At Last...

Way back in June this year I planted all the flower seeds in our backyard. After 5 long months of growing, the delphiniums have finally bloomed! I don't know why they took soooo long; maybe because they needed richer soil. In any case, we are enjoying them now. Hopefully the frost won't kill them right away. :-)

Skippers From All Angles

Last week I managed to get some better pictures of the fiery skippers in our backyard. Here are the results...

A Morning Walk

Yesterday I took my camera along on our morning walk and managed to capture some photos of the pelicans that have been eating their breakfast in our lake. There have been probably 8 or 10 of them each morning for the past few days. The fish supply must be dwindling fast. I wonder how much longer these majestic birds will grace us with their presence.

American White Pelicans (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos)

No, this next one is not a two-headed pelican! It’s two birds swimming side by side. Pelicans work together to surround and corner fish. Then they dunk their heads in the water and scoop up the food with their bills.

When my dad and I left our house that morning, the sky was relatively clear, but by the time we arrived about three-fourths of the way around the lake, it started sprinkling on us. This gave us a pretty rainbow stretching all the way across the sky.

Genesis 9:11-17 (Authorized KJV)

“And I will establish my covenant with you, neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth. And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud: And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh. And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, This is the token of the covenant, which I have established between me and all flesh that is upon the earth.”

A Final Garden Tour

Our garden this year is just about done. Last month I dug up all the carrots, and we washed, cut, and froze them.

Then a couple weeks ago I dug up all the potatoes, and we've been eating them. :-)

The strawberries are still going strong and spreading out. In fact, I ate two of them with my lunch yesterday.

Dad picked all the onions and now they're drying out on top of our out-of-use-at-the-moment rabbit cage.

Next it will be time to get the garden area all cleaned out and weeded. We may plant some things for a winter garden if we can figure out what we should grow and what could grow during the dull gray months until next summer. :-)

Creature Identification - Fiery Skipper

Here are a couple photos of a fiery skipper (Hylephila phyleus) that has been hanging around our flower garden with some of its friends. They especially love the zinnias and bachelor buttons.

Skippers are of the family Hesperioidea. They resemble moths and are closely related to butterflies.

A Picture of Fall

"Around and around the house the leaves fall thick - but never fast, for they come circling down with a dead lightness that is sombre and slow. Let the gardener sweep and sweep the turf as he will, and press the leaves into full barrows, and wheel them off, still they lie ankle-deep."

Charles Dickens, Bleak House

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This was the view outside my window this morning. As the last few months of the year go by, gradually all of the leaves are going to fall off these trees. The leaves will turn brown, and then each time the wind blows a few will drop to the ground, scratching and rustling against the others still hanging on. When the branches are bare I will know that Christmas is just around the corner.

Weather: Since Monday it has been bright and sunny here with not even a cool breeze to make it feel like autumn. Every afternoon the air has been warm, like summer. Tomorrow the wind is supposed to change direction, giving us cooler temperatures for the rest of the week. Will this be our last taste of summer?

Morning Dewdrops

On this second day of fall, I woke up to frost on my bedroom window. Today, frost is a good thing because it means the sun is out and the clouds are gone. This morning the flowers in our backyard looked stunning covered in dewdrops, so I took some pics of them (all are clickable).

Here are some of the gorgeous sparkling purple asters:

Pink asters:

"Thine, O Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine; thine is the kingdom, O Lord, and thou art exalted as head above all." 1 Chronicles 29:11 (Authorized KJV)

Grizzly Island

Yesterday my dad and I took a trip up north to visit the Grizzly Island Wildlife Area. This place is the largest estuarine marsh in the United States. It’s huge - 8600 acres! An estuary is where fresh water meets saltwater, and at Grizzly Island we saw an incredible abundance of ponds, lakes, creeks, and streams spread out all over the place. After we actually drove into the entrance of the refuge, we followed a looooong road that twisted and turned through the marsh. It took us a good 30-45 minutes on that road before we got to the place where we had to pay and register. Whew.

One of the unique things about Grizzly Island is the wildlife. Tule elk make their home in the marsh along with river otters, hawks, golden eagles, bald eagles, owls, rabbits, and numerous other animals. When the explorer Sir Francis Drake first saw the elk in this area in the 1500s, he described them as “big fat deer.” Haha!

Although Dad and I picked a far out trail where elk have been spotted from, we didn’t see any yesterday. For the past few weeks the place has been closed due to an annual elk hunt. I wonder if that had anything to do with it. *suspicious look* We DID see lots of elk tracks along a dry riverbed we hiked beside, and we happened upon a shotgun shell in our path as well. Hmm. In some parts, the tule reeds looked like they had been trampled by elk. We were so close to seeing the elusive animals, and yet so far.

Here are some more pics:

“Thou, even thou, art LORD alone; thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth, and all things that are therein, the seas, and all that is therein, and thou preservest them all; and the host of heaven worshippeth thee.” Nehemiah 9:6