P wasn’t feeling well over the weekend, so I didn’t get my catching up done, and then I had other pictures I wanted to post from the weekend and from yesterday, and I didn’t do that, either, so this is gonna be a big’un, and may or may not be in order.

Sweet Tea honeysuckle’s last salute to summer.

Fall croci.

Found another hitchhiker on the one-way. I think they must have a sign up that says, “The ratty little red car is the Parview Express. Come one, come all for FREE FOOD!”

Black Swallowtail bebe and potential bebes.

Spicebush doot-doot still around!

Volunteer Scarlet Pumpernickel down by the brush pile.

Cute little Carolina mantis boy. He’s smart enough to know that moths hang out around outdoor lights. He likes moths…for supper.

Cute little girl Carolina mantis. She just turned up on the patio, so I picked her up and took her to the Tornado Honeysuckle before one of the cats found her.

Eastern Tiger poop-a-pillar, doing an excellent impression of bird poop on the volunteer tuliptree down by the brush pile.

I was mowing the lawn last Saturday when I had to stop and take a photo because there were so many flutter-guys on the pink asters.

Jerusalem artichoke blooms. Waaaay over my head. Very tall.

I pulled this, of course, but my crabgrass is definitely very determined.

Black Swallowtail ‘pillar, saved by parsley from C.

Spicebush doot-doot, snug in his little summer sleeping bag, and still alive.

Another Eastern Tiger poop-a-pillar.

Very small orioles. Funny-looking, what with those clear wings and all those legs, but they’re drinking sugar water from the oriole feeder, so orioles they must be!

I lost this Eastern Tiger an hour after I found him, but he’d already cleared his digestive system in preparation for rearranging his entire body, so I suspect he wandered off to pupate somewhere in Sarah-Flah’s Giant Flowerbed.

This one is just as big, but not quite ready to enter the pupal stage.

Smaller Eastern Tiger, but no longer a poop-a-pillar.

This is a Spicebush doot-doot, but not the one in the sleeping bag; I found this guy on the other side of the spicebushes.

Spicebush poop-a-pillar.

Black Swallowtail still lives (so far), and he’s getting big! I still have a couple of tiny hatchlings over there. I hope they all make it.

I was supposed to be doing laundry, but it was too pretty a day to stay inside for all of it, so I made excuses to go and play with flutter-guys.

First Viceroy in my entire life!

Monarchs have been few and far between this year, but here’s a fluttery one for comparison.

Holding still.

Not a flutter-guy yet, but my little Spicebush doot-doot is still alive!

So is my Black Swallowtail, and he’s getting close to ready for pupal stage.

HOWEVER, when I was looking around to make sure that little guy would have enough left to eat…I found some new friends.

One (plus potential one).

Two.

Moar potentials.

C said she thought she has some parsley in the greenhouse that they could eat. I hope so, too, because I don’t know where I’d find Queen Anne’s Lace, or host plants grown for people that have zero pesticides, and they’ll starve if I can’t.

Found on the window by the patio door. Probably just cutworms, but cute because it’s their birthday.

Now flowers. I accidentally ended up with both kinds of “cardinal climber” this year. This one has the deeply cut leaves, and larger flowers.

This one has smaller, deeper red flowers, and feathery foliage.

Wrapped around everything, including this weigela. I’d let it go to seed last year, and then moved the Backstop, so it did the best it could with what it had.

Morning glory. Almost wilted, but still pretty.

Sweet Tea having one last hurrah.

Crocosmia (backwards, but I’m surprised to see them since I didn’t water the Bee Happy bed).

Milkweed didn’t amount to a piss-hole in the snow this year, but at least I’ll get to see a couple of flowers.

I have only a few pines left, but the scruffy little one I put on the west side is still alive.

NE asters.

Hm. That doesn’t look like Gaillardia…

That’s because it’s…rogue milkweed that’s sneaked across underground between the beds.

