Florida Chit Chat #192

gulf fritillaries feed on passion vines, so do the Zebra longwings, the cats look much alike except the Zebra's cats are basic color is white.

Sylvain....
We'll just come pick your leaves that are covered with eggs and re-stock the rest of Florida!!

MerryMary, you DO that. I have loads of leaves ready for harvesting. Hey, once they go brown, the green never returns. So, if you want them, just come by with a couple laundry baskets and fill them to your heart's content.

Sylvain.

As I pull up yet more and more Passiflora 'Incense' every day, I always do a quick check up and down the vine length to see if any wayward caterpillars are present. If they are, I move them to a permanent planting of passionvine and let them eat to their belly's content. The caterpillars never seem interested in my red-flowering Grape-Leaf Passion vine, P. vitifolia. I've heard they will eat it when there is no other passionvines around, but it is definitely not on the top of their menu preferences.

Jeremy

Is everyone sleeping?? Kinda quiet here in Florida!

To Hot to think.

I made it to the library today, mostly to pay some bills online. I'm not feeling well. I had some raw red cabbage in a salad for dinner a few days ago and I seem to have picked up some form of dysentery. Yuck! But at least I may have lost a few pounds of unneeded body weight since no food is getting digested for very long. Tummy upset and a fairly severe headache.

I hope others are doing better!

Jeremy

Sorry you are sick, take care of your self

Sandy

Hope you feel better Jeremy! Try soups and light foods-scrambled eggs, etc and stay hydrated.

Busy as a beaver trying to do everything with building, moving, change of addresses are a nightmare to do these days. You wouldn't even believe it! Makes me long for the days when we just sent out a bunch of change of address cards & that was that. Changing, doctors, dentists, & all the records. You simply wouldn't believe how hard it is to get your phone disconnected!!!! (I should have gone the easy route & not paid the bill ---- then they would have shut it off in a heartbeat!) I called them & told them, I went through the website & told them & then called them again. Then I get another bill ---- it's still connected. DuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuH!!!! How hard is it????? I then had to spend & I'm dead serious 2 hrs. 40 min. on the phone to go from one person to the next up the line & different depts. & travel up the supervisor trail to finally get someone who understood I ordered my phone disconnected 6 weeks ago in 20 different ways & it's still on & I don't owe a bill & furthermore YOU owe me for 1/2 a month that was paid in advance. Sheesh!!!!!
Then I got a Trojan horse infection on the computer. Had to spend days with that. Then I ran clean scans for 2 days but then some niggling feeling told me to do it again & I did yesterday & there were 2 small viruses ---- 1 said it was from Dell? --- but kicked those out of the computer. Now I need to do a backup but want to make sure-sure all is squeaky clean so will run scans again just because I think I don't believe in anything anymore.

Y'all have a good weekend!

Ann

Jeremy

hope you get to feeling well soon.

Ann

I know first hand the mess that is involved in moving, hang in there it will get better.

Jan

Yes, Jeremy, don't ignore the headache --- remember what happened to you & things can show up later so if you still suffer then go get checked out again.

Thanks Jan, I think I'm beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. At least the paperstack is getting thinner. LOL!

Ann

Thanks all for your well wishes. I finally broke down and went to the doctor this afternoon. As I expected, I was prescribed Flagyl, an antibiotic that knocks out both bacteria and amoebae, and I have a followup with the doctor next week. I feel well enough for a few hours at a time that I get out to the garden for a while. It was cool enough yesterday afternoon following a rain and with the threat of a thunderstorm in the distance that never arrived at my house, so I used the opportunity to transplant some azaleas and do some garden cleanup. Amazing how when the rain comes following a dry spell that the weeds can grow a foot within a week or so!

I had an amazing encounter with a tiny hummingbird in my garden yesterday afternoon. The hummingbird suddenly appeared a few feet directly in front of my face and just hovered there for about 30 seconds, moving a little closer at times, then backing up, obviously checking me out. I stayed perfectly still and was able to engage it eyeball to eyeball. It made a little chirp (I've never heard a hummingbird make a noise!), it got some sideviews of me, then flew off. It must have known I was "bird-friendly" by possibly overhearing the neighborly conversation I had with a mockingbird earlier in the day. LOL

Jeremy

Jeremy that was cool.

