Coneflowers

One of my favorite and most hardy late summer plants is the Coneflower.   These have survived the stifling heat wave that gripped the south a couple weeks ago.  Fortunately we've had some relief with frequent rain showers the past few days.  

I hope your weekend is a good one.  I'm off work this weekend, so I plan to get caught up on some much needed house cleaning.  Thank you for visiting ;)

Summertime Hummers

We've had 2 to 3 little hummingbirds hanging around this entire summer.  At times I've seen up to 6 or 7 of them fighting over the feeders.  I haven't taken many photos yet.  I'm waiting to see if the feeders become more crowded within the next couple of months, particularly during September when fall migration begins.  Last year there was a feeding frenzy at the feeders during that period- up to 4 dozen of these tiny birds at once!  It can be challenging to capture good shots of the hummers on my back porch due to the areas of bright sun vs dark shade.  

I haven't been around much lately- working quite a bit these days.  I hope you are all doing well.  I don't know about you, but I'm ready for some cooler weather.  Temperatures here have been in the upper 90's and lower 100's with a heat index of 110-120- now that's HOT!  Many of my plants have succumbed to the unbearable heat.  However, it was cooler today, at last some temporary relief.  I was able to sit on the back porch for a little while without becoming drenched in sweat.  

Have a great week everyone!  :)

Bush Katydids

While scanning the flower garden with my camera lens, I spotted something move on the Blue Salvia.   I stepped in and zoomed closer.  Through the lens I saw a couple itsy bitsy insects, one tinier than the other, with super long antennae.  It was the antennae moving that had, seconds before then, caught my attention.  Were these young grasshoppers?  I wondered.

A quick look online informed me that these are nymph katydids.  More than likely, they are fork-tailed bush katydids, the most widespread katydids in the U.S. 

These little nymphs will lose their colors as they grow, with the exception of green.  I had seen the adult katydids before but didn't know the difference between them and grasshoppers.  

I found a couple interesting web sites about katydids- Bug Eric's blog (click here for the link) and Bug of the Week (click here).   

I hope your week gets off to a great start!  Thank you so much for visiting my blog!  

Patience

"Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet" 

~ Aristotle

Eastern Bluebird

July 2015