Friday, April 18, 2008

Friday Flashbacks

Events from this week in year's past.
(Not too many years past, just as long as we've owned a digital camera.)

2006:

Snakes were breeding. (I guess they're breeding.)


Jo found a viscous, man-eating cottontail in our weed-filled strawberry bed. (Jo's photo)


We discovered a fairly large snapping turtle migrating across our upper pasture. (Jo's photo)


Spiderworts bloomed. (I haven't seen any spiderworts in bloom yet this year.) (Jo's photo)


2007:



A luna moth hung out on the clothesline. (I haven't seen one of these yet in 2008.)


A male carpenter bee prepared to do a little nectar robbing on a narcissus while a wasp made its way into the bloom. (Narcissus are just now budding this year.)
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8 comments:

Lisa at Greenbow said...

2006 must have had a warm spring. I just love all the photos. That baby bunny is the sweetest thing.

Q said...

Hi Marvin,
Nice Almanac! I have never seen a Luna moth in my yard. I would to one of these days.
Jo does very nice photography.
Sherry

Stacey Olson said...

Hello marvin, Great post. I also always look back at photo I took on the same month in previous years to see what is the same and what is different. thanks for sharing!(Love Jo's bunny)

Texas Travelers said...

Great series of photos.

To be truthful, I had not thought to compare photos from the same month, year to year. Oh Dear, something else to do.

I can't keep up with visiting all my favorite blogs now.

Have a great weekend and be careful of that killer rabbit,
Troy

Tom said...

These are all great captures but I do have a favourite here and it is the Luna Moth.. never saw these before but it's a cracker.. Sometimes I come across something, an animal, insect or a view, even some music.. and it just grabs me, shakes me and makes me realise how lucky we are to have such beauty around us.
Great post Marvin..
Tom

Jackie said...

What a great series of photos. That bunny is adorable. Do you let them nibble, trap them, or deter them from your garden?

Marvin said...

Lisa: It's hard to draw a conclusion based on only two years worth of photos, but both 2006 and 2007 seem to have been ahead of 2008. (I guess I could check NOAA data.) I don't know what is normal, but all last year's early growth was for naught when it got zapped by that mid-April hard freeze.

Sherry: I'm surprised you don't see an occasional luna in your yard. They are fairly common here throughout the spring and summer. (I say that not having seen one yet this year.)

Stacey: Looking at past files in a systematic manner is relatively new for me. I really should keep doing it because it's informative and also because it brings back memories as if they happen yesterday and not a couple of years ago.

Troy: Believe me, I know what you mean. I stay behind on ... ah ... EVERYTHING.

Tom: For me, Luna moths are excellent candidates for extreme anthropomorphizing. When I see one that has emerged fairly recently, I think it's one of nature's most beautiful creatures. Then, I see one that's been around for a few days and is so tattered and torn it can no longer fly and I feel sad. However, I also know that the life of an adult luna moth is so short that it doesn't even have complete mouth parts and digestive system. As an adult it doesn't eat, but lives off stored energy from food eaten as a caterpillar. Luna Moth find a mate, breed, lay eggs (if a female) and die. I don't know if there are any lessons for humans in a Luna Moth's beauty and life cycle or not, but it's certainly something to think about.

zhakee: We use a combination of letting the rabbits nibble and welded wire/poultry netting fabricated into a sort of row cover for crops that the rabbit seem to particularly enjoy (like bush green beans). Using the row covers is a big hassle, especially when harvest time rolls around, but it's necessary if we want to get any veggies.

We've been gardening in our present location for 22 years. During most of that time, we just let the rabbits nibble everywhere and that worked out okay. They got some and we got some. However, over the past few years, the cottontails' share became excessive.

I'm not really sure how to account for the change. Perhaps the rabbit population has increased. Perhaps it's because we no longer have an outside dog. Perhaps the two are related, although when we had outside dogs, they seemed to spend most of their time sleeping on the porch which is on the opposite side of the house from the garden.

Lana Gramlich said...

OMG!!! Baby bunny sooooooooo cute! Paralyzed with bunny cuteness...Must fight...cuteness...Fading fast...