Doctors and butterflies...
Aug. 21st, 2024 06:43 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cairistionaDoctor's appointment yesterday went well, no huge issues that I could see on the bloodwork report, other than the usual uptick in markers caused by the bit of weight gain over the last year. I think losing the weight again will help all that, so I'm not expecting any sort of urgent call to come back to the office for further review. He's ordered the "mail-in-your-poop" test for me, as it's been a few years since I last did that. Oh yay.
Onto more interesting things.
Poor Boom was licking his paws and scratching a lot yesterday. He's on an anti-flea/tick topical regimen, but I suspected he stepped in a nest of baby ticks. I put him atop the dryer and gave him a good going over and brushed out hundreds of the things, all dead, thankfully. Even though they died quickly, they still had to bite him to be killed, and that leaves little itchy welts. I was thinking I needed to run to the store for some Benedryl, but the brushing seemed to have helped enough that he stopped all the licking. He's much better today, thank goodness. I'm also thankful it was the tiniest of ticks, as small as a period on your screen. Boom was likely their first meal, so chances are good they weren't carrying any disease. Small favors. I would not be heartbroken if ticks became extinct.
Far better than ticks are great spangled fritillaries. I caught one (with the camera, not with a net!) on the butterfly weed (which is blooming late because deer nipped it twice just before it bloomed; it's only just now getting decent blooms on):
They're also striking with wings closed:
I caught a bumblebee sleeping on a zinnia blossom the other morning:
(You have to look a bit close.)
Dink and I had a discussion about whether insects dream. We came to no conclusions other than we hoped so. (This on the tail of me telling her I dreamt an ocelet and her kittens sneaked in through the cat door to make a nest in my bedroom!)
I still haven't seen any Monarch caterpillars save the one a few months ago. The zinnias still look nice, but the garden overall is in one of the shabby periods that native gardens (and fields in the wild) get before the wave of fall blossoms. In a week or two, I'll have goldenrod, boneset, and asters blooming, to add to the zinnias, lobelia, and blue sage.
It's also time to think about what additional plants to order for the fall native plant sale. I think I'll just get a few more coneflowers and maybe a spicebush. I'd love to find some Joe Pye weed, which I've read is another excellent native pollinator plant that blooms in late summer/fall. My preferred nursery is out of stock, though, but there's usually a few other nurseries at the plant sale that may have some. *fingers crossed*
Latest on the goings-on across the road: they installed some sort of heavy duty post, probably for a gate, using some sort of automated pile driver thing that I think shook the entire hillside. >.< Fortunately it was only for a few minutes, but it was an exceedingly loud few minutes.
Happy Wednesday, all.
Onto more interesting things.
Poor Boom was licking his paws and scratching a lot yesterday. He's on an anti-flea/tick topical regimen, but I suspected he stepped in a nest of baby ticks. I put him atop the dryer and gave him a good going over and brushed out hundreds of the things, all dead, thankfully. Even though they died quickly, they still had to bite him to be killed, and that leaves little itchy welts. I was thinking I needed to run to the store for some Benedryl, but the brushing seemed to have helped enough that he stopped all the licking. He's much better today, thank goodness. I'm also thankful it was the tiniest of ticks, as small as a period on your screen. Boom was likely their first meal, so chances are good they weren't carrying any disease. Small favors. I would not be heartbroken if ticks became extinct.
Far better than ticks are great spangled fritillaries. I caught one (with the camera, not with a net!) on the butterfly weed (which is blooming late because deer nipped it twice just before it bloomed; it's only just now getting decent blooms on):
They're also striking with wings closed:
I caught a bumblebee sleeping on a zinnia blossom the other morning:
(You have to look a bit close.)
Dink and I had a discussion about whether insects dream. We came to no conclusions other than we hoped so. (This on the tail of me telling her I dreamt an ocelet and her kittens sneaked in through the cat door to make a nest in my bedroom!)
I still haven't seen any Monarch caterpillars save the one a few months ago. The zinnias still look nice, but the garden overall is in one of the shabby periods that native gardens (and fields in the wild) get before the wave of fall blossoms. In a week or two, I'll have goldenrod, boneset, and asters blooming, to add to the zinnias, lobelia, and blue sage.
It's also time to think about what additional plants to order for the fall native plant sale. I think I'll just get a few more coneflowers and maybe a spicebush. I'd love to find some Joe Pye weed, which I've read is another excellent native pollinator plant that blooms in late summer/fall. My preferred nursery is out of stock, though, but there's usually a few other nurseries at the plant sale that may have some. *fingers crossed*
Latest on the goings-on across the road: they installed some sort of heavy duty post, probably for a gate, using some sort of automated pile driver thing that I think shook the entire hillside. >.< Fortunately it was only for a few minutes, but it was an exceedingly loud few minutes.
Happy Wednesday, all.
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Date: 2024-08-21 02:55 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2024-08-21 09:55 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2024-08-21 10:18 pm (UTC)And great spangled fritillaries are truly, truly gorgeous.
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Date: 2024-08-22 11:05 am (UTC)Those butterflies are just so lovely, and so plentiful! It's nice to have a butterfly that only requires wild violets, which are dead easy to grow (just ignore one in the lawn and soon you have dozens!) and very plentiful.
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Date: 2024-08-22 01:39 am (UTC)Aaaaack, poor Boomer! It is always such a mixed feeling when you get a Mass Tick Casualty event like that. On one hand, very good to have clear evidence the anti-tick treatments are working! On the other hand... ew. Ticks are so nasty, and it would be a happy thing indeed never to have to deal with one every again. :P
The idea of insects dreaming is such a delightful thought. You wouldn't think their thought processes would be complex enough for it, and yet... we keep finding out such interesting things about how far beyond expectations the capacities of different critters are.
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Date: 2024-08-22 11:10 am (UTC)It's astounding, really, how deeply other creatures besides humans can think. I was reading an article about a herd of elephants whose beloved gamekeeper died--they return to his home every year on the anniversary of his death. :'((((( I think, if we could just figure out a universal translator, we'd be astonished at the complexity of thought animals--and insects--possess. (Ha, remember the old song, "If We Could Talk To The Animals?" by Bobby Darin? That was a favorite of mine when I was a kid.)
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Date: 2024-08-22 09:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-08-22 11:17 am (UTC)I have learned a new definition for "maroon". I didn't know it was used as a term for a flare or firework. So it could mean a color, being stranded, Bugs Bunny slang for "moron", a community of former slave descendants in the Caribbean... and now a firework. That word gets around. LOL
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Date: 2024-08-22 01:47 pm (UTC)- Erulisse (one L)
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Date: 2024-08-23 11:25 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-08-23 05:45 pm (UTC)