From A Mountain Hollow

Sign of a Cold Winter?

2009-10-20T17:55:00.002-04:00

The berries on the dogwoods here in the hollow are plump and numerous this year. The people who use nature's signs for forecasting say this means a cold winter. Regardless of the temperature, I am sure the birds will be enjoying them. It's fun to watch a whole flock land in the trees at once. They can strip the berries in a matter of minutes.

Great Lobelia

2009-09-27T18:06:00.000-04:00

Just now getting around to posting this photograph I took a couple of weeks ago.

The roots of this member of the Bellflower family were on the creek bank, but the stem was overhanging the creek. I have never seen it in the hollow before, but according to my North American wildflower book, it can be found in the eastern part of the continent from Canada to Georgia. It blooms in lowland woods, meadows, and swamps in early fall.

A Brief Grackle Invasion

2009-08-25T16:15:00.000-04:00

Just came inside from watching a huge flock of grackles feeding in the yard. They do not often appear in the hollow. Although these are big, noisy, ugly birds, I have fond memories of them.

I lived in a small town before I moved to the hollow. Every spring, a large group of grackles came to the ravine next to my house to nest. The consumption of bird seed went way up. Fortunately, they left as soon as their fledglings were ready to travel. But it was worth the aggravation of their noise and appetite to see the fledglings' temper tantrums.

The parents stopped feeding the youngsters when they could fly. The young birds would come to the feeding area with their parents. When the parents wouldn't give them food, they would jump up and down while making an awful racket. The parent birds would occasionally poke something in their mouths to shut them up, but it didn't last for long. The young birds quickly learned that they would get more food if they picked it up themselves.

The Golden Hour

2009-08-21T16:47:00.001-04:00

If you like outdoor photography, you need to know about the "Golden Hour". This is the hour after sunrise and the hour before sunset when there is a certain glow to the natural light. It helps to create an excellent photograph.

Today I found an link on Lifehacker that led to a calculator for the onset of the golden hour in your location.

The calculator will probably be more accurate if you live in a flatter area than I do. We have long dawns and dusks down here in the hollow while the sun is shining in other places. But it will give you an idea.

One of the best photos I ever saw using this light was on a photo site where I used to spend a lot of time. A swan was splashing its wings in the water. The light picked up the water droplets and made them sparkle like jewels. Part of the swan was bathed in a golden light while the opposite side was in shadow. I tried to find it, but the photographer no longer has an album there.

Below are a couple of my photos taken during that magic time. I usually notice it more in the mornings because I am more likely to be outside then. The morning fogs we get over the hollow often mess this up. The glow doesn't last long down here in our hole.

Notice that the light comes from the side. This is because the sun is so low in the sky.

Taken in the morning: A bloodroot blossom, an early spring wildflower

Taken in late afternoon: Marigolds backed by scarlet sage (salvia)

My Funny Cats

2009-08-19T17:28:00.001-04:00

When I went out to get the mail today, the cats were not in their usual places on the porch. I noticed it had been raining and knew immediately that it must have thundered, although I hadn't heard it inside.

The minute they hear thunder, even very distant thunder, they hide under the chair I have covered to keep the cushion clean and dry. If it only rains, they keep on sleeping in the usual places. Do they really think that cover is going to protect them from lightning and thunder?

More Bits and Pieces

2009-08-15T16:18:00.001-04:00

The weather is better today. The temperature is back in the 80s and the humidity is a bit lower. Mowing was a more unpleasant task than usual this week. The humidity does me in quickly. I took three days to mow the front yard this week instead of my usual two. I finished the front and did a bit of the back this morning. Just the side and the rest of the back to go. But that will hold until Monday.

The water is running on the flower beds. We are having very hit-or-miss thunderstorms. They have missed the hollow every time this week. However, this is only the second time I have watered this summer.

Early Sunday morning is my time to deadhead the flowers and pull weeds. I love that time outside because it is so quiet. I can listen to the birds and the creeks. The neighbors are not leaving for work, so it is rare that even a car comes by to disturb the quiet. For me, this is better than a church anytime. Several years ago I wrote about this after spending a spring Sunday outside. I used the form of a church bulletin. It was a coding exercise for an XHTML/CSS class.

