Cicadas and Crickets

 

We are now one week into the “last month of summer” and it is becoming obvious.  All day we have cicadas singing in the trees and all night we have crickets singing in the lawn.

The place is becoming quite noisy!

This cicada, no doubt in search of a willing mate, spent some time chirruping from the perch of our deck umbrella.  I have no idea whether the serenades were successful or not.

There are no safety catches on my bedroom windows, so I dislike having them open during the night.  However, last night the room was quite stuffy so I opened them up for 15 minutes to let some of the cooler air in.

The noise from the crickets was deafening!

Now that the new Expressway is open we seldom hear traffic at night any more, so this change from relative silence was quite a surprise.

Cicadas and crickets are not the only busy ones at this time.  I found this paper wasp nest on the fence – thankfully, it doesn’t have to be me trying to get rid of it!  I will leave that job to the expert (aka, my son).

I know the length of the days is changing as I am once again getting up before the sun rises. 

Summer does not seem to have lasted very long, although I remember from past years that February can often have extremely hot days.

Stay safe and be happy, whatever you do today 😊

Margaret.

 

Garden Bugs

We have thick fog here this morning, with a muted shiny globe of sun trying to break through.  Once the fog clears the sun is meant to shine, but it will still be cooler than it has been.  Autumn is advancing and winter is coming!

We have had a few different insect sightings around the garden over the last few weeks.  Insects are always with us, if we only stop to see them.  This one is a Grasshopper that was sitting on the fence post.

These two Praying Mantids were presumably mating and not trying to eat each other, as is their cannibalistic tendency.  The female should soon be laying eggs that will hatch next spring.

Stick Insects are not that common, at least to find.  Their camouflage can be highly efficient, disguising themselves as twigs (brown or green) on different trees – we only see them when they move away from their usual haunts.

Our Brassicas (cabbage family plants) have been getting ravaged by Cabbage White caterpillars, so yesterday I dusted the plants with some Derris Dust and squashed any little green fatties that I could find.  

Hidden among the foliage I found the beginnings of a cauliflower.

This cabbage is also beginning to heart up.  I thought I might have planted things too close together, but nature has a way of still doing what it needs to do.

I found this quote the other day, by Hans Christian Anderson –

“The whole world is a series of miracles, but we’re so used to them we call them ordinary things.”

Enjoy nature all around you J

Margaret.

LINKED TO Saturday's Critters

Moths, Mantises, and Millie

There was another public fireworks display last night, this time at the Hamilton Lake.  I watched most of it out of my bedroom window, although it was partially obscured by some distant trees.  It looked quite spectacular with the quarter-moon and Venus hanging in the sky above the display.

There are a lot of moths and bugs flying around at night and several seem to find their way into my bedroom each night.  The biggest one was a Moon Moth which I caught and released outside the next day.   Its colouring is good camouflage when sitting on the bark of this conifer.

The Moon Moth was large enough to cover half of my palm, much bigger than the fingernail-sized pale yellow Lacebark Looper Moth that committed mothicide in my cup of tea!

Moon Moths get their name from the circular spot on each wing.

We also have Praying Mantis around, mostly brown although some are green.  Apparently they can change colour when moulting so that they can better match the colour of their environment.

Son had to rescue this one from his daughter’s bedroom and relocate it outside.

Millie was sitting outside looking charming beneath a fern, so I just had to take her picture.

On the whole it has been a quiet day today.  I wrote an email to my daughter and made a pizza for our lunch, and then rewatched the movie Contagion, which I thought rather appropriate at this time.

The pizza was a simple one – a scone base topped with a can of spaghetti, grated cheese, chopped bacon and crushed pineapple, with a sprinkle of Italian Herbs over the top.  Baked 30 minutes at 200 degrees and everyone was happy!

Time now for a steaming hot cup of tea and do a puzzle or two in my new Pixel Puzzles book before preparing dinner.  Tonight we are having grilled steak with boiled new potatoes and steamed carrots and green beans.

Margaret.

We Have Sunshine!

Today the sun is back in full force.  On Saturday we had a few lovely showers and yesterday (Sunday) we had two late afternoon thunderstorms that came through close together.  

Son checked the soil moisture this morning and it was damp for only a few bare millimetres.  We still need some prolonged gentle rain to recover from this spell of drought.

I could hear thunder rolling around when I took this photo

Today the skies are blue, the sun is shining, there is no wind, and it is getting too hot to be outside again. 

Back to blue skies

The hanging baskets are about at their end now and will need to be replanted for winter – I thought maybe violas would look nice. 

I was happy to see that the tuberous begonia in its wall pot is now finally beginning to flower.

Tuberous begonia 

Most of yesterday was spent with a trip to Auckland to visit a relation.  It was a pleasant drive up to the city and took me about two hours to reach my destination.

Coming home took me nearly 30 minutes longer.  The traffic was bumper to bumper on some parts of the Southern Motorway and Waikato Expressway, mostly due to roadwork disruptions and every man and his dog deciding to go out for a drive. 

A new section of highway that will improve things dramatically has now been officially opened – but is not yet open to traffic to use.  There was some excuse about needing to finish a crash barrier, but a lot of people are finding it ridiculous to open a road before it is open.

Today I am recuperating!  A long day seems to leave me tired these days, but I have still managed to do what housework needed doing (cleaned bathroom, washed towels, tidied kitchen etc.) but decided I will leave the floors until tomorrow.  They are not going anywhere!

Son found a new Paper Wasp nest by the compost heap

I am enjoying reading more of Gayelord Hauser’s Look Younger Live Longer.  As a consequence I have dragged the juicer out of the cupboard and had a lovely juice with my avocado and salad lunch.

Juicer and juice

I used several carrots, a long stalk of celery, one apple, and a large piece of ginger.  The ginger was a little overpowering – I used too much – but the juice was still very enjoyable.

There is a pineapple sitting on the bench, so I will chop that up later and may have some pineapple and celery juice before dinner.

It is son’s turn to make dinner tonight and I believe we are having nachos, so a juicy appetizer might be quite nice.

Cheers everyone J

Margaret.

The Year of the Rat

Today is Chinese New Year, the end of the Year of the Pig and the start of the Year of the Rat.

The above photo was taken from a book I own, The Practical Encyclopedia of Feng Shui by Gill Hale.  Our world, physical and spiritual, is composed of energy and feng shui deals with how energy flows in and through our lives.  Consequently I find some of the ancient principles of feng shui resonate with me, although I am not an ardent follower by any means.

The book has this to say about the Year of the Rat:  “This is a lucky year, a good time to start a new venture.  The rewards will not come without hard work, but with careful planning they will arrive.”  Sounds good to me!

I have finished reading another book, this time Alice in Wonderland  and Alice Through the Looking Glass, both by Lewis Carroll.  This unabridged book has both stories, plus a few poems and other writings.  

I have not read the unabridged version of Alice before, but most of the tales were familiar and it was easy to read.  I struggled though with Through the Looking Glass, as it seemed to take the nonsense level up another level and then tie it in with a game of chess – and I am not a fan of chess!

It looks like we are in for a heat wave over the next week or two.  The farms around here are already browning off, some more than others, and some areas of the country are looking at being declared drought areas.

At home, we are being invaded by house flies, not being helped by having cattle in the field behind us.  However, I did enjoy watching this bumble bee visiting my snapdragons the other day.

I hope the Year of the Rat will be a pleasant and happy and successful one for you all,

Margaret.