Stag Beetle

I found this guy while pulling weeds at the King St. Community Garden.  Such a cool bug!

More Chestnut Trees Found

[Update: I returned to the site and was saved having to wade into deep poison ivy by the neighbor, who took me to his yard to show me the two very old chestnut trees growing on his lawn.  Due to the trees' age, health, and smaller leaf size, I suspect they are European or Asian chestnuts.  But I sent off a twig sample to TACF to be sure.  Now, if only I could find the camera, I would post some photos of his magnificent chestnut trees.  The larger tree had a circumference at the ground of what must be eight to ten feet.  The easement chestnut trees are likely its offspring.]

Someday, when I am no longer so busy chasing small children, this blog will be updated again regularly.  But in the meantime, here is a special report for the folks at TACF.  While driving west on route 109 in Bellingham, MA, today, I spotted American chestnuts in bloom on a power easement.  (And it took all of my effort not to drive off of the road!)  The Chestnuts are on the south side of the road.  There is a convenient place to pull a car off of the road, but the trees themselves are beyond a bunch of dense meadow growth.  With two little kids and a strong sensitivity to poison ivy, I can't get any closer.  But here are the pictures I was able to take from the road.

I suppose there is a chance that these are not American chestnuts.  I'll try to get back out there with a telephoto lens to confirm.  I am afraid these are the best pictures I could get with my telephone.



This looks like the best way to get to the trees, unfortunately.  It's dense brush, including poison ivy.

These trees are much, much larger than the first one I found, which TACF pollinated.  I'm not great at estimating height, but I would put the lowest flowers at around 25 or 30 feet up.  I thought I was seeing three trees at the edge of the woods, with a hint of a possibly larger fourth tree behind them, but looking at the photos now I can only make out two trees for sure.  

The largest of the chestnut trees is as tall as the surrounding species, possibly 50 feet tall.  I could see no evidence of blight on the trunks from my vantage point,  but my view of the trunks was mostly blocked.  The crowns appeared quite healthy.  I saw no dead branches, unlike the scrappy chestnuts I found at Patriot Place.

I'm afraid I have no idea who owns the property.  Perhaps the power company would be willing to share that info with TACF.

This pull-off area is on the south side of the road.  The location is on route 109 in Bellingham, MA, just east of the intersection with Gray Squirrel Drive.  The grove is marked on the map below with red dots.

Summer Gullywasher

I'm cleaning up my phone's stickpile of photos, and I came across this snapshot of one of our few good rainfalls this year. It was a dry year, and I love rain. I do not understand people who boo-hoo wet or overcast weather. The sun makes me wilt.

The underside of the mystery moth

Mystery Moth

I snapped some photos of this moth outside of a grocery store two months ago. I have no idea what it is. Anyone?

The Grasshoppers were Epic this Year

Two Left

The pair of Papilo polyxenes caterpillars on my smaller dill plant proved to be too much. I found the plant reduced to a stump, devoid of cuddly butterfly babies. I imagine they have since starved in the flowerbed somewhere, because there is no other food source for them nearby.

These remaining two, above, for now at least, are plump eating machines. If their host plant can keep up with them, they will soon overwinter in my garden in their chrysalis form.

Shudder

I once watched a praying mantis devour a live honeybee. Here is a yellow jacket dining on a mantis. The mantis isn't quite dead yet.

Gotta love the brutality of nature. Shudder.

Autumn in my meadow

Eastern Black Swallowtail

My friend Amy sells plants and produce at my local farmer's market. I think she underestimated exactly how excited I would be when she pointed out a giant black butterfly laying eggs on her dill.

It was probably a good thing that I knocked a few of the eggs off when watering in my two dill plants, because each of my small dill plants can only support two of these rapidly growing eating machines.

Here is one of my four little Papilo polyxenes, posing by a dill flower.

Gabe, Flowers, Butterfly

Daily Monarch

My Pet Monarch

He's out here every day, eating and eating.

Summer Days

Monarch in my Butterfly Weed

Clethra alnifolia

At long last, another mystery shrub in my swamp is identified! Sweet pepperbush!  There is a large area full of beautiful twisting stems in my wet woods in the winter. In the summer, I kept missing the blossoms somehow. The foliage just blends in otherwise. But here, I finally caught it in bloom - and how had I ever missed such a spectacular show before? I bet because I melt like a popsicle in this heat. The flowers are abuzz with bees, and smell so sweet as to almost be sickening.

Someday I will have time to get out there with a real camera again.

Finally, Monarchs!

I had been getting so worried about the monarch butterflies. Only one or two had dribbled by so far this year. But this week, they have arrived en masse. I'm afraid I have been systematically removing much of the milkweed volunteering around the yard. But the seeds I had scatterd in the front meadow are taking hold. In a year or two it will be epic monarch habitat out there, right where I want it.

19 Pounds of Lettuce

Chris sent me a panicked message this morning: he had forgotten to harvest the lettuce. The heat was going to make it bolt today. Could I rescue it for him?

So, that tiny lettuce patch filled two large shopping bags. And I don't mean grocery bags! Totally dry, they came in at 19 pounds. Up until now I had never seriously considered that lettuce has weight. It's mass-less and ethereal!

Two thirds of this haul went to the Franklin Food Pantry, washed and bagged. 17 bags! And it is beautiful lettuce, too. Not a blemish on it. Hopefully all of the spiders jumped off in my kitchen.

Catalpa Leaves

Kaylee in Gabe's Garden

I need to make a garden for her one of these days.