I decided to junk the digital scrapbooking materials subdomain of my website. I hadn't added anything to it in a couple of years because uploading on my pokey dialup was such a pain. I considered revamping it and adding new stuff with my faster connection, but I just wasn't inspired to create kits. When I scrap, I start with the pictures and design papers and elements to fit them. To heck with designing for someone else who can't even be bothered to say thank you. I had a couple dozen comments after thousands of downloads.

I finished Miss Julia Hits the Road last night. This is a book in the series by Ann B. Ross that I wrote about a few weeks ago. It is laugh-out-loud funny. Image a group of "women of quality", aka straight-laced and of a certain age (sixtyish), putting on pants and riding motorcycles. The mystery in this book is even thinner than usual, and not a dead body in sight. All the same, it was a fun read.

Bits and Pieces on a Hot Day

2009-08-10T11:30:00.005-04:00

It's HOT! It is still morning as I write this. The temperature is already in the low 90s. Tonight's temps are supposed to be in the 70s. I was going to run some errands. Since they don't have to be done today, I changed my mind after I walked to the mailbox. Instead, I will enjoy the cool AC and the ceiling fan. Some icy cherry lemonade sits close by.

I saw one male tiger swallowtail on my walk to the mailbox. I hope he finds a female out there somewhere.

The buck struck the flowers once again. This time he ate the black-eyed susans (Rudbeckia), leaves and all. This is the first time in 10 years that they have been eaten. The leaves and stems are fuzzy, which usually discourages the deer. But not this guy. I passed him grazing in a patch of kudzu down along the highway as I went out a couple of days ago. He made eye contact with me and just kept chewing. I wish he would make that his permanent dining area. There is certainly enough kudzu to supply him for the rest of the summer. Unfortunately, he likes variety in his diet.

Goldfinger was in my Netflix queue recently. I can remember seeing it in the theater when it first came out. All the techy stuff seemed farfetched then. In the rewatching, it seemed kind of tame. I did enjoy Sean Connery, who will always be Bond to me. (I was a senior in high school when Goldfinger came out. It is an oldy.)

The new search engine, Bing, from Microsoft is turning up more and more in my blog statistics. Google still leads, but Microsoft may finally have something. I have even used it myself a few times.

Internet over the powerlines seems to have a problem when there is a heavy demand for electricity on a very hot day. I am only guessing at this from my experience the last two days. I couldn't connect yesterday during the hottest part of the day, but things were zipping along last night and early this morning. I couldn't connect again for this session. I am using dial-up. I guess the lines just can't carry all of it. But given a choice, today I will gladly give up the faster internet connection if it means keeping the electricity to run my AC.

If you are in the sweltering southeastern US today, keep cool!

A Strange Summer

2009-08-07T16:45:00.003-04:00

The weather this summer has been really strange. Normally, our summer weather begins by the first of June. Occasionally, the cooler, low-humidity weather might last through part of June, but this year it lasted until mid-July. And we have had real rainy days, not just scattered, hit-or-miss thunderstorms.

The nights were especially cool with temperatures in the 50s, about 10 degrees cooler than normal. Now I really liked this for myself since I could cut off the AC and open a window. I hate sleeping in AC which makes my legs ache, but I can't sleep at all if I am hot. It was also great for early morning work in the yard. But nights that cool are not very good for gardens.

The last couple of weeks have been more normal with nights in the mid-60s and days around 85°. But last night and today have been back to the cooler weather. It was great sleeping last night.

The temperatures for next week are going in the wrong direction. The forecast is for days in the 90s and nights in the 70s. The 90 degree days aren't great, but nights and early mornings are miserable with temps in the 70s. If it is that hot, it will also be muggy. The grass may not get mowed. I was never good with humidity, but I find it is getting worse as I get older. I am hoping for an early fall!

What Is a Mountain Hollow?

2009-08-02T20:45:00.007-04:00

This question pops up in the search statistics for my blog nearly every week. I don't know if it is from students trying to find out information for a report or from people for whom English is not the first language. But for whatever reason, I decided to give them an answer.

