Developments

Our green pole beans are developing so fast, we could probably pick one mature one daily and cook it up and divide it between us for the rest of the summer.

Something evil has eaten the first layer of the area above the root of one of the two tomato plants in my backyard garden. The half grown tomatoes don't know the difference yet as the leaves turn limp and yellow.

I transplanted the chives which had gone absolutely bonkers. The little seedlings so frail and hairlike that I'd put in to hopefully survive took hold like gangbusters and their roots were massive. I had to dig a hole big enough to contain them in Tom's garden below. It's at the edge, and whether they survive or not is up to the god of the onions. As long as I have a little tubular leaf of chive to chop up on to the sour cream on my baked potato, I'll be happy.

The beets are doing fine, and we are going to have some more greens some evening with our entree'.

Thus garden life goes on. And mine drones on as well. Gotta go and collect the Japanese beetles to feed the fish in our little muddy pond.

Write later.

Cranberry Jo

POST MENOPAUSAL FROG

Wikipedia states the metaphor of the frog placed in water and slowly heated up to boiling... supposedly boiling to death without realizing it, is a "story is often used as a metaphor for the inability of people to react to important changes that occur gradually." But I'm about to blow the theory behind the metaphor. This morning when I was comfortably riding in the slightly air conditioned car, suddenly I had to turn the fan on high. It was urgent. I've felt this way before if standing in the sunshine on a hot day when suddenly I'll go from feeling comfortable to the feeling "I'M BOILING TO DEATH"... Which was the feeling I got this morning. I then told my husband how I now know that if you tried out that theory with a frog, when the frog got to the temperature in which it would feel just as I do during a "hot flash," it would do everything in its power to jump out of the water.

I'm blogging this because I think everyone who has experienced hot flashes would agree. When a woman has a hot flash, it's not just the feeling one gets when taking cookies out of the oven... We feel like the oven, and we feel a threatening need to cool off fast. So use another metaphor, believe me, that frog would hit the temperature I felt this morning. Now maybe any man who reads this will understand what we go through... And why the post-menopausal woman is more interested than anyone to stop Global Warming.

"Ribbit!!"

ANTS IN THE HUMMINGBIRD FEEDER



One forgets after the hummingbirds fly south for the winter that there is a problem of ants and wasps stealing the nectar. It therefore seemed logical to get the feeder with a suction cup that would attach to the door. Those half inch ants discovered it within days of its use. The year before, my hanging hummer feeder would have this problem. Too bad it took it happening again for me to remember. So... for last year's hanging one which was difficult to clean I had put petroleum jelly on the wire from which it hung. I think the determined ants managed to go through the gunk in quest for the nectar, and then used Vicks on the wire.

With the new one attached directly to the window, I thought of those rat traps with the sticky glue which is a cruel and horrible thing to do to any living creature, but I used a big triangle double stick tape on the glass around the new feeder with the same idea to dissuade or trap the ants. No dice. It didn't stop them one iota. So I slathered petroleum jelly on the tape... with the same failed results. Then I remembered the Vicks Vapor Rub,but knew swabbing it around feeder would use up the whole ounce of the expensive Rub, so I tried hanging this feeder like I had last years, and put the Vicks on the hanging wire. Those damned insects managed to get by the Vicks. Those who got too ambitious with the nectar were soon floating in the nectar, mucking it up. What to do? In this day and age, the answer is to "Google It Up!" I did, and saw what the experts did, and for a fee, plus tax, plus shipping, and the bother of it all, I could purchase a MOAT. A hummingbird feeder moat that eliminates the problem of the ants. With this new feeder, the wasps may come and take a drink, but aren't squeezing their bodies into the feeder polluting the thing, so they weren't a problem. Those wasp and bee catchers seem almost as bad as the sticky rat traps, only they starve to death or toast in the hot sun in their trap. So, with only my concern of the ants polluting the nectar, I went to the pages online and looked at what a moat looked like, and created one myself.



It seemed the perfect solution. For days we only saw the hummingbirds use the feeder. Then, this morning, I notice... THE DAMN ANTS... ONLY, this time it's those teeny, tiny ones. I swear that they must have swung across the mote on a cobweb to the outer edge, and wended their ways down the side, over the hook and wire to the feeder. I think they are so tiny that they can float on the surface tension of the water. But I checked the moat, and the water was low. Well... you have to keep water in it. So, I took it down, as it needed refilling; got rid of the ants and cobwebs; rinsed it out well, and refilled it with fresh nectar, hung it out, and a few hours later I saw ONE teeny tiny ant had somehow bridged the gap. They must be learning to swim. Well, it's cut down on their numbers, and could have been one that hid under the outside wires. Later I knew ...it must be my conclusion that they are floating across the moat. I'm including pictures. If you look really closely at the picture of the moat, you'll see one of the teeny ants on the wire that drops into the middle of the water. The photo of the whole business also reveals my reflection. I thought that an added touch.

