running from skeeters

Gloriosa Lily vine

due to all the recent rain...and standing water...

the mosquitoes are numerous.

and humungous.

their appetites are ravenous.

venturing outside...you have to keep moving...

or they'll swarm you, obscure your vision and suck you dry!

ugh.

they're immune to citronella candles...

and all the shelves in the stores are bare of skeeter repellent.

so, when i go outside..it's a mad dash...to stay ahead of these blood consuming insects.

so...lucky for you...all you have to do is sit back and look.

you don't have to swat at these annoying critters.

remember the Orb Weaver that was living on our front porch?

i haven't seen her in a while.  :(  one night she just wasn't there anymore.

but we have a NEW spider taking up residence.

a Whitebanded Fishing spider.

she would spend most of the day crammed into this bell.

coming out at night...

to silently await her prey.

i hope she has a taste for mosquitoes!

~LOVE is in the air~

while dashing around the outside of the house the other day...

i spotted a couple of Gulf Fritillary butterflies doing the mating dance.

nearby...was a young cardinal...

obviously wondering what the heck they were doing?!

(head tilt...questioning...curious stare)

MORE ~love~ going on...

as i was hightailing it to the front door, i spotted a pair of

Two-striped Walking Sticks on one of my planters.

(AKA  the Devil's Darning Needle)

that's the smaller male...riding the female's back.

uh, doing their thing.

i saw another small male...nearby on the handrail...waiting his turn??!

he's going to have a long wait.

three hours later...they're still at it.

stamina.

well, that's it.

OH, even milo doesn't spend much time outside these days.

she ventures out just long enough to take care of business.

then it's time to do what she does best.

stay cool. be safe.

don't let the...skeeters bite.

laura

“People who claim they don't let little things bother them

have never slept in a room with a single mosquito.”

~Christie Todd Whitman

barred owl and walking sticks

this will be a quickie...

in my last post i mentioned that we heard the owls!!

(...and on my way to locate them, i was side-tracked by the black racer snake)

we haven't  seen the Barred Owls  for about 6 months.

we assumed...or at least hoped...that they hang out in a certain area for a while

 and then move on....only to make their rounds back to where they started.

they have!  we spotted one yesterday around 7pm!!

just like the coyote we spotted last weekend...

again, i had to snap these pictures through the back door

since i didn't want to take any chances of scaring him away by sliding it open.

(all puffed up)

(spies something on the ground??)

oOo

one more unusual sighting yesterday afternoon...

on the roof of the front porch.

a pair of mating

Two-Striped Walking Sticks  (Anisomorpha Buprestoides)

the smaller one on top is the male.

they stayed like this for a looooong time. what stamina!

i tried to get pictures over and over...i  zoomed in, but all i got was blurry!

so i tried to get close-up...stretching my arms overhead and standing on my tip-toes.

as i read about these stick bugs later...i realized how lucky i was.

a few other names they're know as, are devil's riding horse, prairie alligator, 

devil's darning needle and musk mare!

if they had felt  threatened by my intrusion of their love-making...

they could have sprayed me (and they aim for the eyes!!)

with their strong-smelling defensive spray which is painfully irritating to the eyes

and mucous membranes!  

and they're marksmanship is precise! 

they can accurately aim their spray to up to 15 inches away!

next time...i'll be a bit more leery about getting too close! whew!

it's the day after hump day...almost the weekend! woo-hoo!

be safe out there...enjoy your journey!

:]  laura

some little things in nature...

well, i was supposed to have a massage appointment this morn, but as it turned out...my client had to reschedule. so with a pot roast already in the slow cooker...errands done...a load of laundry in the washer...dishes cleaned and drying in the drainer...i thought i'd post a few pictures i've taken over this past week.

this first one is for all you 'frogoholics' out there...ribbet!  ((afterthought: TOAD, not frog! if you want more info on these southern critters, go here))

"You will find something greater in the woods than in books. Trees and stones will teach you that which you can never learn from masters."  ~St. Bernard de Clairvaux

"All human beings are dream beings. Dreaming ties all mankind together."  ~Jack Kerouac

sam came running to get me when he saw this snake in the side yard. unfortunately, by the time i grabbed the camera and got out there...it was already seeking refuge...