The mountains in the eastern portion of the United States were created in folds. They are old mountains that have been worn down by glaciers during the Ice Age and by rivers, streams, and the other forces of nature. These natural forces created or widened spaces between the folds.

In an aerial view, the mountains look much like the scrunched piece of cloth below. Notice that some of the lower areas are wide, while others are narrow. In the mountains the wider spaces between the peaks are called valleys. In this region of the US, the narrow valleys are called hollows or coves.

The photograph below was taken from an overlook on Interstate 64, near the top of Afton Mountain. You can see the wide valley below. On the far side of the valley, you will see a fold of a small mountain. There is a more narrow space between that fold and the main portion of the mountain. This is a mountain hollow.

There is probably a fast-moving creek in that hollow that will eventually join the river that meanders through the valley. If the hollow is wide enough, there is likely a narrow road and a few houses.

Sometimes, there is not a lot of flat land for building, but people have been finding a way since they started moving into these mountains during the colonial period. The first European settlers moved into this area in the early 1700's. Below is a house that is definitely "down in the hollow".

The next image was cropped from Google Earth. My house is the one circled in red. Number 1 is the entrance to my hollow from the highway. It is ¼ mile from that point to my house. The land is rising on both sides of this road. The house at number 2 has no back yard. The builders dug out the bank in order to have room to place the house. In case you are wondering what that wider ribbon of light brown is behind the house, it is the cleared area under the power lines.

The thin, dark green line that parallels the road on the left side is a creek which eventually joins the river on the other side of the highway. There is a high hill on the right side of the road. Where the road appears to widen a bit just past my house is the turnoff to the road I live on. The road goes downhill until it flattens out in front of the house. As soon as it passes my driveway, the road starts to climb again. I am literally at the bottom of the hollow.

On the left side of my house is another creek. On the other side of the creek the land goes almost straight up. This hill, which is actually is a bottom fold of the mountain, is the reason I can't get TV reception. House number 3 is over the crest of the hill and is not visible from my yard. The white arrow points to the driveway for that house. I am sure glad I don't have to drive it. The blue arrow points to a ravine, a very deep and steep valley.

There is another fold of the mountain across the road from my house. The road climbs up along the side of that fold. It is a steep, twisting climb to house number 4. The road continues on up to the top of the mountain. It gets more narrow as it gets higher. There is no room to pass another car and one side drops off into a steep ravine. Scary!

(You can see the road climbing up the mountainside from the window next to my computer during the winter. I must have deleted the photo I had of it. I will take another after the leaves have fallen and add it to this post.)

Just a little southern mountain dialect...

Here in the South, many people pronounce "hollow" as "holler". This is particularly true of older rural residents. As a child, I went "up the holler" with my grandparents to visit my great-grandfather.

Dayflower

2009-07-27T11:16:00.004-04:00

This tiny blue wildflower is called a dayflower. It blooms early in the morning and is gone by the end of the day. There will be another bloom the next day...unless a deer eats the bud. There is never more than one bloom a day.

The deer have been eating a lot of buds lately. This includes the ones in my flowerbeds as well as the wildflowers. They are not eating the leaves, just chomping on the blooms. Grr!

Somebody up on the hill was shooting a gun yesterday. I'm guessing they were trying to save their garden. The buck that does so much damage in my yard was down here not too long after I heard the shooting. I saw him through the window. So without letting him see me, I quietly opened the front door and then slammed it as hard as I could. He took off over another hill. I hope that keeps him away for a while, but I doubt it.

I did see two skippers on the zinnias while I was out this morning. They are the first ones that I have seen this year. In case you are not familiar with this little butterfly, here is a recycled photo from August, 2005, showing one on a marigold bloom.

Historical Mystery Series: Maisie Dobbs

2009-07-25T16:03:00.003-04:00

I have discovered another historical mystery series set in England during the period between the World Wars. The protagonist of this series written by Jacqueline Winspear is Maisie Dobbs, Psychologist and Investigator. There are flashbacks to earlier days, but the main story line begins in the late 1920's and continues into the 1930's.

