First fireflies of the season, Summer officially begins

[Deleted]

 It ain't Summer until the fireflies make their appearance. That happened this evening, as we sat on the deck watching the full Strawberry moon rise. The little kids were chasing after the fireflies on the lawn, making lots of happy kid noises. The aroma of blooming roses and honeysuckle- and steak on the grill- wafted through the air. In the distance there was the drone of one last lawnmower trying valiantly to get the job done before dark.
 And it struck us. Summer. Bang!

[Jaguar]

I know isn't it absolutely wonderful, until you get bitten by so many mosquitoes. I've got roses blooming in front of my window. Tennis games are being played 24/7 across the street. Baseball games are being played in the park.

[ՏՇԾԵԵʅՏɧ_LԹՏՏʅҼ]

We used to take our truck & camper out to our friends' ranch nestled in the foothills of the Rockies. They'd cleared a small piece of land and made a private campground for friends/family on some of their natural habitat - where the fir trees were huge and there was a river running through for fishing rainbow trout, and the mountains in the background. I miss those summer nights - with the fireflies dancing in the sky & even the occasional eagle or hawk flying overhead. Even a coyote or wolf wandering through every now and then. Ahh, summer. Now if the rain here would only stop, it might actually feel like it's here.

[swamp]

We had a party on 6/15 and the fireflies were out in full force that night. 

[Tennesseer]

I want to know where the butterflies and bees are. I have a tree in full bloom which literally hums from all the bees swarming it to collect its pollen. Just a few bees and no hum.

Likewise, my butterfly garden has no butterflies. None. A few bees but no butterflies. I have yet to see a single Monarch or black swallowtail, butterfly who are the regular visitors all summer of past years.

[mmhmm]

We've had them here for a couple of weeks, as well, Swamp ... that is, when the poor things could get out to fly around without drowning!  While we haven't had as many as we sometimes do, they've been around, carrying their little lanterns.

[mmhmm]

Come to think of it, Tennesseer, I haven't seen many butterflies.  We don't usually have a lot of bees here, but we've always had plenty of butterflies.  This year, not so much.

[Apple]

I've never seen a firefly.  Those and glow worms are on my bucket list of things to see before I die.

[Deleted]

 I've got hummingbirds active at my feeding stations... several pairs trying to claim territorial rights. The aerobatics are amazing!
 We're waiting for the bee balm to bloom... probably in a couple more weeks (it's a little late this year, but doing very well). Once the bee balm blooms, the hummingbirds really go into high gear.
 Last week, as I was replacing a feeder that I had just refilled, a smaller ruby-throated male hovered about twelve inches in front of my face, looking me right in the eyes. He panned around slowly, eyes locked, for about twenty seconds, then he flew up to a branch and waited for me to get back on the deck, after which he indulged himself at the feeder. Then he flew off... returning with a female a few minutes later.

[Tennesseer]

A few years back as I was watering some plants and shrubs, a hummingbird flew to one of the outer shrub branches. I knew hummingbirds like showers so I changed the nozzle head to mist. The hummingbird stayed and bathed under the mist for several minutes before it flew off.

And their aerial fights and chasing each other are fun to watch.

[jencin]

We still have fire flies but few butterflies and even fewer bees.

Had to take out a wasp nest a few weeks ago from under the storage shed roof.  Funny how the undesirables are still here and the nice insects are leaving.  We're far enough out that there isn't a lot of pollution here, either. 

We have deer and squirrels, but no rabbits anymore.  Strange.

[Deleted]

 A summer downside... an ailanthus tree ("stink-tree") on my property line is blooming furiously. It reeks of catpiss for a couple of weeks every year.

[mmhmm]

Jun 25, 2013 19:40:14 GMT -5 @patiencetried said:

 A summer downside... an ailanthus tree ("stink-tree") on my property line is blooming furiously. It reeks of catpiss for a couple of weeks every year.

Eeew, patience!  Maybe you should send your specimen to Brooklyn! 

[Tennesseer]

Jun 25, 2013 19:40:14 GMT -5 @patiencetried said:

 A summer downside... an ailanthus tree ("stink-tree") on my property line is blooming furiously. It reeks of catpiss for a couple of weeks every year.

