Pests Everywhere!

Even though it has been a beautiful spring (see last post), it has been a very destructive one.  No, not the weather.  Bugs!!  Nearly all my flowers and trees are inundated with leaf-eating, needle-destroying caterpillars and/or worms.  They are everywhere!  My evergreen plant in the front has HUNDREDS of caterpillars on it.  This happened a year or two ago as well.  I looked up what kinds of caterpillars eat evergreens and found the most common ones are the larvae of the sawfly (never heard of it, let alone seen one??) or the gypsy moth.  Looked both up and none of the pictures shown looks like what's on my evergreen??

Here's what my evergreen is supposed to look like.

Here's what it looks like now.

In that first picture you don't notice there's anything wrong, but if you look closer, this is what you see!

And here's what some of my other plants look like.  The leaves on my big tree have holes where they've been eaten.

Some leaves have this 'thing' on them that look like something's going to hatch any minute.

There are little worms hanging from threads everywhere.  Here's all that's left of my azalea.

And the hostas in the backyard have little brown specks like dirt on their leaves.

Even the rhododendrons have chunks taken out of their leaves, even though they are blooming beautifully.

I sprayed the eco-friendly spray on the evergreen a few days ago, but it didn't seem to do anything.  Got a 3-in-one spray today and sprayed EVERYTHING.  Will see if that helps.  In the meantime, at least so far the columbine are going great guns and don't seem to have bugs on them (knock on wood).

Will keep you posted.

Spring Update

The first flowering trees are now just about done but the later flowering trees like the dogwood and lilacs are in their full glory now.  We're really having a spring this year and not just a fly-by-night spring that's here today and gone tomorrow.

The iris I planted last year are also in full bloom and because of all the rain we've had there are scads of little violets.

There were foxes under my shed (see Night Adventures) but I think they left the day after I put the post up.  Now the usual resident is back - a very skittish woodchuck.  It's okay.  I'm sure he'll/she'll get used to me.  I think it might be a she since I saw it collecting leaves and things to make it a little cozier under there.  There may be woodchuck babies on the way.  Or not.  Good to have one in residence again.

A really beautiful spring!

Wild Horses

Wild Brumbies Run
by Lee Emmett

wild brumbies run
rumbling hooves rush
through trees and brush
manes glow in sun

galloping, racing
majestic horses
on high-country courses
leaders out-pacing

nostrils are flaring
steaming out-breath
defying death
heart-spirit baring

sweat pours off flanks
taut muscles ripple
leaf-shadows' stipple
plunge river-banks

exhaustion depletes
graze, mild and content
all passion spent
placid day greets




Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary


Last of the Spanish Mustangs


The Brumbies of Australia are magnificent creatures, a symbol of the wilderness and a link to the past. However, they are also an environmental threat and an object of cruelty. Do these wild horses have a place in Australia’s future?  Learn more here.