After her mother's death, Maisie enters service where she is discovered sneaking into the library to read at night. Her employer recognizes Maisie's intelligence and thirst for knowledge and arranges for her to be tutored. She eventually qualifies for Girton College, Cambridge. But the Great War has begun. A very young Maisie leaves school to serve as a nurse in France.

After the war, Maisie returns to college and does further training at the Department of Legal Medicine in Edinburgh. Maisie, whose grandmother was a gypsy, has also been taught by her mentor and others how to use her psychic skills.

Like others returning from the war, Maisie has to deal with her memories. She is also living during a time when the role of women is beginning to change. Now that her mentor has retired, Maisie runs her own business.

I have read several books in the series. Each one has had a well-developed mystery. There are also some interesting supporting characters that continue from book to book. I would suggest that you start with the first book in the series, Maisie Dobbs, in order to better understand the complexities of Maisie's character.

Finally, A Faster Connection

2009-07-22T12:15:00.002-04:00

I have had a post in mind for the last couple of days, but I have been too busy exploring Google Earth to write it. I know this piece of software is not new to most of you, but I finally have an internet connection fast enough to use it.

Due to living in a hole, aka the bottom of a mountain hollow, I have been stuck with a very slow dial-up connection until the last week. I now connect over the powerlines. This is offered by IBEC with the cooperation of our rural electric cooperative. It has been a long time coming. After a lot of delays, it is finally working.

Compared to what many of you have in urban areas, the speed is not great. But it is about 10 times faster than what I had. As an example, I downloaded a 55 MB Photoshop brush file the other day. It took about 45 minutes. With my dial-up connection, it would have taken about 5½ hours.

This may not be all to the good, however. I see myself spending a lot of time doing things on the web that I couldn't do with the slow connection. Besides Google Earth, there is YouTube. Until the novelty wears off, I will probably be spending way too much time in this chair being basically unproductive. Oh, well, I am retired!

Fight, Fight

2009-07-22T11:43:00.003-04:00

Came across this funny article, "Bird-world brawl like schoolhouse fight", as I was reading a local newspaper this morning. I don't know how long they keep articles in their archives, but it's there for now.

Take a Break!

2009-07-18T16:45:00.003-04:00

There is an interesting post at zenhabits about taking breaks from your work to make yourself more productive. It makes sense to me.

My dad worked long hours as a food service manager in a hotel. He had the use of a small room in the hotel where he would go for a nap every afternoon. He could be reached by phone if there was an emergency and he usually left a message to call him if he was not back by a certain time. But it was rarely necessary to call him. If he planned on a 30 minute nap, he woke up after 30 minutes. That always amazed me. He continued to take what we now call "power naps" even after he retired.

For myself, I take work breaks when I am working here at the computer for another reason. I can lose all track of time, especially if I am doing graphics work. Several hours can pass before I know it. These days, if I sit that long, I can hardly walk when I do finally get up.

I set the stove timer for 45 minutes. The timer is very annoying, so I will at least walk to the kitchen to reset it. Most often I reset it for 15 minutes and try to do something active to limber up the muscles and joints: vacuum, load the washer, clean off the porches, etc. You can really get a lot done in 15 minutes. Then I start the 45/15 minute cycle again.

I do sometimes take 30 minute power naps. Unlike my dad, I have to set the alarm. Otherwise, I am going to sleep two or three hours before I wake up. I do try not to take long naps because I get myself on a cycle of staying up too late. If I sleep in the next morning, I never really get going and drag around all day. If I am going to accomplish anything during the day, I need to get an early start.

Welcome to TGB Readers

2009-07-17T13:03:00.003-04:00

A belated welcome to the readers of Time Goes By who followed Ronni's link from her Featured ElderBlog list.

I just realized today, after checking my blog stats, that something must be going on. I frequently get a visitor or two referred from TGB, but not so many as this week.

I hope you find something of interest here in the hollow.

Ann B. Ross's Miss Julia

2009-07-16T17:48:00.002-04:00

Looking for a read with lots of laughs? Then you need to find the Miss Julia series by Ann B. Ross.

