Critters from the Week

I have not been outside as much as I'd like lately, but have gone out with my camera a few times.  On Tuesday, when I was taking photos for Bloomin' Tuesday and Wildlife Wednesday, I also saw some critters to photograph for Misty Dawn's Camera Critters.  The link is in my sidebar.

(I want to thank Adrienne of Ohio for letting me know this is an ailanthus moth.)

I'm not sure what these are in the milkweed.

This rabbit was eating the lettuce that I left for them, too bitter for me, but hoping they'd eat it instead of my beans and such.

When it saw me, it went to the fence and munched on the grass I had just pulled.  I felt like it was trying to act innocent.  After taking a video and a bunch of photos, I went over to it and said I was not fooled, and chased it out, until next time.

I just missed getting a photo of the adult robin putting food into the young one's mouth.  It looks big enough to me to be getting food on its own, but I'm not the parent.

I was pleased to see the monarch eating on the strawflowers.

Thursday, as I was taking photos for Flaunt your Flowers, I found more critters.   I hadn't seen many butterflies on the lantana this year, but sure have enjoyed the blooms.  I like that geranium and the purple verbena blooms with them, too.  I was please with getting 3 different positions of the monarch.

The doves sure like to watch things from up high.

The squirrels sure are cute, but I still don't call them friends.

I'm thinking this is a skipper of some kind, but the wings look different than the ones I see most often.

I didn't leave as many captions as usual, because our grandson woke up from his nap, and we are going to take him to my parents' house.  I really need to be doing shorter posts.  I hope to reign myself in soon.

Some Nice Surprises for Friday's Post

I had been feeling sad that the daylilies and some other flowers were about finished blooming for the season, and was thinking the flower beds were going to be lacking in color until the fall flowers bloom.  Over the last few days, I have found plenty of summer blooms opening up to show for Tootsie's Flaunt your Flowers/Fertilizer Friday.

The 'Gateway' Joe Pye weed  and 'Orange Perfection' phlox have joined the hibiscus, coneflowers, and such.

I have been wondering if my 2 surprise lilies were going to bloom this year.  The foliage came up the last two springs, but they didn't bloom last year.  I was very tickled to see a bloom stalk coming up a couple days ago.  I had to move a few things around to find the other one, because I had covered it with a pot.  It seems to be recovering fine.

I didn't think this 'Cherry Blossom Magic Fountains' delphinium would bloom this year.  It's less than a foot tall.  It's a nice surprise to see.

The 'Ruby Tuesday' helenium is blooming much later than the one I think is 'Mardi Gras'.   I just noticed these blooms today. 

Another nice surprise is the delphinium that got so tall this summer, is now blooming again, only shorter.

See?

Kiss me over the garden gate is blooming shorter and later than last year. By the end of the summer, I have a feeling it will be much taller.  I remember it still grows while it's blooming.

My neighbor's celosias are huge and blooming.  These, that I planted from her saved seed last year, and then seeded themselves, finally decided to come up.  What a surprise!  I wonder if they will bloom before summer is over.  I need to move them, because they are right by the small delphinium, and this recently planted lavender.

We're leaving the main front yard bed.  I was able to get a better photo of the skullcap, that I showed in my Wildflower Wednesday post, that's in the curb bed.

This 'Black Night' butterfly bush I planted near the sidewalk on the west edge of the yard, next to the wash tubs last year, is a bit spindly, but the blooms opened a day or two ago.

I almost didn't notice the little bellflowers have opened.  I think they are 'Blue Clips'.   I love the  rudbeckia.  I'll have to see if I have the tag somewhere.  We still haven't sunk the tub so the bear's breetches don't spread too far.

Tootsie told us she was going to do something different this week.  I see she posted photos from a gardener who doesn't blog.  It looks to be a nice place.  I need to go back and look more closely.

I am needing to limit my computer time somewhat because of jaw pain, which seems to be affected when I use the muscles on my right side.  I am finding that sitting where I can lean back helps.  I  hope to visit the Friday posts after catching up from my last post.