Well at let you don't have a Titan Arum plant, aka corpse plant, growing on your property.

[mmhmm]

LOL, Tennesseer.  I actually saw one of those growing in Sumatra.  There, they're called bunga bangkai, and Man! Do they stink!  Another stinky plant that grows there is Rafflesia.  They smell like dead bodies, too, and grew on Java, as well as other areas.  The Titan Arum only grows on Sumatra.  They can keep it!

Here's a Rafflesia:

[Tennesseer]

I just found an eastern black swallowtail caterpillar munching on one of my parsley plants. So I now know at least one back swallowtail butterfly visited my garden.

[Tennesseer]

Jun 25, 2013 20:31:27 GMT -5 mmhmm said:

LOL, Tennesseer.  I actually saw one of those growing in Sumatra.  There, they're called bunga bangkai, and Man! Do they stink!  Another stinky plant that grows there is Rafflesia.  They smell like dead bodies, too, and grew on Java, as well as other areas.  The Titan Arum only grows on Sumatra.  They can keep it!

Here's a Rafflesia:

mmhmm-What a darn shame we can't grow those in our backyards. Not!

[mmhmm]

You're not kidding!  The smell is enough to knock you out!  Orchids grow wild there, and frangipani, bird of paradise, ginger flowers, lotus ... you name it, it grew, and most of the flowers smelled heavenly.  The two we've got here ... not so much.

[Deleted]

"Feed me, Seymour." (Little Shop of Horrors, 1982)
 
 "Titan arum is a popular "common name" for the more properly named  "Amorphophallus titanum" plant.
 The common name was coined to allow people to refer to the plant without making any reference to a phallus. "Polite conversation" and all that...
anyway, to me it looks a bit like a Jack-in-the-pulpit (viewed under the influence of hallucinogens).
 
 A stink tree is much larger, mine is about 40 feet tall, with lots of limbs and branches; and every branch is covered with stinky little blossoms, which shed all over the yard. Bushels of malodorous dropping spread all over the yard. I try to rake them up every couple of days so they don't kill the lawn. If you don't rake them up, and it rains... they smell even worse when they're wet. Unfortunately, the thing blooms right in the first heatwave of the summer, when I want/need to open the windows for a little ventilation. 

 Referring to the "A Tree Grows In Brooklyn" tree, the Ailanthus tree is one of the few trees that thrive in an urban setting. It thrives so well that it is classified as an "Invasive species". The damned things are all over my neighborhood, replacing the chestnuts and elms that were wiped out by storm and blight. The roots can heave pavement and destroy brick foundations. I need to remove the damned thing, but it's not so simple. If you cut it down, the roots will send up shoots... an endless supply.
 Other species that are popping up around here opportunistically are honey locusts and black locusts.
 I have a small lot, have a sugar maple that dwarfs the house, a Japanese maple that was sent to the USA as a seedling by the Japanese in 1939 (donated in a humanitarian response to the famed "Hurricane of '38" which devastated the trees in my area), a Mock Orange shrub, a rose bush, and a Rose of Sharon. The ailanthus is a perennial affliction, as is the Japanese knotweed I do battle with every year.

[Tennesseer]

Jul 2, 2013 0:07:14 GMT -5 @patstab said:

We are back in Indiana.  It's raining a ton but we still have butterflies, all kinds of birds, fireflies.  Down the road they brought in 3 big stacks of hives to pollinate the melon crops and we are getting the benefit, honeybees are all over the clover in the yard.  I wouldn't want to walk barefoot.

Also I have been planting trees and plants and have seen all kinds of fishing worms.  you never saw these in Houston I think the fireants ate anything that was on the ground or stung them to death.  We did have some very unpleasant biting flies of some kind this spring that were bad.  They said these just started about 3 years ago.  They are really bad.

We have lots of deer, wild turkeys, I've seen a few, and coyotes.  Also have seen lots of bunnies this year, MIL said first time in several years.

This is a beautiful area, glad we came back.

Due to all the rain, plenty of green grass for the rabbits to eat. More food equals more rabbits litters.

[AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP]

It's been hot and sunny here for the last two months.  Before that it was warm and sunny.  We had about five days of rain for Tropical Storm Andrea- but we were in Chicago for that wearing jeans and sweatpants because it barely got above 70 for the highs the whole time we were there.  Since we've been back, it's the usual Florida weather- we had a couple days with rain in the afternoon, and one day a couple days ago where it rained off and on all day.  Today is nice and hot and sunny with the standard 30% chance of a pop up thunderstorm in the afternoon.  Tomorrow drops to 20% which means it probably won't rain at all.  Breeze off the Atlantic has been glorious lately- though the consequence of that is surf- and that precludes my 3 year old swimming.  Today, though- it's low tide most of the day.  Makes for a great sandcastle canvas and more room on the beach on a holiday.  We're about to head down now.

[Deleted]

 This afternoon we took a little picnic up to the woods, a little picnic area in the pines. It was apparently underutilized this year... neither crowded nor trashed. Arriving just after 6pm, we found a nice prime site that had already been vacated by early-birds... there was still a decent bed of coals in the grill. I tossed on another layer of charcoal, set up the table and we played cards until it was time to grill. Burgers and dogs with potato chips and iced tea. (We decided to go No-Fuss al fresco at the last minute).
 And as the sun set in the west, a horde of mosquitoes emerged and attacked. I got bit at least a dozen times before we finished packing the car and fleeing.

 I have a couple of big welts on my back where I can't reach to scratch. 

[Deleted]

 Speaking of Bang, last night I attended The Big Sailfest Fireworks Display in New London, CT.
There was a big festival all day long with the main street shut down and taken over by vendors of food and trinkets and such, and various bands and performers on several stages, and there were lots of locals and out-of-towners (thousands and thousands and thousands).
 It was a very hot and humid day... in the nineties, with 98% humidity. Steamy. As the sun went down, low ocean clouds moved in from the south, and by the time the fireworks began (9:15PM) there was a cloud ceiling of about 120 feet.

 It was like fireworks in braille... very little was visible but flashes in the cloud cover. The major effect was from the noise (which was rather magnificent). The result could be described as... anti climactic. The crowd was visibly disappointed, but fortunately not too disgruntled. No brawls or disturbances that I've heard of. But here were far more Security personnel than there were in the pre-9/11 days

 Some things I thought remarkable... there were an awful lot of very young people (teens!) pushing strollers full of fat little babies. There were far fewer bikers than in years past, and there was a lot of spanish being spoken everywhere (which didn't used to be so common). The demographics are rapidly changing here in the northeast.

[Tennesseer]

Jul 14, 2013 20:35:01 GMT -5 @patiencetried said:

Patiencetried:  have you ever had dinner at the Nordic Lodge in Charlestown, R.I.? I had dinner there one time in the 80s and the price for the seafood buffet was $27 per personwhich I thought was steep but with the all-you-can-eat lobster, I could understand the price as we took great advantage of eating all the lobster we could.

I just looked them up and the buffet price today is $88 per person.  Yikes!  Same deal though: all-you-can-eat.

[Deleted]

 Nope, never been to the Nordic Lodge.
 $88 to glut on lobster?
 I'll pass. I'm too old for serious gluttony. I'd get sick if I tried to eat that much lobster (to get my $88 worth). I have to try to minimize my cholesterol intake... or end up taking expensive pills with unpleasant side-effects. If we feel like being self-indulgent (lobster, about once per year) I'll go down to the docks and pick up a couple of 2lb lobsters for about $15 apiece and do a mini-clambake with clams, mussels, etc.
 Personally, I enjoy a properly made "South County" quahog (clam) chowder as much as I enjoy lobstah. South County-style contains no tomatoes, no milk or cream... just quahogs, salt pork, onions, potatoes and (of course) water. I have some quahogs in the fridge right now. I picked them up on Fri., they'll keep until tomorrow.

