I have that nice, outdoorsy smell!

Farmer's tan...check.
Dehydrated...check.
Pulled muscles...check.
Dirt under fingernails...check.

It takes forever to do yard work by yourself.
But Geoff helped out the best way he could...he took the girls out for the day.
The hummingbird/butterfly garden is 90% done.
I would like to add a few plants around the bowl, but other than that, I am pleased:

Plants I used:
Milkweed, lobelia, Dutch Pearl fuschia, wild strawberry, beard-tongue, bee balm, and I think some moneywort has taken up residence. I also added a yellow bell-type of flower that I can't remember the name of. I need to find the receipt...
I threw in some broken pottery (My favorite piece of Fiestaware broke last year, and I knew I could use it somewhere). And there's a clay pot nestled in there for any toads who are feelin' froggy. Har.
And a fairy statue. And a broken angel statue, half-buried in the mulch, like she is sleeping.
There's also a hanging basket with a coco liner full of plants that I got for free from the nursery.
At my nursery, you grab a clipboard and write down all the plants you chose, then the staff knows what is being moved out. The last time I was there, a group of workers was standing there, gawking at me. I looked up, and one of them said that I deserved free plants for how precisely I was writing down my order. So they ended up giving me three different plants for free. Nice, huh?
There's actually four free plants, because one of the pots had a purple petunia growing out of some other kind of plant.
The only other one I remember is Oxalis, something or other. Very pretty, with triangular purple leaves.

The corner from above.

I am in love with moths. There, I said it.
This awesome dude was hanging out on the front door today.
I showed the picture to Isabelle, to see what she would say. I knew what was coming:
"That looks like really fancy bird poop."
I may just have to Google "bird poop moth".
UPDATE: I found it. It's a wood nymph moth, genus Euthisanotia.

What in the world is this thing? It's one of those caterpillar/worm critters that stands up on its head.

Every day, I love our yard more. I am turning into one of those people who can marvel at a wild onion in bloom.
Ooooh....Bloomin' Onion. Yum.

A dill plant sits at the edge of the prairie, waiting for some tiger swallowtails to alight.
(And I am waiting for some dill bread.)

The count of baby robins is now four. The last one hatched sometime today.

We had plenty of rain today...easy, soaking rain with some short spells when it would stop and allow the water to go down nice and deep without running off.
I could almost hear the sucking of all the trees and plants...like a million straws.

I would love for this to be milkweed, but I don't think I am that lucky. There's a whole lot of this growing around here. I would be happy with Joe-Pye weed or Ironweed, though.

Is this an oak sapling?
There are lots of these popping up on the side yard. Right now, they are the tallest things in the yard over there.

The sunset was a nice reward for such a long day of sweating and bending.


I think this is a new tree frog! The other one, at least what I saw of it, was more green. This one was brown. And damn cute. I heard them talking to each other while I was out there. Maybe some frog porn is in my future?
(Somehow, that just sounds wrong.)

Here's a quick video of the "Frog Love Song".

Click To Play

I have a new passion and Geoff got his first book review

I went to East Fork Lake today, to do some birding.
I didn't even go near the lake. It was full of yahoos on jet skies.
Yes, I saw some field sparrows, blah blah blah. But what really captured me and got me excited was all the butterflies, moths and dragonflies.
So after all I saw, I decided to start listing the butterflies and so on that I see. There's a website for that, like eBird, right?
Some of the names I know, and others I don't. I have been searching the Web for ID's, but I never would have had the time to post tonight if I had continued. A butterfly/moth/dragonfly field guide is in my immediate future. I will welcome any identifications here. It's like being a beginning birder. I would also love if anyone has a good site that's easy to use.


Let's start with a dead spider, shall we?


I think this is the same type of spider I saw at RAPTOR the other day, a fisher. But this one was dead, so I was only a little creeped out.

Now, look at how cool this is!
(Yellow collared scape moth)
THAT'S a pretty bug. I love the feathery antennae.

Big dragonflies with bold black stripes and brown/green bodies.


Plathemis lydia

And a black and green one on a lily pad.

Fuzzy, brown.

Eewww...orange leaf mold?

A very pretty yellow/green little guy with eye spots on the wings and green eyes!

Poor ragged thing.

A cute bug on a daisy.

This red weed was attractive, and I didn't notice the little green baby grasshopper (?) until I was reviewing the photo.

White grass seends.

"Ribbbbb-itt."


Orange and brown wings, white belly and black eyes.

I know this one!
Eastern pond hawk...I approved when I found out the name. A 'raptor'-like dragonfly.

Eastern comma...or is it a question mark? How do you tell?

Fuzzy red balls.

Cute overload.

More cuteness. I mean, my goodness.
This is the family I photographed last week.

"De PLANE!"
***
And now, here's Geoff's first review of his book, from Publisher's Weekly:

C.C. Pyle's Amazing Foot Race: The True Story of the 1928 Coast-to-Coast Run Across America
Geoff Williams Rodale, $25.95 (336p) ISBN 978-1-59486-319-6

Pyle, a sports agent and promoter, came up with the idea of a footrace (mockingly known as “the Bunion Derby”) from Los Angeles to New York that promised $48,500 in cash, including $25,000 to the first-place winner. For a $125 entry fee, male participants got the chance for a nice payday while subjecting themselves to harsh weather, primitive housing and Pyle's ego and shady business practices. They also had to run 3,500 miles over 84 days (the equivalent of 40 miles a day) long before comfortable running shoes and sophisticated sports nutrition. Williams, a contributor to Entrepreneur magazine, has evocatively recreated a long-forgotten sports event, mixing colorful anecdotes from the race with vivid portraits of the runners. There's Brother John, a bearded zealot who raced in a sackcloth, and 20-year-old Andy Payne, a part-Cherokee Oklahoman who competed to pay off his family's farm and to win the attention of the girl he loved. What could have been one long injury report or a sappy piece of nostalgic nuttiness is a breezy, entertaining read that properly balances the runners' integrity with the comedy of errors that was Pyle's grand experiment and his life. Photos. (July)