"In my world, everyone's a pony and they all eat rainbows and poop butterflies!"  ~Dr. Seuss

the Gulf Fritillary

spiders...and their webs...so intriguing....fascinating...

and here's another STICK BUG i spotted on the front porch. in fact, i had JUST said to sam...i wish i'd see another stick bug...i haven't gotten a picture of one in a while...i turned around...and there he was!! 

"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."  ~Maya Angelou

...and on a stepping stone out front...

"Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair."  ~Kahil Kibran

well, that's it.  for now.  love nature.  and be safe...where ever you may journey to.

laura  :]

excerpts from the road. part two.

...this is a continuation...a condensed version...of our  'just short of two week road trip'  from FL to AL to GA and back to FL again. since we didn't have any internet access along the way...no iphone or air card...i get to live it all again through these posts and pictures!  enjoy!!  :)

ok, so, where did i leave off?
oh yeah,  Torreya State Park in FL...next stop...Oak Mountain St Pk in Pelham, Alabama...15 miles south of Birmingham.

so we're heading out of florida...into alabama...losing an hour as we make it west of the chattahoochee river. eastern to central time zone. "Let's Roll Alabama" is everywhere! more cow pastures. dairy farms. goats. rolling hills. purple martin (gourd) houses hanging in just about every yard. peanut fields. horses.
Oak Mountain is Alabama's largest st pk , 10,000 acres in the southernmost part of the Appalachian Chain.  some of the views are like those in the Smokey Mountains.

we stopped at the visitor center to get maps, etc...(just in case the garmin GPS lost it's signal. it used to be MY job to navigate! sam drove...i told him where to turn...i was GOOD! but i was replaced! :[  anyway, maps for back up.)

they were collecting watermelon rinds at the visitor center. we should have asked them 'why'?  but we forgot.  anyone know?  for compost?

 

Double Oak Lake

milo...exploring...

creek running through the Alabama Wildlife Center  which is located in Oak Mountain State Park.











the pictures that follow are some of the non-releasable birds in 'flight cages' built off the ground, among the trees. these birds are blind in at least one eye and therefore wouldn't be able to survive in the wild.

              

        

 the female owl on the left is blind in both eyes.  

the male owl on the right is in the cage as her companion and 'seer'...

this red-tailed hawk  is "Ireland". she's been at the AWC since she was a flightless baby...two years ago, when a car hit the tree her nest was in. she fell out of the nest. when the tow guy came to tow the car away...he saw her on the ground and took her to the Rehab center. she has neurological damage and can't be released back to the wild.  she's one of their 'educational' birds now. we spent alot of time here...learning about the animals...walking the trail...visiting the nursery and convalescent ward. really interesting...we left there appreciating all the good they do for the wildlife in the area.

since we were already pretty hot and sweaty, we decided to tackle the hike to Peavine Falls before heading back to the campground. well, we finally get to the falls...but there's no water. dry. just rock. oh well...we got our exercise and the rock formations and view made it all worth it!

back to the campground...to our campsite where we had 

"A Close Encounter of the Squirrel Kind"...

milo was on the picnic table...shocked that the squirrel was so brave!

we were kind of surprised too. 

so this is the end of our Oak Mountain adventure...next day we headed to check out Sloss Furnaces in Birmingham. VERY cool place!!! overwhelming! amazing! 

then on to the De Soto Caverns in Childersburg...and Cheaha State Park ...

stay tuned for Part Three  :]

and so...i leave you with just a few more pic's from our campsite...

  

There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, 

but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it.  ~Minnie Aumonier 

stay cool - - - - laura  :]

(if you missed the previous post - Part ONE click here )