[Tennesseer]

Jul 14, 2013 22:04:59 GMT -5 @patiencetried said:

 Nope, never been to the Nordic Lodge.
 $88 to glut on lobster?
 I'll pass. I'm too old for serious gluttony. I'd get sick if I tried to eat that much lobster (to get my $88 worth). I have to try to minimize my cholesterol intake... or end up taking expensive pills with unpleasant side-effects. If we feel like being self-indulgent (lobster, about once per year) I'll go down to the docks and pick up a couple of 2lb lobsters for about $15 apiece and do a mini-clambake with clams, mussels, etc.
 Personally, I enjoy a properly made "South County" quahog (clam) chowder as much as I enjoy lobstah. South County-style contains no tomatoes, no milk or cream... just quahogs, salt pork, onions, potatoes and (of course) water. I have some quahogs in the fridge right now. I picked them up on Fri., they'll keep until tomorrow.

My folks enjoyed the beach and always took their trailer.  One time I was staying overnight with them while they had their trailer down at Fisherman's Memorial State Park by Point Judith, R.I.  My dad wanted to make some New England clam chowder so we went down to the beach at low tide and felt for quahogs with out feet.  The clam chowder was good.  

I think it has been 25 years or so since I had lobster.  What I miss are fresh, whole fried clams.  Yea they are fried in oil but they are good.  When I worked in Milford, Ct., we would always go out to lunch at Chick's Drive In in West Haven.  They had the best fried clams.  They only problem eating there was fighting off the sea gulls because you ate outside.

[Deleted]

 One summer I was on the beach at Watch Hill (RI), I brought a big italian sandwich (from a local "Grinder Shop"), extra large for two hungry people, wrapped in butcher paper. I had it tucked away in a knapsack for a little lunch after our swim. A gull lurked patiently nearby, it waited for us to go underwater and only then launched a raid. Before I could race back to the blanket that bird had opened the knapsack, extracted the sandwich, and was in full flight. He landed about 40 yards away and unrolled the paper wrapping, then gorged on the sandwich filling... he had just enough time to gobble down the meat and cheese-  that's all the time he had before being swarmed by all his brethren. They got the bread. In a mad flurry of wings and squawking it was only a matter of a minute or so, and it was as if that sandwich never existed... except for the paper wrapper, which blew in the wind right back to our blanket. I got to dispose of the litter.

When we went back the next day we didn't bother bringing lunch. 

[Peace Of Mind]

Jul 14, 2013 23:40:56 GMT -5 @patiencetried said:

 One summer I was on the beach at Watch Hill (RI), I brought a big italian sandwich (from a local "Grinder Shop"), extra large for two hungry people, wrapped in butcher paper. I had it tucked away in a knapsack for a little lunch after our swim. A gull lurked patiently nearby, it waited for us to go underwater and only then launched a raid. Before I could race back to the blanket that bird had opened the knapsack, extracted the sandwich, and was in full flight. He landed about 40 yards away and unrolled the paper wrapping, then gorged on the sandwich filling... he had just enough time to gobble down the meat and cheese-  that's all the time he had before being swarmed by all his brethren. They got the bread. In a mad flurry of wings and squawking it was only a matter of a minute or so, and it was as if that sandwich never existed... except for the paper wrapper, which blew in the wind right back to our blanket. I got to dispose of the litter.

When we went back the next day we didn't bother bringing lunch. 

LMAO!!  Was it this guy?  I saw him grabbing some chips to go with it.

[Tennesseer]

Jul 15, 2013 0:19:14 GMT -5 Peace Of Mind said:

Jul 14, 2013 23:40:56 GMT -5 @patiencetried said:

 One summer I was on the beach at Watch Hill (RI), I brought a big italian sandwich (from a local "Grinder Shop"), extra large for two hungry people, wrapped in butcher paper. I had it tucked away in a knapsack for a little lunch after our swim. A gull lurked patiently nearby, it waited for us to go underwater and only then launched a raid. Before I could race back to the blanket that bird had opened the knapsack, extracted the sandwich, and was in full flight. He landed about 40 yards away and unrolled the paper wrapping, then gorged on the sandwich filling... he had just enough time to gobble down the meat and cheese-  that's all the time he had before being swarmed by all his brethren. They got the bread. In a mad flurry of wings and squawking it was only a matter of a minute or so, and it was as if that sandwich never existed... except for the paper wrapper, which blew in the wind right back to our blanket. I got to dispose of the litter.

When we went back the next day we didn't bother bringing lunch. 

LMAO!!  Was it this guy?  I saw him grabbing some chips to go with it.

Ballzy seagull. Raised by criminal seagull parents.