Month: September 2020

It’s raining. It’s been raining almost all day, although I was able to get in a walk when there was a short break. We had a lot of rain when the remnants of Tropical Storm Beta passed through on the 24th, too. You may be able to see the difference in the river, especially since there was more rain upstream (south).

Hooray! I figured out how to add the dates! Some of those days have been absolutely spectacular (which is why I am just now writing this). You may also notice the fall colors creeping in on the trees.

The late summer/early fall flowers continue to bloom. And I think I’ve learned to distinguish Crownbeard (Verbesina occidentalis) from Wingstem (Verbesina alternifolia); I’m sure I misidentified some of my past photos. Here’s the link if you’re interested.

Unfortunately I don’t think there is a way to add captions to a gallery. Clockwise from top:: Late Purple Aster (Symphyotrichum patens), Goldenrod (Genus Solidago), Appalachian Ladies’ Tresses (Spiranthes arcisepala), Yellow Crownbeard (Verbesina occidentalis), Calico Aster (Symphyotrichum lateriflorum), Wingstem aka Yellow Ironweed (Verbesina alternifolia), Red Spider Lily (Lycoris radiata).

The butterflies are migrating, but I still see them on sunny days, especially in my garden. Clockwise from top: Question Mark (Polygonia interrogationis), Red-spotted Admiral (Limenitis arthemis), Monarch (Danaus plexippus), Gulf Fritillary (Agraulis vanillae), Pearl Crescent (Phyciodes tharos), Cabbage White (Pieris rapae)

And here is a Fiery Skipper (Hylephila phyleus) busy on a marigold!

And here’s a busy Common Eastern Bumble Bee (Bombus impatiens) on a thistle (and a skipper butterfly photobombs)!

Here’s that bee again, along with some other bugs I’ve seen around. Common Eastern Bumble Bee (Bombus impatiens), Virginian Tiger Moth caterpillar (Spilosoma virginica), Wheel Bug (Arilus cristatus), Giant Crane Fly (Tipula abdominalis), Millipede (Abacion), Chinese Mantis (Tenodera sinensis), Virginian Tiger Moth caterpillar (Spilosoma virginica).

Fall is when I really notice the spiders and their beautiful webs. Here’s a sampling: Rabid Wolf Spider (Rabidosa rabida) on my screen porch, Yellow Garden Spider (Argiope aurantia) in my garden, Red-femured Spotted Orbweaver (Neoscona domiciliorum) eating a stinkbug (hurray!), Arrowhead Orbweaver (Verrucosa arenata) on my grapevine trellis, a different Yellow Garden Spider (Argiope aurantia) on a ramble, Spotted Orbweaver (Neoscona crucifera) below my deck, White-banded Crab Spider (Misumenoides formosipes) on a sock that was drying on the clothesline, a different Yellow Garden Spider (Argiope aurantia) on another ramble (because you simply can’t see too many of these beauties), Red-femured Spotted Orbweaver (Neoscona domiciliorum), Spotted Orbweaver (Neoscona crucifera).

I’ve been working on identifying and posting most of the afternoon and evening. It’s time to stop and get a glass of wine. BTW, the rain stopped right before sundown.

Maybe it won’t be so long before I post again.

OK. The rainy remnants of Sally are keeping me indoors, and it’s time to try this again.

So far today, I have learned (from WordPress support) that some of the functions I have used to edit and display images are not available in the “improved” WordPress. I guess I’ll get used to how cumbersome the new process is, and you’ll need to get used to the how WordPress decides to display my posts.

How about more pleasant things, since most of my time is spent enjoying life in the Hollow? Summer is on the way out; we are finally experiencing more normal (whatever the means these days) temperatures that are expected to drop into the low 40s at night this weekend. Some leaves have begun to fall, and the late summer/early fall flowers are decorating the meadow and roadsides with yellow and purple.

The deer continue to come.

One morning they were joined by a hen turkey, who tried to persuade her poult (the only one I’ve seen all year) to join her.

And it finally did.

One morning Bambi showed up with no velvet on his antlers. This is the first time one of “my” bucks has lost his velvet overnight. Bro also lost his overnight a few days later. (The images below lets you slide from one to the other to compare. Thought I’d give it a try.)

I was surprised to see a small fawn last week; the older fawns are getting big and losing their spots.

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I haven’t seen many turtles lately, only one buried in the mud for a few days last week. I expect to see more tomorrow after all this rain. The reptile I’ve seen most (around the house) are lizards—Eastern fence lizards (Sceloporus undulatus) and skinks, Southeastern five-lined skinks (Plestiodon inexpectatus) and/or Common five-lined skinks (Plestiodon fasciatus). And some of them are tiny baby lizards!

I’ve been working on this since right after lunch (with a break to make a rainy trip to the meadow to feed the deer), and now it’s almost dinnertime. I’m not giving up on the blog and hope to post again before too long.
UPDATE: And so I discover that the “gallery” below did not display correctly in FB or Safari, and the WordPress app doesn’t support editing it yet, either. Let’s try something else.

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Oh 2020! What a terrible year this continues to be! I know how lucky I am overall, but for several afternoons I have been sadly reminded of the frustration and anguish caused when a platform upgrades to an “improved” editor. When I asked to revert to the editor I have found so easy to use, WordPress support told me that “the older editor has been deprecated [?] and is no longer available.” I finally figured out how to use a version of the old editor that is only slightly different. Here’s hoping it works!

Well, it didn’t work, and I’m still struggling. I was able to add the photo in the “new and improved” editor but can’t resize it.

Meanwhile, here’s what feeding sometimes looks like in the mornings:

and a “gallery” of fungi.

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Let’s try a slide show! It’s been too long since my last post to post river photos individually (even if I could figure it out). I’m also trying to convert the photos to a video, but that means learning another application.

And I can’t add captions to the ones I’ve uploaded since the change. 😦 So here’s the view from the ridge (August 16-September 8). You can see we’ve had some foggy mornings.

And I think that’s about all the frustration with WordPress that I can handle today. I’ll try again soon.