Several years ago, I needed an audio CD for my commute. The library's choice was limited that day, so I ended up with a Miss Julia book. It started out kind of slow, but I was soon hooked. I had to go back and find the first book in the series to see how it all started out.

Julia Springer was a proper Southern wife for over 40 years to the late Wesley Lloyd Springer, a banker in fictional Abbotsville, North Carolina. Just as Miss Julia is beginning to enjoy the freedom of being the wealthy widow of a tyrannical husband, she discovers that her husband was not the pious pillar of the community everyone thought him to be. His mistress, Hazel Marie, and his son, Little Lloyd, show up on her doorstep. Miss Julia had not know about either of them. (The title "Miss" is a Southern custom in some areas.)

Miss Julia, who never had children of her own, is quickly won over by Little Lloyd. Hazel Marie and Little Lloyd move in with Miss Julia and they soon are a family. They are joined in their adventures by Lillian, Miss Julia's friend and housekeeper, J.D. Pickens, a private investigator who becomes Hazel Marie's boyfriend, and lawyer Sam Murdoch who eventually becomes the new love in Miss Julia's life. There are also many zany citizens of the town who are recurring characters in the stories.

Believe it or not, this is a mystery series. It is the coziest of cozies. If you like your mysteries full of blood and gore, give this series a skip. The "mystery" often plays a second fiddle to the family story. But if you like to laugh, give it a try.

Updates on Mother Nature in the Hollow

2009-07-15T14:30:00.004-04:00

The yellow jacket vs. human battle continues.

I killed nests three and four so far this week. Both were discovered as I was doing my mowing for the week. On Monday morning I missed hitting a nest with the lawn mower wheels by about two inches. On my way around the next lap, I saw them swarming. Yesterday, I was mowing beside the rocks that line the driveway. The vibrations were enough to stir up a nest which had an entrance down beside one of the rocks.

This morning I mowed the last of the yard. I had to mow along the edge of the woods, a place where I have encountered nests in previous years. It was like mowing a through a mine field. It was a relief to finish without finding another nest.

Even though I did not get stung, my hands have suffered. I had to stop tying down the control lever for my power drive on the mower. My only defense if I make a direct hit on a nest is to give the mower a hard shove with the hope that the yellow jackets follow the mower instead of coming after me. With the power drive tied down, it would keep on going unless it hit an incline. I don't need my mower making a six-foot drop into the creek or cutting a swath though a flower bed. So I was more than a bit tingly after mowing the last couple of days.

There is still at least one more nest somewhere. I saw some workers around today. Hopefully, they are well over in the woods where I won't be going until winter weather kills them off.

No Butterflies

...and no moths either. Having gone outside after dark the last two nights, I realized that there are hardly any moths and other night insects. I am guessing that their egg and larva stages were washed away in the heavy rains, too.

Usually, by this time of the summer, it is impossible to go in or out of the door at night without letting insects in. They are attracted to the light through the glass doors even if the outside light is not on. But they are not there this year. Unfortunately, the mosquito population is doing well. The damp weather has been perfect for them.

Returning from the mailbox earlier, I stopped by to check my flowers. I saw one butterfly and a few small bees. It is a sunny day in mid-July. There should be butterflies and bumblebees all over the flowers by now.

Close the Dessert Bar!

Someone put out the free dessert sign in one of my flowerbeds the other night. The deer helped themselves. Two of my pentas that I just planted last week were hit hard. All the blooms and buds are gone, but the plants still live. They tried the vinca, but spit it out.

The deer are in my yard every night and, much too often, in the daytime, too. They cross the creek here on their way up the hollow, stopping to graze along the way. They mainly eat along the edge of the woods. But they sometimes help themselves to things in the yard, especially in the area between the creek and the driveway.

Many of my plants are supposed to be deer resistant. But someone forgot to tell the deer. Actually, they don't bother them much except when they are newly planted or have new growth. They ate about two-thirds of a large piece of blue salvia when it was putting out new leaves this spring. And they will try stuff like the vinca and decide they don't like it.

The pentas I planted knowing they might get eaten, but they were so pretty. The butterflies and bees like them. The others are in the bed on the other side of the driveway. I can only hope the deer don't find them.

