Pride in zinnias

When I decided to plant seeds this year, I didn't really have a plan. I never tried growing anything from a seed...

My little labels got rubbed off in my mini greenhouse early on, prompting me to regard my experiment as "The Secret Garden," since I had no idea what anything was. All the seedlings looked alike and until they grew and had differentiating characteristics, I couldn't tell a cucumber from a sunflower.

The last plant to really give me clues to its identity was the zinnia. I didn't have much experience with zinnias anyway, so identifying one in its infancy was not happening.

But now they're in full bloom and they're the visual pride of my garden. The colors and sizes thrill me, and they're attracting the bees too! (My cucumbers hadn't been producing any fruit and I was worried, but I think the zinnias drew the bees towards my cucumbers because now I have a plethora of cucumbers-in-progress!.)

Return of the Bloginator

Okay, okay, okay. I am really bad at not having a blog. I'm still not sure I can maintain one with working full time, commuting, and the actual living of life... but I'm going to try. If I have any readers left, I guess I'll find out soon.

So in prior posts I was going on about my nature encounters. I think I'd still like to do that. Since I last posted, I've become obsessed with birds--field guides, binoculars, multiple bird feeders with multiple kinds of feed... and photos of as many birds as I can capture with my iPhone. Of course, I'll have nature encounters that don't include birds, and I plan to post those too. I grew my first garden this year, and it's been a bit crazy to keep up with, but I'm enjoying it. It's like one morning I washed my hands after watering my plants and discovered a green thumb attached to my own hand.

Nature won't be my only topic, though. I recently took up running and I'm quite passionate about it. There's something about the sport that drives me. I hope to make this a little bit of a diary about my running.

Unfortunately, writing about running means that I will also have to include some discussions of my asthma. Yes, what I thought was a childhood pulmonary pest has surfaced again and with vengeance. Currently I haven't run for a week and a half because my asthma has been so bad. I'm being treated, but it's difficult to know if something will work because, as we all know, everyone is different. Oh joy.

I'm Karissa a.k.a. Grammarissa. This is my blog and these are my adventures.

Porch find: Maimed grasshopper

I swept off my back porch today, delighted to find that the recent rain had cleared away most of the bird mess left below my feeders... When I was sweeping off brush, leaves, seed pods, and stink bugs (ick), I saw something bright green and stopped to examine it. 

What I found was this poor little guy. It clung to the porch, so I ran to get my camera (of course!). I noticed that it only had one back leg while I was taking pictures. It's remarkable how these little guys survive with fewer limbs than intended.

Beetle beat

I found this little guy in my mulch one day when I got out of the car. I was carrying in groceries, but I ran in to grab my camera so I could get a shot before it went away.

According to my entomologist friend, this is a spotted pelidnota or grapevine beetle, which is a cousin of the Japanese beetle.

It's fun to find things like this out of the blue. I know I probably should have begun paying closer attention to nature earlier in my life, but I guess what matters is that I'm doing it now!

Adorned web

 So I didn't get to post during September. It was a busy month for sure. I did get to take in the splendor of my backyard in its gradual change from summer to autumn. With the exception of the rain (read: cold and rainy for four days straight), autumn crept in gracefully.

The spiders on my back porch have been quite active again. The first picture shows what I saw one morning. The beautiful display got me to come closer (after grabbing my camera, of course!). Dew drops were strung like beads on this most perfect web. I was really glad I got to see it like this before the dew evaporated. 

The big maple tree behind the web (out in my yard) is all orange and yellow now... These photos were from a few weeks ago. Hopefully I'll get to take some autumn photos soon.