Babbling Brook, just because it’s pretty in the sun.

A short video clip, also just because it’s pretty in the sun.

Lo

/lō/

exclamation

archaic

1. used to draw attention to an interesting or amazing event.

   “and lo, the writer realized it was not actually the same word as ‘low’!”

I can understand it when it’s some random person who’s never seen it in print and assumes it’s like “Low, low prices,” but for the love of Christ, I just read it on a news web site. “Low and behold.” I’m not even making that up.

EDIT:

They’re fossil words! The ones so many people fuck up are almost exclusively fossil words! I’m copypasting the text in case the link goes away…

Some of the most intriguing words in the English language are what linguists call fossil words, so named because they are artifacts from another era and survive only in isolated usage. Here is a list of some of our language’s fossil words with definitions and the idiomatic phrases in which they appear:

1. Ado: bother over unimportant details (“without further ado” or, more rarely, “much ado about nothing”)
2. Amok (or amuck): in an uncontrolled manner (“run amok”)
3. Bandy: hit, pass, or toss around, or discuss lightly or employ off-handedly (“bandy about”); bowed (“bandy-legged”)
4. Bated: restrained or deducted (“wait with bated breath”)
5. Batten: lumber for flooring or for sealing or strengthening a joint or a flexible object such as a sail (“board and batten”); to provide or fasten with battens, or to fasten (“batten down the hatches”)
6. Beck: summons (“at (one’s) beck and call”)
7. Bygones: what has passed or is in the past (“let bygones be bygones”)
8. Craw: stomach or crop (“sticks in (one’s) craw”)
9. Deserts: excellence or worth, or what is deserved or merited (“just deserts”)
10. Dint: force or power (“by (sheer) dint of”)
11. Dudgeon: indignation (“high dudgeon”)
12. Eke: accomplish or get with difficulty (“eke out”)
13. Fettle: state of health or fitness (“in fine fettle”)
14. Fro: away or back (“to and fro”)
15. Hale: sound or very healthy (“hale and hearty”)
16. Hither: near or adjacent, or to this place (“hither and yon”)
17. Immemorial: before memory or tradition (“time immemorial”)
18. Jetsam: what is cast overboard from a ship (“flotsam and jetsam”) — distinguished from flotsam, a word denoting what floats from the wreckage of a ship (that term is used elsewhere than in the phrase “flotsam and jetsam” and so is not listed separately here)
19. Ken: range of knowledge, perception, or understanding, or view or range of vision (“beyond (one’s) ken”)
20. Kith: friends, neighbors, or relatives (“kith and kin”)
21. Loggerhead: blockhead (“at loggerheads,” meaning blocked, or stalled, by stubbornness); also, a type of turtle
22. Mettle: quality, or vigor or strength of, temperament (“test (one’s) mettle”)
23. Neap: a weak tide (“neap tide”)
24. Offing: the near future (“in the offing”); also, the deep ocean as seen from the shore
25. Petard: a container of explosives for breaching or breaking a barrier (“hoist by (one’s) petard”)
26. Shebang: everything that is pertinent (“the whole shebang”)
27. Shrift: confession (“short shrift,” with the idea that a condemned person is given little time to confess sins)
28. Sleight: stratagem, dexterity (“sleight of hand”)
29. Thither: more remote, or to that place (“hither and thither”)
30. Turpitude: depravity (“moral turpitude”)
31. Ulterior: beyond what is openly expressed (“ulterior motive”); also, farther, or more distant, or what is on the farther side
32. Vim: robustness (“vim and vigor”)
33. Wreak: bring about or cause (“wreak havoc”)
34. Wrought: manufactured, ornamented, or shaped, or excited (“wrought iron”)
35. Yore: the far past (“days of yore”)

I had told P that I wanted a $30 set of speakers for my birthday. He didn’t get a $30 set of speakers. I took yesterday off, but I did work on my actual birthday. Anyway, this is not speakers.

