autumn has arrived

Today, September 23 is the first day of Autumn. And our rain and weather the past week has been great – > 2.5″ past 48 hours.

I see so much activity among the fall blooming flowers that I googled macro photography and then downloaded my small camera’s manual and discovered there is a setting for close up photos. So I have been snapping away. The drawback with my camera is I have to get real close and the wasps flew off before I got into range and the bumblebees also began to get irritated (I assume they are bumblebees not carpenter bees).

bee on cosmos — I planted a lot of cosmos for the bees for end of season replenishing of food stocks, there is also another visitor behind the bee

the bees and the wasps love the muscadine, especially scuppernong

bees have powerful jaws & have no problem ripping open a muscadine suddenly the figs have ripened and the bees are on to them as well the bottom of the fig opens up (these were green a few days ago) and attracts lots of visitors I must include a pic of a rain filled contour ditch, the water sits in the ditch and seeps into the soil and keeps the plants going a while and it's not all success, here are some forlorn looking heirloom tomatoes back to a food gatherer on a basil plant

and two last shots, one of Buffy our rooster, who regained his crow (see narrative below) and Buffy at rear and some of his cohorts including Lady Macbeth, a fellow Buff Orpington Buffy, the rooster, had a good beginner’s crow a few weeks ago, such that the older girls on the other side of the fence became seriously interested. And then he lost his crow. So I did a lot of thinking about what could have caused this. And then I remembered. When we first purchased the chicks, they were just 8 weeks old and Buffy used to come right up to me and ask to be picked up. After he got his crow I thought it would be a good idea to pick him up again since I know they can get aggressive later so why not stay on familiar terms? When I eventually caught him, he shrieked maniacally, but I held onto to him and he quieted down and his flock came by to see and, with hindsight, I think he was so humiliated to have his flock witness his subjugation, that he lost his crow. So, since I like his crowing which has become louder and longer, I will leave him be and we will keep out of each others way.

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