The Never-ending Artichokes

Bombus impatiens on
Jerusalem Artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus)

John and I tramped around the edges of a very large marsh in Barton in 2013. John dug up three Jerusalem artichoke plants and put them in one of our large gardens near the driveway. They were native, not protected, and I thought they were cool. We could eat the bulbs and have pretty sunflowers for insect photos late in the bug hunting season. 

They flourished. Here is a photo of John with them the next summer. But there were six. John was 6'2", and they were taller than he was. My hopes for insect photos were now gone since I could not reach the blossoms. If John pulled a flower to me, the insects ran away.

I began to be concerned, then upset, as they flourished more and took over the day lily garden I had so carefully planned and planted. In a few years, the lilies disappeared and these artichokes owned the place. They also took over an adjacent milkweed garden on the side of the garage that was twice the lily garden area. 

To keep them under control, John dug many, many bulbs, processed them and froze them. My plans for enjoying their bounty disappeared when I learned I did not like the sunchokes. 

One year, they appeared out front at the front door. An entire bunch of them. A couple of years after that, they appeared near the brook in the side yard. That bunch really flourished. The photo below shows the brook artichokes this year. The thicket is so dense that Lucy goes around them instead of through them to get to the brook. 

The brook is behind there. Somewhere.

I don't turn to memories often because it hurts when your only desire is for your love to return from the dead. But this year, I was wondering how John would react to the never-ending artichokes. My frustration with him about them has disappeared and I smile and realize the story is humorous, not sad. 

The blog hops, like Happy Tuesday, have helped me recover from the worst of my grief and bring out my memories. If I can smile at this old story, I can move forward. Thank you for that gift.

Happy Tuesday at
Comedy Plus

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Happy Tuesday: A Good Weekend

Maple Hill Road, Barton, Vermont
Sunday, September 25, 2022
The mountain in the background is Owl's Head in Québec
The farm raises beefalo. 

This is the road I take to Orleans Village to see Jody and to go to church. On Saturday, I did both: the Women's Fellowship had its Fall Fling and Jody went with me. The church is across from her house. We entered the raffles and we each won! I got my Pioneer Woman Mini Dutch Ovens (which are stainless, not cast iron), and Jody won a peanut butter bird feeder. I got a bag of doughnuts, also.

Jody's bird feeder

My mini Dutch ovens

After the fair, and after Jody had tended to the potatoes in the church garden that she created and manages, we went across the road to her home gardens to photograph insects in the beautiful weather. Those bugs will be in another post, but just to show you how good an iPhone bug photographer Jody is, here is a long-jawed spider that she found. It is unedited. I love the piped icing framing its abdomen. I'm an amateur, but it looks as if this species has its abdomen mimic a head so that predators don't bite its head off! That is common is butterflies and moths.

Long-jawed Spider
Genus Tetragnatha

As for me, I got my own Lifer bee, among many other bugs: 

Orange-tipped Wood-Digger (Anthophora terminalis)

We ate our doughnuts with water in the garden as we watched the wasps and bees.

Orleans Federated Church
Orleans Village, Barton, Vermont

Sunday was busy, too. First, to church back in Orleans. Then Amelia and Dori came to help me with housework, and I began cooking: macaroni and cheese, chili, bread, and brownies. We all ended the weekend trading our newest family photos of the grandpuppies.

Amelia's Dori in Orleans

Anna's Stewie and Milo (the Devil Dogs)
in New Haven

I have not had such a normal, brilliant weekend in years.

I hope your weekend was as happy!

Happy Tuesday at
Comedy Plus

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Happy Tuesday: Happy Release Day

Our K level class had a monarch chrysalis from the general ed teacher's father. None of us have seen any other caterpillars. So it was put in an enclosure and we waited. 

She eclosed over the weekend and was beating her wings violently against the enclosure. She had to be released immediately. There were three students in attendance this morning and we wanted them to have the experience of handling the monarch, but we could tell that she would not tolerate waiting on a finger tip. 

Of course, this was the day that I purposefully kept my bug camera at home. Rain was forecast and I didn't want to chance getting it wet. I only had my phone camera. It would have to suffice, and it did for this girl. The bug camera would not have been any better than this.

The monarch soared so high over the school,
in huge circles, that we lost sight of her
within 20 seconds.

I edited the video, slowed it down, and merged the two videos together. You still can't see much, but it's a memory of the Release Day that went all wrong! We were extremely pleased and the children experienced their first release. They also learned, after asking, that butterflies are not made of butter, and that they fly with muscles like ours. We have been studying aeronautics so they know the difference between flying, gliding, and floating. Hopefully. 

May we all have a happy Tuesday!

More happiness at 
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Happy Tuesday: A Whole Mouse

New Haven, Connecticut
September 12, 2022

Daughter Anna sent us this photo yesterday. It was taken on the pier in New Haven Harbor where she walks the devil dogs. It didn't move until she left.