He also got me a cool little collapsible rake that I’ll use this fall and next spring, and…cake!

Miff and I didn’t accomplish much of Friday, but we did watch my new smart TV!

After USPS sent it to a town in MO with the same name, my solution for Bulky’s ugly plastic bag of straw arrived in the form of a leopard print nylon laundry bag. He’s fine with the change.

I’m actually writing this on Saturday night (10th) while P decides which Pokey-thangs to evolve, but I’m going to change the date to my birthday so I’ll be able to find it more easily in the future. I had a good birthday; C and The O bought me frosted pink Pop Tarts, and C made me take Friday off. P ordered me pizza for supper on Thursday, V texted me in the morning, T texted me, and R and Dad called in the evening. I talked R through getting their TV sound bar working, and then yesterday, I talked her through getting her phone and a tablet very like my 7″ one onto wifi. It was fun, being 29…again. Dad also said that on September 9th the year I was born, it was 36C, which is VERY hot for NS in September, especially back then… 29 years ago. 😉

I didn’t have any real projects planned, and didn’t make any big accomplishments, but I didn’t waste the entire weekend. On Friday, I swept off the patio, then decided to finally get around to putting away my saw, and I pressure washed that side of the house because it was kind of dusty-looking, with lots of spider webs and a big blob of bird poop on the window that had been bothering me.

Since I had the pressure washer out, I also washed some of my sandals that had dirty footprints.

I washed the stuff that sits on the north side of the patio, and also the rugs from the patio and the garage. Every time I wash the coir rugs, I get a little friend. I’m not sure, but this one might be a Tawny Emperor instead of a Hackberry (very difficult to tell adults apart).

I finally got the mulch around Thug Lyfe.

Better shot of pale purple asters.

Cup plant. Small because this is part of the group that Charlotte ate last spring.

I found one more Black Swallowtail cat. Hopefully, there’ll be enough left of that stuff for him to get to the pupal stage.

Harnessed Tiger Moth.

I finally got around to making the second “pot” for the water pickerel in the pond. The goddamned raccoons have mashed it, and it looks like crap, so I didn’t take pictures, but at least both of the mesh “pots” are done and well-anchored with nylon paracord and steel pegs in the ground. While I was there, though, I noticed this flower. I’d seen one before and forgot about it, but it’s from some elodea that I tossed in last spring. It’s now a LOT of elodea, and apparently happy in the pond.

I found my little Black Swallowtail cat again today. He’s pretty big…he might find enough to eat there after all. Fingers crossed!

I haven’t been doing enough projects to feel “inspired” to post, so I…haven’t. I have some random pictures that I uploaded, but didn’t post.

Crappy picture of pale purple asters that makes them look white. I think these are some that I bought last fall, and meant to cut back before the 4th of July so they’d be bushy, but never did. I think asters look fine just the way they grow anyway.

New England asters that I grew from one of the hundreds of seeds I’ve planted. Of course, they volunteered at the very edge of the Honeysuckle Horseshoe, which is not where I’d have deliberately placed a tall plant, but they’re NE asters, so they stay.

One little Spicebush doot-doot, not even big enough to look like bird poop.

MLBs aren’t the only ones who like scarlet pumpernickel; sulphurs do, too.

It was flea beetles and undesirable weather this year, but even somewhat damaged hardy hibiscus blooms are welcome at this point in time. I think they look nice, backed by hundreds of helenium flowers.

Last weekend, I finally got around to putting a border around Thug Lyfe. Well, most of it. All that’s on the other side at this point in time is the trumpet creeper and some blue mistflower, so I didn’t get another roll of border. I haven’t made up my mind what, if anything, I should add to the other side. This side has enough to border, though.

Yep, another poop picture. I don’t know what kind (Luna would be a safe guess), but there’s a big caterpillar in the sweetgum tree again this year. Sadly, I recognise caterpillar poop.

Yellow bear caterpillar. Yep, summer is almost gone.