Speaking of deer, I just saw a young buck run up through the yard. Wonder if he found that other nest of yellow jackets? He was sure in a hurry.

Too Much Smoothing!

2009-07-13T09:54:00.001-04:00

Has the world of advertising gone crazy? Nearly every face I am seeing in ads has been photoshopped beyond what is reasonable. It's not just the older faces. The faces of younger models and actors, male and female, have been taken to absolute smoothness. Not a pore or a tiny wrinkle to be seen. The faces don't look real because along with the pores and wrinkles, they took character. The faces look like masks made of something besides skin.

Advertisers have already created the image of a body size and shape which is unreachable for most people. Now they are adding faces to the mix. As a teenager, I studied the faces of models in magazines to see how they did their makeup. I always envied that their skin was zit free. If today's teenage girls keep seeing absolutely smooth faces, what will they want their faces to look like.

If you are over the age of puberty, you are going to have noticeable pores and tiny wrinkles. Your skin cannot function without pores. And lines give a face some character. I certainly wouldn't want to be in a world where everyone looks like they are wearing a mask.

Interpreting PS for PSP Users: Inner Glow

2009-07-11T10:45:00.000-04:00

There are lots of digital scrapping tutorials on the web, but the majority of them are for Photoshop or Photoshop Elements. If you know Paint Shop Pro well, it is fairly easy to figure out how to create the same results in PSP.

But there are a few styles mentioned in the tutorials that are very subtle. I could never figure them out from looking at the pictures in the tutorials. Now that I have Photoshop, I easily see how these styles can be created in PSP. So I am writing some tutorials that will explain these PS styles and how they can be reproduced using the effects in PSP.

This is the second of a series of three tutorials on the “inner” styles or effects.

There is no effect in Paint Shop Pro called inner glow. However, we can use the cutout effect to create the same results. Cutout is one of the 3D effects in the dropdown menu with the drop shadow. If you are not familiar with the cutout effect, you can read about it in more detail in Part 1 – Inner Shadow.

The basic difference in creating an inner glow instead of an inner shadow is the color you use for your shadow/glow. The default color for the inner glow in Photoshop is a pale yellow (#ffffbe) with the screen blend mode.

Making an Inner Glow in PSP

First, create your image. This image can have a texture or pattern if you want.

Next, duplicate the image. (Layers, Duplicate or right-click on the layer and choose Duplicate.)

Then, link the two layers so that if you move one layer, the other layer will go with it. Do this by clicking on the area circled in red on one layer to change it to a number. Then activate the other layer (s) to be linked and change “None” to the same number. You must use the move tool to move the layers. The pick tool (deform tool in earlier versions) will move them separately. The chain link will show beside layers that are linked. (See below.)

With the copied layer as the active layer, apply the cutout effect.

Be sure the “Fill interior with color” is unchecked.

The color in this image is the same pale yellow that is used in Photoshop.

Both offsets are set to zero which makes the glow go all around the hexagon.

You can change the blend mode and opacity of the glow because it is on its own layer. Here I used the screen blend mode because it is the one used in Photoshop.

If you are satisfied with the glow, activate the glow layer and merge down to join the two layers.

To create a wider glow, alter the blur setting. You may also want to change the opacity.

The blend mode of the glow layer was changed to screen in this example.

Experiment with changing the glow color and using different blend modes. Changing the offset settings will determine the location of the glow.

Other Kinds of Inner Glow

The inner glow styles that were used above are creating the glow from the edge of the image. The Photoshop inner glow style also allows you to create the glow from the center. It also has contours that you can use to change the glow. This can create some interesting effects. They are a bit more difficult to recreate in Paint Shop Pro, but not impossible.

I have worked up a few examples of what the center setting and added contours can create in Photoshop and how I recreated a similar image in Paint Shop Pro. The recreated images are not exact, but close.

I did not spend a lot of time on these and might have done better, especially on the star. But I think you can see that it is possible to create just about anything you can do in Photoshop in Paint Shop Pro.

