Sunday, June 22, 2008

POPPIES AND PEONIES, ETC 6/22/2008

Summer has finally arrived and the garden is starting to grow. These Bolero poppies are in bloom for the first time.

These peonies are the old fashioned Karl Rosenfeld, Sarah Bernhardt and Festiva Maxima. I purchased three new peonies this spring at Home Depot...blaze, miss america and do tell...I don't mind buying young, inexpensive plants and trying my success at them.

We live on 6 acres of land with quite a few trees, particulary a thick woods to our north. Basswood, a few oak, ash and boxelder make up the bulk of trees. This year we are having an unusually bad infestation of forest tent caterpillars. They have stripped bare most of our trees. At one point, I couldn't walk in the house without stepping on worms and carrying them in on my clothes. They mounded over the flower planters that I couldn't move inside. The rest of my many flower containers were moved into a cool dark shed, where some developed root rot. I should have left them out. They walked over my vegetable and perennial gardens, but didn't eat the plants, except for my three william baffin roses, which they relished. They also ate one apple tree, left the stems only!!

We have had these worms in the past, but tolerated them. We will have to aerial spary next year. I couldn't stand another spring like this one. They spray with bt which is supposedly a fairly safe option.

OK...here are pictures of the apple tree and a rose: They were fully leafed out. You can also see the bare trees behind the apple tree.

Forest tent caterpillars are "born" from moth eggs encased (no web or tent) around the stems of trees, preferably high in the tree. (Eastern tent caterpillars develop in webbed tents you can easily see in trees.) The newly hatched worms eat the leaves of a tree, drop and march to another tree (hence, often wrongly called armyworms) and eat until their cycle ends. Then they cocoon in remaining plant leaves and turn into small brown moths in about a week. And the cycle continues. The worms are now towards the end of their cycle and slowing down.

Last picture to show you...my dictamnus...gas plant ...blooming for the first time...it has a pleasant lemony scent. Supposedly you can light a match above it and it will ignite the air , hence called the gas plant.

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

THING 23

OK, I've given myself a pat on the back. I am amazed that I followed through with this and completed all 23 things. It happened because it was fun and interesting. Thank you for this opportunity!

THING #22

I'm sure that I will be drawn back to many of the web sites that I have sampled. If not through my work, just for fun. This project made me so aware of the vastness of the internet! I will come back and hopefully review some of the other contributors blogs. At a quick glance, I can see we all took different approaches to the things and our blogs. Check out no lutefisk on a stick. He really stretched the limits of this experience! I found more sites I would like to explore on his blog... and will find more on other blogs .

THING #21

I viewed several of these sites. MN Readers RSS wouldn't attach to my google reader. I am a "member" of Web Junction, GoodReads and now Ning. I left comments to another ning coworker and added the ning badge to my blog.

Monday, March 24, 2008

THING #20

I am a registered Facebook user, and a MySpace lurker. I have found interesting information about people I know! I feel like a spy, but if they put information out there, they should assume it is for public viewing. MySpace seems to offer more information. Facebook seems to take more navigating to find info. I looked at the Librarians and Facebook site. The group has over 4,000 members! I joined.

THING #19

I listened to a podcast on MPR about why women shouldn't be so picky about the men they date, or end up with. Not exactly library related, but interesting! Podcasts are great. You can always catch up on a session you've missed. I suppose we could create some library related podcasts on our website.

THING #18

I looked at both You Tube and Google Video. My dial up makes viewing a slow and tedious process. And our library blocks these sites. I know I would really enjoy these sites if I had a better connection. Pictures are worth a thousand words.