Pods & Possums
Just to note to let you know that I'll be computer-free on the beach next week. In the meantime I'll leave you with a few recent photos from my garden.
My son noticed this week that our milkweed (Asclepias) pods have started to open. One of his favorite activities is to 'help' release the seeds from the pods and watch them float away in the wind.
The seed pods are a work of art to me.
Unfortunately we didn't see any monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) caterpillars on the milkweed. But there are plenty of Giant Milkweed Bugs (Sephina gundlachi), as you can see in the photo below. While these bugs feed on the plants they don't seem to be doing too much harm so I'm letting them live.
This little opossum (Didelphimorphia) in the photo below is one of the nightly visitors to our back garden. [Sorry about the poor quality of the image. I had to take the photo from inside the house]. While he might look like a rodent of unusual size the opossum is in fact the only species of marsupials in North America. Every night this little guy searches for food under our birdfeeder, then drops by the patio to look for any other delicious morsels. He really liked the pumpkin seeds I left for him that evening.
Hope all of you have a terrific week. I'll be back after my vacation!
"We hit the sunny beaches where we occupy ourselves keeping the sun off our skin, the saltwater off our bodies, and the sand out of our belongings." ~Erma Bombeck
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7 comments:
Have a wonderful time, Dawn!
I'm a little relieved to know that your milkweed also goes unvisited by the Monarchs so far - I hope they still show up.
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
Opossums are cute little animals ... do they do much damage in the garden?
I love the picture of the milkweed seeds exploding. I have two different varieties in my garden and I'm hoping I'll get to see this.
Have a good holiday ...
How lovely to have such a wonderful night visitor!!!
Have a nice vacation! Your pictures are wonderfull again. And wow! Opossum! it´s "Opossumi" in Finnish :) You have all the funny creatures there. There really is no opossumes here...
Beautiful site and photo's..enjoyed my visit!!
Hope you enjoy your vacation!!
You are probably back now and I hope your vacation was wonderful! I see you like the bugs, too :o)
Thanks Everyone!
I appreciate your good wishes. We really did have a lovely time on Galveston Island.
Hi Annie!
I was wondering if mine was the only monarch-free milkweed in town. I wonder how I might attract them to my garden. Hmmm...
Hello Kate!
Good luck with your milkweed plants. I have a soft spot in my heart for the little possums. They tend to be scavengers and have never bothered anything in my garden save an occasional piece of rotting fruit or seeds under the bird feeder.
Thanks Libby,
It's always good to see you drop by.
Sanni
Thanks for teaching me how to write possum Finnish. We have a lot of interesting creatures here, but I still wish we had cute hedgehogs like you do in Finland. :-)
Hi Catherine,
Thank you for visiting my blog. We had a wonderful stay in Galveston. My son was so happy to see the Gulf again.
Hello Mary!
Hope you are having a good summer as well. Yes, I do enjoy insects. They are intriguing little critters.
Take Care,
Dawn
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