Any one plants a fall vegg garden? I need pictures

Sandy

Jeremy, Yes, the little hummers can be quite vocal! I did not know that either until the last year or two. To me, it sounds like a sort of morse code chattering sound. And let a male try to horn in on another male's territory & you'll hear what is unmistakably Humming Bird screams! I hope to one day soon see a photo of a tiny hummer sipping syrup from your hand. They can get very accustomed to people --- certain people in particular.
Good to hear that you got checked out & have the meds to kick the amoebic butt!

Sandy, sounds as if you're feeling quite spry of late. Your foot must be feeling so much better. I know it was a long row to hoe for you; it seemed you suffered with it for far too long.

No I still hurt, just get over my second round with MSA(?) but I am just keep trucking.
Get my new camera and going to use it.
I have a better picture but not going to post it here, saving it for a special contest.

Well Sandy, you must have a real winner then because the photo you just posted is nothing short of PERFECT! I can't imagine how it could possibly be improved upon. KUDOS!

Thanks Lot closer, and even closer you can see the scales.

Sandy

Good Morning all! Thought I would bump this to the top since the old thread shows up and this one is lost down the way. This may help Jeremy!!!
I have not spent much gardening time~~~it's been way too hot and humid unless I get out there at 7 for an hour or so and get watering done and necessities. Need to do some serious weeding!!

Sandy,
Thats what I call picture perfect. Beautiful butterfly. Enjoy your new camera. Bonnie

Good morning everyone

Stunning!

Thanks

You got a very nice camera & you have a good eye. there is so much detail in that photo....you can almost feel the texture & veins of the flower. Kudos!

Thank you, I like my new camera very much and the new 50mm macro lens that came Yesterday is growing on me, still not totally happy with it but it will do what I want.
I like this one, took it with the 28-300mm macro.

Me too. I like it. You lose me with your techno speak but I'll take your word --- ah hem --- photo for it. :-)

macro means live size more or less. You can get closer to the thing you want to take a picture of. The higher the number the larger the size but you do not need to get as close.

Veeery nice! Next time --- for me please --- cause I used to work with bees --- get a close up of their hind legs where they carry the pollen balls. Those legs have these curved sctions on them almost like how thorns come off a stem (only not thorny) & they stick the pollen in htere. It's very cool & I think others would find it fascinating too.

I have this one, will have to wait until more flowers on the sunflowers.

Sorry missed the picture
Will try again

That' s okay, you'll have other chances. Even in the above picture they have some pretty impressive size pollen balls. Sometimes I wonder how they can fly with all that pollen weight! In fact; when they have THAT much pollen you may not be able to see "the hook" very well as the pollen collecction can get so large it obscures the portion I was speaking of.

I am going to try to set them up, to come where I want them. Going to fix up some honey water and dab it on some of the flowers. Maybe then I will not have to chase them all over the plant. LOL

sandy

Good idea Sandy. Better yet, use some straight honey! You can use a toothpick to apply it. Don't worry; it won't take much at all! I mean, you don't have to put a big glob on there at all. They will know what it is & go after it. But I warn you; you may end up with too many to take a photo of unless you want a huge mass of bees. LOL! Put the honey on & stay there --- that way you'll be able to get them before too many congregate. Word travels fast with bees.
PS- Be calm, if they land on you don't worry, they aren't going to sting you unless you get upset. Tip: Bees are highly offended by our breath so DON'T blow on them! They also are in a worse mood on rainy days as it interferes with their work. Makes sense right?

Thanks, I will be dealing mostly with native bees, a very large bumble bee and only a couple of honey bees.
I am not worried about them stinging.

Cool!

Now that is a close up! lol

Darla

Good pics Wren!!
I would like to know if anyone has used armadillo repellent & does it work? I have one digging up all my Amaryllis driving me nuts!!!

I could send you Andre, but he would just want to play with it.

No I have no problem with armadillo so I can not help

Thank you about the pictures
Sandy

Rene10, Yes, it's called a gun!
Another thing you can do is that they have a habit of following the same trail all the time. So, here's what you can do: Take some chicken wire or any kind of wire or fencing like that; start at your Amarys & run it out to where you think they are coming in your yard at (or beelining to your amarys). You have to make 2 rows & will make the opening wide at the end & narrowing slowly into your amarys. You can put a Have A Heart trap at the narrow end. The wire has to funnel right into the trap. They will follow that wire right along the length & end up in the trap. Then you get to take them off somewhere & relocate them. NOW --- I think the law says you have to hire an liscensed wildlife catcher to do this but hey.....
BTW, the wire should be around 20 - 21" high.

Good morning everyone
Has anyone every heard of asparagus triangularis this is a rare asparagus fern.