PDF Version

Gloomy, but Productive

2009-07-10T20:43:00.000-04:00

Today did not get off to a very good start. I got dressed to work in the yard as soon as I got up this morning. It was not very light down here in the hollow, but it was still early. It is usually after seven before some actual sunlight reaches us. I made the bed and checked my email before I noticed that it was getting darker instead of lighter.

When I looked outside, it was obvious that it had rained overnight. Everything was soaked. It looked like it was going to rain again. It was definitely not a good morning for mowing grass. (Yeah, I am always glad for a legitimate excuse not to mow!)

It never did more than drizzle a little, but it was gloomy all day. That does nothing for my mood. I do better if it is actually raining.

I decided to see if I could finish my inner glow tutorial. I still had several illustrations to create. I spent the whole morning working with inner glow. It always amazes me how much I learn myself when I am trying to teach something to others.

I actually got the tut finished. I did the blogger draft this evening. I still need to convert my Word doc to a PDF. I want to read the tutorial over tomorrow to make sure there are no bloopers. If everything is okay, it should get published tomorrow morning.

Battling Mother Nature

2009-07-06T17:30:00.000-04:00

Most of the time Mother Nature and I get along well. I respect other creatures and try not to hurt them or their habitat. I even find some of her more yucky processes interesting. But I am not willing to get stung by a yellow jacket.

I found the first nest last Friday morning. I started out to my flowerbed with several plants I had picked up on Thursday. A couple of yellow jackets flew out of the nest and nearly got me in the face. They weren't aiming for me, just popped up out of the nest the way they do and nearly collided with me. They didn't attack, thankfully, but went on about their foraging.

The strange thing is I had walked right by that spot repeatedly Thursday evening while unloading groceries, etc. and saw nothing. It was only a few inches from my stepping stones. Friday morning must have been the first day the newly hatched workers were out on the job.

Almost the same thing happened this afternoon as I came back from the mailbox. This second nest is on the other side of the yard. I mowed there Saturday morning. If they had been there then, they would definitely have let me know when I mowed over the nest. The queen may have been down in there laying eggs, but the ones that defend the nest must have not been old enough to respond. I have no idea how long the eggs take to hatch out.

Anyway, I will be up late tonight in my homemade HAZMAT suit...or maybe it should be called a hazardous insect suit: jeans with long johns underneath, two pairs of socks, rubberbands around the jeans legs so they can't crawl up, a long-sleeved denim shirt belted so they can't crawl up, and my rain slicker with the sleeves as tight as I can get them, and the hood up with the drawstrings pulled tight, and rubber gloves. I know this may seem overdone, but their bites hurt for days. And they will go after a light at night. I will need the flashlight tonight because this nest is near the road. I do have it marked with some sticks, but I have to find the sticks.

In case you are not familiar with yellow jackets, they are a type of paper wasp that usually builds the nest underground. In the spring the queen finds a little hole in the ground, crawls in, and starts to work. Below is a photo of a worker emerging from the nest. It was taken several years ago using the zoom lens.

(To see a larger view, click on the photo. But please DO NOT DIRECT LINK to my photographs. If you want it, please save it to your own computer.)

I watched that nest for about an hour through the lens. It was really interesting how they go in and out in waves, sort of like planes take off from an aircraft carrier. When they go back down in the nest, they hover over the nest and then just drop. But as interesting as they are, I am NOT sharing the yard with them.

There was also a battle with some ants on Friday morning. Normally ants don't bother me as long as they aren't in the house. But these were not letting me get on with what I wanted to do.

I have a couple of rocks that stick up out of the ground which are close enough together that I don't have room to mow between them. Weeds grow there very well, but I wanted something a bit nicer. When I started digging up the weeds between the rocks to plant a piece of sedum, I disturbed an egg chamber of some very tiny black ants.

As I kept digging, I kept finding more. They must have been all around that rock. The call went out and soon there were hundreds of little black ants crawling everywhere. And they started biting. I knew I was never going to get the plant there unless I took drastic measures. I brought out my WMD, boiling water. It tooks six pots full of boiling water to stop them swarming. Of course, by then, the ground was soaked and steaming.