I was listening to NPR one day when driving somewhere last month, and they were talking about the importance of insects for the whole environment. Trees get their leaves chewed by caterpillars; and the birds eat the caterpillars. The point was that we need a good variety of trees and plants that attract a variety of insects so that the insects will attract a larger variety of birds. I guess sometimes it can work in reverse. What you want to feed the birds, wants to be eaten [or drunk] by the insects. Who knows, maybe the hummingbirds like a little protein with their nectar.

HOW WET WAS IT

Here in NorthEast PA, the weatherman said the other day, "Out of the last 90 days, 61 have been rainy..." And the two days that followed were rainy.

I don't really mind the rain as much as the hot mugginess that follows once the summer sun shines through the magnifying misty cloud cover. On the paths in the woods, even if sprinkling rain, the trees serve as our umbrella. But when the dogs get wet, they can feel the benefits of the human's ability to sweat... they remain cool as long as their in the shade once the grass and mist have moistened their fur. Bear capitalizes on that any day by taking his swim. He must have something to swim after, and I'm running out of wood that has been hauled off the dam. Someone in charge must think that someone else is cleaning up that pile of branches. Bear will swim after the branch, but because of the rain, some are still a bit waterlogged, and he'll circle the area where he thinks I threw it, not being able to see enough of the branch above the water. I end up carefully throwing a rock to splash near the barely floating branch.

When we had approached the lake, nostalgia arouse in me, as it now smells a lot like low tide at the ocean. Like those who miss the rather sweet and fertilizing smell of the manure back on the farm where they were raised, I love all smells that remind me of my teen-age summers at Peakes Island in Casco Bay Maine. It's just the rotting leaves both in and around the lake and woods, and, though not a pleasant aroma, isn't a bad smell either.

Tom has become a Wizard when it comes to mowing the grass. Yesterday afternoon the rain had finally evaporated enough so the where it was most needed got mowed... followed about a half hour later by an impressively visible downpour that is, at 1p.m. the next day still needing to dry a bit before the next area of grass gets mowed. I don't see why he doesn't just make a field of it all, and have a farmer come in and cut the grass and plantain for his cows... that is if he could also find a patch of dry time long enough to cut, ted, and bale the stuff.

Plantain is the dastardly weed of the year. We'd apply Round-up if the weather wouldn't foul up our plans and wash it off right away. Last year it was bad also, but I was the only one who cared about the back lawn. This year Tom found a time in which to treat the front, and it does look great. Last year I would lift all the encircling leaves of each plant, pulling up what I could, each time I'd walk over that portion of lawn towards the path in the woods on one of my two walks a day. Like the fishermen used to cut up into pieces to get rid of starfish-robbers of shellfish, the starfish would grow anew from each piece tossed into the sea. I think it was a bit like that in where I pulled up last year's plantain. It now seems as if a circle of the weed grew where I had pulled it last year... much like the dandelion that will grow four plants wherever you pull one. So if we ever get a patch of good weather, we will be killing them with Round-up.

It's not that I'm complaining about the weather... Never seems to do any good anyway. But the weather on my path in the woods itself, doesn't seem to make much difference. It's lush and green as woods can be, with a canopy of leaves that lets little sun through. However, it's rare I see a newt this year. I love those little lizard like salamanders. They act tame, and one can safely pick them up and see a harmless wild thing up close. They are lovely little critters, but I became concerned when I hadn't seen ONE for more than a week. I've seen just a few within the last few days. According to Melissa Kaplan's Herp Care Collectionwhich I found online, Salamanders and Newts "Some apply the name "salamander" to the fully aquatic and fully terrestrial animals, while applying the name "newt" to those animals that live on land from late summer through winter, entering water to breed in the spring." I figured the poor critter which is born in the water, crawled out to land for a spell, and with all the rain, either lost the ability to breathe in the runoff waters, or got swept back into the brink.

For years I've been trying to get a good picture of a newt. I'll include the picture which is the best I've been able to achieve. I think you'll agree that these are as cute as the Geico Gecko:



Try to enjoy your summer no matter what the weather. Such is life!