I said that it was nice to see a mouse whole and not in parts.

🐭

I hope you had a Happy Tuesday!

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at Comedy Plus Blog

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Happy Tuesday: The Happy Devil Puppies

Stewie demands scratches.

My daughter, Anna, and her husband Aaron rescued these sibling long-haired Chihuahuas as babies; they call them the devil puppies. The abuse, physical and emotional, that they suffered was severe enough that the effects will probably linger forever. They are happy now and feel secure and loved. But they are a tad demanding!

Milo demands kisses.

I hope their happiness infects us all.

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Happy Tuesday: Hello!

Twice a day, at meals, Nelly would say hello to Oliver.

It got pretty embarrassing! But Oliver never cared. 

😘

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Happy Tuesday: Supervised Visits

When I look at my blog archive, I see that I basically took a ten year blogging break. I had gotten married, life was busy, and I focused on Facebook. Facebook is over for me now for several reasons; the biggest of which is that I'm uncomfortable grieving and reminiscing there and reviewing my memories as I try to make a new life for myself. The memories are not always painful for me anymore (even though some still are), and this blog is a good memoir of my life. Not much is going on with my life now, but plenty went on before. I want to remember those days. Happiness may be within reach. 

In the video above, puppy Dori was not permitted to visit Rosie, a special needs kitty of Amelia's. But the time finally came for a supervised visit. Rosie and Dori did excellent (but are still always supervised)!

Dori is now a year old (but basically the same size), and when she was very young, we closely supervised her visits with Lucy. Not because of Lucy, because she is a patient Lab. But Dori didn't know doggie boundaries. Here, Lucy basically smooshes her to the ground to show her boundaries. Dori never listened too well!

Thank you to all for visiting and listening.

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Happy Tuesday

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Happy Tuesday: Honey Bees

This is a Western Honey Bee (Apis mellifera). I average about one observation a season, which is fine with me. In fact, I see them so infrequently that I usually can't identify them. Last night, JF and I were texting about this bee and her bee observation from yesterday, that I now suspect is also a honey bee. Mine is feral; hers may be domestic.

Western Honey Bee (Apis mellifera)

To be clear, Apis mellifera is now considered by many entomologists to be invasive. The primary problem with them is that they spread disease. and perhaps parasites, to our native bumble bees. We have been advised by bee experts in Vermont to use maple instead of honey for sweetening. Of course, being the nation's largest producer of maple, that is easy for me. I myself have gallons of maple syrup from my trees. Honey bees can also displace our native bumbles and give them overwhelming competition for food. Native bumbles do not produce honey in quantities for humans; they can also be used by commercial pollenating companies.

I was very happy to receive identification confirmation overnight at iNaturalist. Everyone is invited to contribute iNaturalist. It is the biggest community scientist project around, and it's for flora and fauna. There is a poorly developed app for your phone (the link is for iPhone and Android). There is also an app called Seek for people, like one of my daughters, are beginning naturalists. The Android version is here. To many of you gardeners; you are perfect candidates for contributing to science.

Have a marvelous week!

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Happy Tuesday: Insect Interactions

If you watch insects very closely long enough, you eventually observe interactions that make you chuckle because they may seem so human. 

From August 20, 2009 is a series of photos of a grasshopper pooping. Insect poo is called frass.  I was taking a series of photos of this individual and, as usually happens, was paying more attention to my shooting than to the animal. It usually is not until I get the images in a computer that I see what has happened in front of me. Notice how the hopper is watching me watching him.

The next two photos are from September 29, 2013. This time, I saw what happened through the lens. I remember trying so hard not to laugh so that I could keep focus. The Northern Paper Wasp (Polistes fuscatus), a male, native, and the tiny leaf beetle were both foraging the same blooms but had not noticed each other. But the wasp blindly bumped into the beetle and actually jumped backwards startled. To this day, I remember both the wasp's startle and my emotions at capturing it.

My last sequence is from yesterday, August 8, 2022. I knew the Pug moth caterpillar (Eupithecia) that I was photographing would be startled by the incoming Eastern Calligrapher (Toxomerus geminatus) fly. Neither animal ran away, but the caterpillar kept its distance. These would normally be out-takes and not printed, but the sequence is worth publishing.

By the way, a pug moth is a geometer moth, which explains the inchworm-like movement. The Greeks thought that inchworms looked like they measured the world, hence "geometer."

I did not expect to see, in another one of my practice videos, the frass action. I thought insects just randomly left frass wherever it dropped, but this caterpillar, the same individual as above, but after the fly left, actually disposed of it. Forgive my poor focus immediately before this happens. Even out of focus you can see the caterpillar going poop. The video then re-focuses and you see it disposing of it. Amazing! Please view it full screen. 

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