e_moon60 (e_moon60) wrote,
e_moon60
e_moon60

  • Mood:
  • Music:

Weather and other animals

As mentioned before, I meant to go out and take some pictures.   I knew it was sort of windy, but not that it was windy enough to make photography very difficult, even with a fast lens.   The idea, initially, was to photograph anything nectaring in the plum flowers, but the plum flowers were dancing in the wind.  Still, got a honeybee, a syrphid fly, a Henry's Elfin butterfly, and--new on the list but not desired--a spotted cucumber beetle.  They're quite pretty, if you don't know how they make a living: cutting off cucurbit-family seedlings at the ankles as they sprout, and also (in the larval stage) devouring the roots of corn plants.

I also chased (uselessly) a true bug of some kind--probably one of the innumerable stink bug/shield bugs--around and around a twig of plum, trying to get a picture of it so I could ID it later.   Some insects ignore the camera, and others are made very nervous by that large inquisitive eye, and hide out.   An orange sulphur butterfly also attempted to hide out, but I managed a shot good enough to confirm the ID.

The day went from pleasant to warm to downright hot (just over 90 degrees) with a strong south wind, quieted somewhat after dark, and then we were hit with the new cool front...very high, very dry wind roaring down out of the  NW.    A line of storms blew up southeast of us, where the Gulf airmass sits, but we have had nothing but strong winds and falling temperatures.  We should be in the forties by morning.  I'm glad I'd opened the house enough to make it over-warm in the afternoon (but over-warm with fresh air, not furnace air.)

I watched the eastern phoebe hunting today, but was never able to get a good picture of it.  The Eurasian ring-necked doves were back in the ash tree--they often stay there in the daytime, after the white-wings have left.  

Some writing got done, but most of the work time was spent on writing-related work: catching up with work-related emails, writing thank-yous to people from the trip, and (non-work-related) writing a longish letter to my cousin, who'd written to let me know that my aunt, now 99, is failing pretty rapidly.  The writing proper was an expansion of what I wrote on the trip.   It felt very clunky, because I was still tired, I think.  Finally gave up and took a short nap in the very warm afternoon.

Then for supper, I defrosted some lamb curry--wasn't sure how well it would freeze or defrost--made rice, and we discovered that the curry is indeed a freeze-worthy concoction.   So another large chunk of lamb will go in the oven in the morning.
Tags: country life, the writing life, weather
Subscribe

  • Interesting bug

    This afternoon I saw a treehopper (or some kind of hopper) on the kitchen window screen, so went outside to photograph it. The wind was very…

  • Crayfish/crawfish/crawdads

    I was afraid that we had lost our crayfish in the 5 year drought--they disappeared and did not return for well over a year when the drought ended.…

  • April Already?

    Yup, and the release of COLD WELCOME is April 11. Next week. Yeeps! For more about COLD WELCOME, visit the description (with cover!) on the…

  • Post a new comment

    Error

    default userpic

    Your reply will be screened

    Your IP address will be recorded 

    When you submit the form an invisible reCAPTCHA check will be performed.
    You must follow the Privacy Policy and Google Terms of use.
  • 2 comments