thus either discouraging herbivory, or attracting pollinators by indicating the presence of food or opportunities for mating…I first thought it was a bug! Look closely! The wild clematis, Virgin’s-Bower, is climbing all over the bushes. I read that Common Jewelweed, that the hummingbirds love, along with other species of jewelweed, the juice of the leaves and stems is a traditional Native American remedy for skin rashes, including poison ivy! Good to know! So much life if you look!

We were doing road work, filling in pot holes and run off areas, cutting back bushes and limbs along the road. I was looking for bugs and butterflies as well:) There was a Jagged Ambush Bug on a thistle. I thought it was a bit of dried leaf as I took the picture! The county cut the road edges so sadly many of the wildflowers went with it:( A Hickory Tussock Moth was moseying about on a leaf, never know if they are coming, or going! Ha! Don’t touch these guys! Those hairs are their protection and can give you a nasty dermatitis! I may have learned that the hard way already;) The grasshoppers are plentiful and I found a Two-striped Grasshopper clinging to the glass like Spiderman! How DO they do that?

The cats are having a grand time chasing the tiny Northern Leopard frogs, they, the cats, are often confused as to which way to jump as several young frogs are going in different directions at the same time! Ha! Yesterday morning there was a mad dash of the Mewberries to the base of several small oaks…the intense concentration made me go inside and get my camera…out of a limb, literally, was a savvy chipmunk. If they have lived this long, got through Spring and half of Summer they have learned true survival skills! The Mewberries were very disappointed this savvy individual was not going to come trotting down into their waiting choppers!

These guys! Never a dull moment!

The reason we were trimming along the road, well, was to say goodbye to Myrtle, our beloved DRV 5th wheel. Didn’t want to scratch her up as we delivered her to her new home in Kemptville, where a lovely older Lithuanian man is going to use her as a home until his family can build a tiny home for him, she is a tiny home! It was a bit hairy getting across the new culvert but a few feet at a time we made a perfect exit, and headed off East, and finally Mike backed her into her new spot to be loved and used! Sad though. So many memories, but we won’t stop making them. Time to downsize, we’ll be looking this Winter and into Spring for something new to us to continue our travels! Be safe Myrtle and I know your new owners are going to cherish you as much as we did! That gravel pad does look awfully empty now though:(

I’ll leave you with a cranky Gray Rat snake! Ha! A visit with House Slytherin. He/she was in the middle of the driveway as we were leaving, about 4′ long. I gently tugged on it’s beautiful tail to try to get it to move along…I tried to convince the Gray Rat snake that he needed to move out of the middle of the road…”F*ck you!” it said, “I’m not going anywhere! Come a bit closer and I will show you my cobra impression!” Alrighty! Mike managed to drive around it barely;) Cheeky creature! Ha! I love the nature that surrounds us! Saludos amigos!