The cute little tablet has only a front facing camera, and not a great one, but it’s good enough to play with.

Cute little RCA Voyager II tablet in question; taken on Tuesday, but this has been a very busy week, so I didn’t get around to posting it. It’s not an expensive tablet at all, but I really like it very much, and for what little bit it cost, it’s a great tablet. Shown in its cerise case beside my 10″ tablet. I’m actually thinking of getting the 11″ RCA…something. If it’s as good as this little one, I’d like to keep it in the bedroom, attached to speakers so I can watch video and listen to music in there without having to drag my 10″ tablet in and set it up.

Since “not much” quite accurately describes what I accomplished over the weekend, there’s not a lot to say; just a few photos.

I didn’t technically accomplish this, since the seeds did all the hard work, but the trumpet creeper I planted where I spent five hours of my life and half the tools we own (and a lot of sore muscles) getting rid of that accursed bush honeysuckle that was growing in the base of the tree…looks pretty good for its first year. I’m hoping there will be enough light for it to really make a good run up that huge, old tree. Trumpet creeper can actually damage smaller trees by weighing them down, but this tree is enormous, and it’s osage-orange, which is so hard that Tree Dude charges extra for the chains and bars it’s going to burn up, cutting it. I don’t think trumpet creeper is going to do it any harm, and I’d be overjoyed if the creeper escaped into the woods, since that area is jammed full of invasive bush honeysuckle that I’d love to see get choked out and die!

Again, not me, but I did find a good spot for them, and I do water them every day it doesn’t rain. I know I’ve taken other photos, but caladium is just so pretty!

Pond could use a bit of grooming, I think…it’s looking rather jungle-y. After a winter of looking like barren crap, though, I’ll take jungle-y.

Another pond lily! If they’ll bloom in as little sun as my pond gets, I think they’d be quite “floriferous” in full sun. Still haven’t decided whether I need a water garden over on the southwest side. Hm.

Other than a bit of weeding I did to expose what’s left of the tomatoes and clean up the edges of the south flowerbed, this was really all I accomplished in the way of gardening. Behold….my ghetto greenhouse! I was concerned about the mulberry cuttings getting dried out, since it’s not supposed to rain this week until (maybe) Friday, so I loosely wrapped them with plastic to keep the humidity up.

After I hacked back the purple smoketree last week (week before?), I was a little concerned I’d gone too far, but I needn’t have been. The first year, I let the smoketree and the Pee Gee hydrangea go a bit tall because I wanted the privacy block, but now they look funny when the leaves are gone. This year, I cut the smoketree back where I should have the first time, and I’ll do the hydrangea after it finishes blooming. Smoketree forgave me; it’s already branching!

I had a few photos that I hadn’t had good reason (or time…or inclination) to post, so I’ll throw them in here.

Not really the Bistro, but it’s green and bearing fruit. Gold Dust dracaena (Dracaena surculosa) that I hadn’t noticed even flowering has…a fruit. I don’t know whether it’s edible, nor do I intend to find out, but it was sort of cool-looking. Parview has pretty damned good windows for getting house plants to flower (and fruit).

The morning glories had the devil’s own time getting established, between the hot, dry start to summer, and Charlotte’s tendency to…eat them, but they did get to bloom. Okay, so they climbed the bee balm instead of the tomato cage they were supposed to climb, but the flowers are pretty!

These will probably amount to nothing more than wasted money, but I had to try. They’re red mulberry cuttings, and if I can get even a small tree out of ten cuttings, I will have some pretty happy birds (and other creatures, since lots of animals like to eat mulberries). Assuming one lives, I’m planting it far away from cars, patios, sidewalks, houses, or anything I wouldn’t want covered with squishy red berry gunk!

Still no Monarchs, but I found some “friends” on milkweed. Cute and fuzzy, but met with an unfortunate, watery (and dish detergent-y) demise. 

My other little friend was far more fortunate. He took up residence in my folded zero gravity lounge. Tree frogs are so adorable…those little toes! 

I wandered over by the (horribly overgrown and in dire need of tending) pond yesterday, and happened to notice a tiny new friend on one of the water pickerel leaves…a tiny bebe tree frog! He wasn’t in a good spot for a close shot, but he was adorable nonetheless, so I did the best I could with a my phone, a monopod, and a remote shutter trigger. I could just see where he had the tiniest bit of tail left, and I’d estimate his size at approximately 0.75″.

While I was trying to find a good position to photograph the bebe tree frog, I found out I wasn’t just a froggy gramma once, but twice, because I noticed a tiny bebe Cletus, too! Bebe Cletus was a bit closer, and approximately 1″ (he’s parked on frogbit with Hygrophila difformis beside him).

Nothing to do with the Bistro, but Miff looked like such a dork, being a Kleenex box on the back of the couch.