Most people think you should never pick up a hitchhiker, but that’s not always true. If you’re less than 5 miles from a prison, you should probably be careful, but if you’re on the one-way by CVS, and a small hitchhiker lands on your window seal, you should probably hold your hand over him so he doesn’t blow off before you make it home to pick up a package that UPS left by the front door in view of the street instead of at the door that’s out of the weather, has a table, and is out of view of the riff-raff that walk by the house on their way to the park to…do whatever it is that unemployed people do while the rest of us are paying for their shit.

The little dude stayed right where he was until I got to Parview, and then I carefully cupped him in my hands and took him down to the Golden Globe (Glow…hehe) flutter-guy bush. He must have been tired to tolerate my hand hovering over him all the way home, and I know he was hungry because he was still an inch away from the flowers when he unrolled his built-in straw, ready for some grub!

Anyway, there are times when you should pick up a hitchhiker, at least if it’s a hungry little Fiery Skipper (I think) flutter-guy.

It wasn’t so bad this year; we actually went on Friday night and saw the glow, which is quite nice. Even nicer, though, were the butterflies that I saw right in our back yard!

Great Spangled Fritillary (which is just fun to say!)

Same guy, side view with the “spangles” that give him his common name visible.

Black Swallowtail, and I’m still going to think this is one that grew up eating the carrot, dill, and parsley that I grew for them.

Cute little Sulphur on a ‘toonya. Cloudless, I think.

Black form female Eastern Tiger Swallowtail. I’ve seen a lot of black form at Parview…I wonder whether it’s because there are actual Pipevine Swallowtails in the area, which I’d never seen at 544 (except in Butterfly Lady’s yard).

Beautiful Eastern Tiger Swallowtail dude. He hung around for ages.

Just a few miscellaneous flowers. I feel kind of sorry for helenium because its common name of “sneezeweed” makes people think that: a) it’s a weed; and, b) it makes you sneeze, even though neither is true. It’s pretty, blooms late when others are starting to fade, and I don’t think it’s a weed at all.

Giant yellow hyssop doesn’t look like much, and only a few flowers open at any one time, which doesn’t help it look any better, but the bees still consider it worth growing!

I had hoped the pink salvia that did so well last year in the Bee Happy bed would return, but for all the flowers I let go to seed, only this one plant grew.

‘Husker Red’ that thinks it’s spring. Bees won’t mind!

A house plant, not a Bistro plant, but still a bloom. My philodendron ‘Prince of Orange’ flowered, but the flower looks so much like the leaves that I almost didn’t notice it, and wouldn’t have if I’d not been watering it!

Left, unretouched, taken with Little Pink Tablet’s unimpressive camera on normal setting. I tried not to move,then switched to the “Beauty face” setting. I don’t think I want to be quite that beautiful! 😉

C’s been on vacation all this week, and although Monday was steady and pleasant, Tuesday through Thursday were flat-out hair-on-fire customer emergency clusterfuck disasters. Made it through, though!

I haven’t taken many pictures because I haven’t done any garden stuff, but I did want to document the first bloom on the (dis)obedient plant that I got this year. Not fully opened yet, and since last night was laundry night, I forgot to look, but I will at some point during the weekend.

Two of the cup plants didn’t get to bloom this year because Charlotte neatly nipped off the tops, and apparently these do not branch when cut back. Anyway, the rest of them flowered–in varying heights–with these being nearly 8′ tall. I do like the big leaves, though, and have seen birds drinking from the “cups”. Bees also love the flowers.

Only one little Spicebush Doot-doot this time; I don’t think I want to enclose them because I’ve got a lot going on, and what if I forgot and the little dude starved to death because he ran out of leaves in his enclosed space. I’d feel worse about that than I would about him being eaten by a spider or a bird, so for now, I’ve just left him in his little sleeping bag. I had two, but the last time I looked, I could find only one of them. Still at the bird poop stage.