I didn't get my plant in the ground until Saturday morning. I hit another egg chamber when I pulled out the last of the weeds, but at least, no more water was needed. I know the ant colony will recover, but I still felt bad when I saw the hundreds of little dead ants in the hole.

No Butterflies

2009-07-06T12:05:00.000-04:00

As I was walking back from the mailbox just now, I saw a bumblebee moth working the petunias, the first I have seen this year. A few bumblebees were also around, but the absence of butterflies is noticeable.

I have a feeling our long rainy spell in May and early June washed away the eggs and/or caterpillars. I did see a few swallowtails early before the weeks of rain started, but I have not seen a single one since.

Actually, there are few flying insects of any kind working the flowers. But the zinnias, their favorites, are just now beginning to bloom. Hopefully, the insects have just been busy somewhere else and will be here soon.

The Parents' Role in Education

2009-06-30T10:50:00.000-04:00

I was working on my never-ending decluttering project yesterday. I know these are inanimate objects, but I think they secretly breed. I am making progress. Getting rid of all the work-related stuff I had for my former part-time job helped a lot. I got a closet back for my own use.

Now for the point of this post...

I came across a hard copy of an old article, "Parents Have Homework, Too", written by Sybil Humphries. Ms. Humphries, a veteran teacher, emphasizes the important role that parents have in their children's education. It is still online at Teachnet. Even though the article is ten years old, her message is timeless. Parental participation in the education process is essential if children are to get the maximum value from their school years.

Giving My Hands a Rest

2009-06-29T11:15:00.000-04:00

I've had a delay getting back to my blog due to a carpal tunnel problem aggravated by all the yard work I have been doing lately. Mowing is the biggest aggravation. The numbness spreads from my hand all the way up to the elbow. The right hand is worse because of holding the lever that keeps the power drive on the front wheels running. I finally resorted to holding it down with a velcro strip, but that defeats the automatic shutoff, which isn't really safe. It does, however, allow me to wear a brace on my wrist and keeps me mowing a bit longer.

Years ago I taught myself to mouse with my left hand by playing solitaire. I used to have a problem with my wrist every spring when I was trying to plant and finish up all the end of the year paper work at the same time. Simple websurfing can be done left-handed, but I can't do my graphics work. I am just not accurate enough.

I bought some newer braces for my wrists to wear at night. I was waking up with numb hands every morning before I started using them. The older brace allows more flexibility, so it works well when mowing. The newer ones have a larger hard piece that goes into the palm of the hand, so holding anything while wearing them is basically impossible.

The planting is done, and except for a couple of spots, the mulching is also. I need to do a bit a pruning this week. Then mowing, weeding, and deadheading will be the major things to do the rest of the summer. Anything else on my gardening want-to-do list can be done on a more leisurely basis. So I should be able to ease myself back into the graphics work and finish up the tutorial series I was working on.

Yeah, I know...

2009-06-10T09:20:00.002-04:00

I have been neglecting my blog again. I intend to start posting more regularly soon. I have a half-finished tutorial to complete and post. But I have to finish planting my flowerbeds first.

I am woefully behind with my spring gardening. It has been raining frequently through the month of May and into June, leaving the soil very muddy. It is good that we are finally out of a drought and I don't have to worry about the well. But bedding plants don't do well if you plant them in mud. I have about finished the planting and mostly just need to mulch.

It is too wet to work in the beds this morning because of a thunderstorm last night. After really overdoing it the last couple of days, I was glad a wet morning allowed me to sleep late without guilt. I have been letting the inside cleaning go in order to work outside. So I have plenty to do inside.

It was funny yesterday afternoon when the thunder started in the distance. The cats couldn't decide which was worse: the thunder or the vacuum cleaner. Usually they want inside as soon as they hear any thunder, but yesterday they decided thunder was the lesser of two evils and stayed out on the porch.

I hope to have time for some photography soon. Early morning is my favorite time to take out the camera. Maybe a few pictures will be worthy of sharing. I saw a wonderful edging of dew on a plant a couple of weeks ago. Unfortunately, by the time I fetched the camera, the wind had gotten up enough to make the droplets of dew run together. Bummer!

Well, I am off to fight the dust bunnies. Yuck, I hate housework!