I don’t know what triggered it, but this weekend’s migraine ended up bad enough to require shots of Toradol and Benadryl, and a couple of pills for nausea. Not that it has anything to do with Parview, but does explain why I accomplished nothing (especially considering the heat index got up to 108).

Friday after work, I was hot and tired, so I didn’t do much. My Black Swallowtail caterpillars are getting bigger, though, and it looks like I’ll have enough to feed them until they’re ready to be flutter-guys.

The phlox actually got to bloom, no thanks to Charlotte. I wouldn’t call it “tall” phlox, exactly, but at least it has flowers!

I was strolling around on Friday, looking at flowers, and came across these mutant coneflowers. Although they look kind of cool, I had to get rid of them because this plant had aster yellows, which is contagious (spread by plant hoppers), and the blooms are much too popular with the local wildlife to let them be destroyed by a disease. I don’t think I got the roots because the Honeysuckle Horseshoe is such a goddamned tangle of growth, but hopefully the root will die without any leaves to collect sunlight. Otherwise, I’ll have to pull it next year.

Now for the reason I ended up with a migraine…I was up much too late on Friday night, but I did get something for my pain. I already typed it all out in an email to R, so I’ll copypasta:

The Imperial Moth is one of the big silkmoths (same family as the pale green Luna Moth), and of course, I’ve seen pictures of them since I had a book about insects when I was just a little kid, but had never seen one in real life. Last night, I was up WAY later than usual because Miff fell asleep all curled up on my legs when I was watching Netflix, and he was too cute to roust from his comfortable slumber. When he finally moved, I got up and took a shower, then went outside to make sure the garage and cars were locked. This huge thing flew under the patio roof, and I knew it was some kind of moth, but figured it was one of the big hawkmoths I see fairly often. Once it landed, I knew it wasn’t a hawkmoth, it was a silkmoth, and not only that, but one I’d never seen before except in pictures–an Imperial!

Problem: it was dark, and the outdoor lights are hardly sufficient for a good photo, and on top of that, he’d landed way up by the roof. This is a 1948 ranch house, so it’s not like the roof is high, but I wanted a good shot. Normally, I leave wildlife alone; my insect collection is of photographs, not corpses, and once I have a picture, that’s all I want and the creature is free to go. This time, though, I did interfere with his business because I had to catch him for a daytime shot in good light. I got the pool skimmer net I use to clean leaves out of the pond, and with that, I could just reach. I caught him and put him into a plastic container with a tissue for him to hold (most insects and crustaceans have a thigmotactic response, which basically boils down to their being stressed by slippery surfaces that don’t allow them anything to grip). Since I was wearing a nightdress and had my hair in a pink towel, I’m glad it was late and we’re the last house on a quiet, dead end street because I’ll bet I was some sight out there in the middle of the night with my pool skimmer! Anyway, he was frightened and fluttery, so I put the container right beside an air conditioning vent to cool him down (chilly insects move slowly) so he wouldn’t beat up his beautiful wings. These moths don’t eat–their mouthparts are vestigial only–so their sole purpose as adults is to find a mate and reproduce. They live a few weeks at most. Anyway, I kept him overnight, and about an hour ago, I figured it was a good balance between “I need daylight” and “he flies at night, and won’t move if the sun is up”, so I took him outside and did his photo shoot, then stuck the piece of bark I’d coaxed him onto in a crack on the sweetgum tree. He should be safe there from hungry birds and raccoons, and since sweetgum is one of their host plants (Luna uses it, too), he may find a female close by… The girls are a bit bigger, and often show more yellow. They’re variable, though, and I did at first think this was a girl, but then I looked at his antennae…feathery, with lots of pheromone receptors to help him find lovely ladies.

…and here is the beautiful creature in question, next to my hand for scale.

By himself.

On the tree. He left some time on Saturday night.

I know where bees sleep!

I’m adding this post-weekend (taken Monday night) because it looks cool even if the Spicebush Swallowtail was too fluttery to let me get a good shot. Also, all of my Black Swallowtail cats are gone, but they were so big that I think they more likely wandered off to pupate than got eaten by something (at least I hope so). No Pipevine Swallowtails so far this year, and no Spicebush cats. I had two Monarch cats, but can no longer find them, and the milkweed looks very bad. Anyway, here’s a pretty Spicebush boy amongst some bright flowers.

Just kidding…hibiscuseses. They were so pretty that I had to take some pictures this morning. 

Well, what I’m going to do this year with drip irrigation is finished. I still intend to put in a few soaker hoses, but the drip is all done!

