It's finally warming up! The weekend was beautiful, if very warm, at least for us! We worked outside most of both days. Butch dug an old rose bush out of Clara's yard & in return Lloyd gave us three tomato starts! They went right into the ground when we got home. He also planted three zucchini plants - I'm pretty sure I'll have plenty of produce to make Zucchini relish!
We were sitting out on the back deck later than usual last evening - it was cooling down - dusk was upon us & suddenly I saw what I thought was a flash light - on the far side of the creek? Just a second later it had moved faster than anyone on foot could have! Was I seeing things? I asked Butch if he saw something & yes he did!
Lightning Bugs! I was so excited - it was like a gift that you never expect to get - but appears as if by magic!
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| Iowa Firefly~ |
Even Nika saw them & of course - started barking! She was running from one side of the yard to the other - trying to figure out what was going on :-) After doing a lot more reading on the subject - I'm sending a letter to our power company - to ask what they can do about the street light that is oh so much brighter than we need. To actually still have this colony living here at the edge of town is so wonderful. It would help if that light could be dimmed - giving the Firefly's a better chance of communicating. The light show lasted most of an hour - one coming within a few feet of our deck!
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| Jack-in-the-Pulpit |
This morning & went out for my usual walk along the creek & noticed these large leaves, actually similar to a
Trillium. Closer inspection revealed it to be one of the wildflowers that I tried for years to establish in the
Homestead Woods,
Jack-in-the-Pulpit! There were two areas where they seem to be flourishing in the dappled shade.
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| A true beauty~ |
Butch weed-whacked the whole area along our side of the creek & I've been knocking things down, such as the
Stinging Nettles that you can see coming up around the wildflower. I think that getting all the grasses down, gave the flowers a chance to really flourish! Now, I'm going to get little flags to mark their location - so we won't disturb the bulbs.
The part of Twinkle Creek that we border has been missed by the usual burning, trashing, dumping etc., that I've seen has happened so many other places. Not that I don't pick up at least a couple pieces of trash on every walk. Gradually though - I hope to enhance as much a much of the area, as I can~
Are there no lightning bugs on the west coast? They're so common here in the midwest they aren't even noticed when they're around! I think every midwest child puts them in jars and then bring them under the covers. I've never heard that bright lights affect them, they seem as common in dark farm fields as they are in brightly lit subdivisions.
ReplyDeleteMy reply is a year tardy - but - no - no lightening bugs in WA or OR anyway. When I was researching them - it was mentioned that they are on the decline due to loss of habitat & city lights...
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