Have a great weekend!

Wildish Flowers

I get a bit confused on what flowers are wild.  I looked some of these up to be sure.  I love mixing annuals, perennials, herbs, wild, and some native plants in my flower beds.  I am linking these photos up with Jean's Bloomin' Tuesday, and Gail's once month Wildflower Wednesday.

I just looked it up, and found that this 'Gateway' Joe Pye weed is a cultivar, and is shorter and bushier than the wild flower.  I just planted it in the spring.  I'll have to watch to see if bees or butterflies like it.  (That's the 'Orange Perfection'  phlox to the right.)

There were Queen Anne's lace seedlings all over the front yard bed.  I dug out most of them.  I didn't think the ones I left would get big enough to bloom this year, but one is blooming at about a foot tall.

These are the coneflowers that were 'White Swan' about 12 years ago, but are now purple.  An agasache is next to them.

I normally deadhead the narrow leaved coneflowers, but experimented with keeping them for the birds to eat, and to see if they reseed themselves.

The rattlesnake master is still looking good near it's less wild neighbors, love lies bleeding and hibiscus.

The sea hollies are almost finished, but looking OK at this point.

I couldn't get a good photo of the skullcap, 'Mongolian Skies'.  It's just beginning to bloom, and is one of my favorites.

Most of the liatris are finished blooming.  The milkweed is not blooming yet, partly because I cut it back.

I don't know why I just discovered ironweed this season, but I'm glad I found 2 kinds.  I am tickled this one has buds on it.

This butterfly milkweed is full of blooms.  The one I showed awhile back with a caterpillar died, but not from the caterpillar eating it.

I love short toothed mountain mint.  It was looking to be a spreader, but by picking up the stems where they have fallen down, the spreading is prevented, (so far).

You may have to look close to see that there are 2 kinds of tall yellow flowers.

The taller, closer to the house, are rudbeckia, 'Herbstonne'.

The ones in front of them are gray headed coneflowers.

I like this shorter liatris. The black eyed Susans are at their prime.  The amsonia 'Hubrichtii' foliage is looking good.

The anise hyssop, both an herb and a wildflower, has been blooming a few days.  These are volunteers.  I had to pull some out so there wouldn't be too many.

The amsonia 'Tabernaemontana', that I cut back shortly after it bloomed, has grown and gotten leggy.  I'll probably trim it back again.  The false sunflower is tall like it was last year, and the baptisia has nice dark seedpods.  Some years I cut it back, but lately, haven't been.

I didn't get many globe thistles cut to dry because there have been so many bees on them.    The milkweed in front of the globe thistle is 'Hello Yellow'.  The goldenrod is one that I bought for my father-in-law around 18 years ago.  This division survived being moved from the side of the shed to protect it from the work that was to be done on the shed.  I cut it back early in the summer so it would be bushy and not bloom too soon.

I missed the prime bloom time for the lead plant.  Every year, I say I'm going to find out when to pick it to dry for tea.  I wonder if it's too late.

There area some wild petunias in the vegetable garden and in the back yard.

I don't know the name of this, but I'm thinking they are a rudbeckia of some kind.  I pull out a lot of seedlings some years, because I don't want it to take over.  This is the north side of the garage, so it's not full sun, but I think it prefers full sun.  That's white obedient plant between this and some sweet peas.

I deadheaded the butter and eggs after the first blooms, and they have a nice new set of flowers.

The rough goldenrod has buds.  I don't remember how long it held onto them last year before they opened.

I hope your week is going well.  I am not getting to garden as much the last week or so, because I am experiencing pain in my jaw that looks to be TMJD, from what I'm reading on the internet.  The pain seems to get worse when I am doing physical activities, like pulling weeds or hoeing.  My dentist referred me to a TMJ doctor to get a night splint for my jaw grinding, but I'm following some home care tips first to see if they help before making that appointment.  Even with insurance, it looks like it will be expensive.  Have any of you had jaw pain before?