On Friday after work, I was too tired to actually do anything, so I just swept the patio clear of all the leaves, sticks, and other tree debris left from the storm earlier in the week (the one that brought us some more rain, but seriously fucked up some parts of town). On Saturday, I got up early, and a little before 0700h, I was outside, digging the trench to bury the line to the Trail of Tears bed. It was already hot, but I finished that, then put in the third drip line in the Honeysuckle Horseshoe. Since we had to mow, I couldn’t just leave the line lying in the grass, so I decided to dig the trench for that one as well. I did my best to put the grass back whence it had come, so the trenches aren’t very noticeable. I had a few spots where I removed dandelions, or there was black medic (which doesn’t like to stay together when dug up), but as long as I don’t let them dry out until the grass roots have regenerated in their new spot, they’ll be fine.

I still have to tidy up the “octopus” area, but it was so goddamned hot, and it’s not like I have nothing else to do, so I’ll leave it for now.

Saturday afternoon, I started picking out the last few weeds in the poor, sad-looking milkweed bed, and putting in some new mulch to protect the soaker hose from UV light damage. I didn’t finish it until this morning, but it’s done now.

I was concerned about insects crawling into the soaker hoses in search of cooler, damp spots, and also of mulch or debris getting into the hoses, so I got some vinyl caps on eBay (I don’t know what their actual purpose might be, but it must be something to do with car audio), and those will go over the quick connects on the soaker hoses while they’re not in use.

After we finished mowing, I connected the tee and laid out the soaker hose for the fence line so it would straighten. I had to water pot plants (and run irrigation) this morning, and it’s laundry day, but in early afternoon, I sucked it up (heat index of 104F) and went out to place the soaker hose. The way it ended up, I have just enough hose to add to the one in the “swamp” part of Sarah Flah’s bed so that the gaillardia will get watered. Well, after I get another tee, that is. Anyway, I didn’t take pictures, but all I have left to do on the fence line is put a bit of mulch over the spots where the hose is exposed; I “wove” it under the honeysuckle where it’s rooted/touching the ground, so it won’t be a big job to put down the mulch.

While I was working on the milkweed on Saturday, I found a couple of very welcome friends. I couldn’t find them again today, but I hope they’re still there! Monarchs have thus far been very scarce; P says he’s seen a couple, but I haven’t seen a single one yet this year.

I forget what I was doing in the Black Swallowtail bed, but I was shocked to see that it’s finally earned its name! I had almost decided to just stop watering it and let the plants live or die, but then I saw five little reasons to keep watering. I hope nobody eats them.

Random picture of Miff, who is a part of the Bistro even if he doesn’t go outside because when I come in sweaty and dog-tired from working out there, I can basically count on having company when I lie down to watch Netflix.

 I was out on the patio, about to take a photo of Onje when I heard a little “plop” on the concrete beside me. It got Boo’s attention, so I guessed it must be a frog. It was nearly dark and hard to see, but a frog it was! First, he jumped up onto my anti-gravity lounge. 

Then, he hopped up and had a seat on the chair. 

​I used the drip system for the first real time today; I ran three drip lines, and since I’d got the quick connects, I also ran the soaker hose on the milkweed, mostly just to see if everything got enough water. It worked fine, and once I have the other drip line in, I’ll try them all. We’ll see. Aside from the ugly old painted phone line I’m going to cut off, my water octopus doesn’t even look too bad. 

This is what happens when you ignore spilt soil and sunflower seeds in your trunk, and a little water gets inside. I did take them out, of course. 

One very happy, slightly intoxicated bee in a native hibiscus bloom. He really was jammed in there! 

Miffy likes the drip system because instead of running the hose and carrying water outside, I was inside, sitting on my arse, petting him. 

Considering how much fucking work I did, I have very few pictures! Anyway, I took Friday off, and spent the day installing spot watering irrigation tubing. It was a million degrees, and I was my very own drip irrigation system, and bees were walking on my head. I didn’t take pictures because I was too hot to give a goddamn. I also laid out the soaker hose for the milkweed bed, but didn’t take photos of that because it still looks like shit.

This picture has nothing to do with any of the work I did; it’s just a very pretty Kopper King bloom, no thanks to the flea and Japanese beetles that have attacked all of my hardy hibiscus this year. Last year it was sawflies…it’s always something!

I wasn’t working totally alone; I had a beautiful Eastern Tiger boy for company. He was too busy eating to stay very still, but at least he let me get a photo.

On Sunday, I worked on the distribution line between the faucet and flowerbed. I drilled a neat hole through the border…

Then, I dug a shallow trench to bury the line. I’ll have to keep it watered so the strip of grass covering it doesn’t die back, but it looks okay. I started these lines (to Sarah-Flah’s Giant No-Mow Flowerbed) in their respective spots, then joined them farther up so I would have less digging, and less disturbed grass. I think it’ll look okay.

I also started laying emitter tubing in the Honeysuckle Horseshoe, but didn’t take photos of that, either, because there’s really nothing to see. I’m not finished, though; I needed more tubing, and some elbows.