Final Days of June

On the bird feeder, a red wing blackbird!  They aren't rare, but I've never had one in the garden, and I was excited.  Little things.  :)  

I continue the ongoing battle with aphids and their attraction to my milkweed plants.  Having tried the soapy water (finally, even adding a little Neem oil), the most efficient method of destroying the little buggers seems to be examining the plants daily and using my garden gloves, smushing them by hand.  Now, I'm going to have to try diatomaceous earth, which I've recently read about.  Last year was the first time they became a problem, but I really want them to leave my milkweed plants alone.  

"Young nymphs increase gradually in size and within a week give birth to many more nymphs....
Most aphids, except for the sexual forms, do not have to mate in order to reproduce, and they produce live young, rather than eggs."  Source

Why it is so important to me to keep my milkweed plants healthy:  Pollinator Cities Really Could Save the Monarachs.

----------

Two of my favorite people:  daughter Erin and long-time friend Ren.  They make me laugh-- both of them are witty and funny.

Erin and Ren

----------

I love words and on Naomi's blog she mentions some of the words for rain in Scotland:  

"Musical, melodic words like spindrift (spray whipped up by the wind) and aftak (an easing or lull in a storm or rain). Hilarious, fun-to-say words that you’d swear were made up, like drookit (absolutely drenched) and daggle (to fall in torrents).

And words that seem to be plucked straight out of a Scottish novel, transporting you through time and space to a place where “wild” still holds meaning, and ghosts in tartan haunt your imaginings. Yillen (a shower of rain, especially with wind), uplowsin (heaving rain), smirr (a fine rain drizzle), and goselet (a soaking, drenching, downpour)."

We've had some goselets here lately, but my favorite is spindrift--as long as I'm inside, that is.   

The many Scottish descriptions of rain kind of reminds me of Smilla's Sense of Snow.

   

 And somewhere I found this Swedish word:

Gokotta--The act of waking early in the morning with the purpose of going outside and listening to the first birds sing."  

How specific and concise! 

----------

Mail

from Connie

:) she used one of the old envelopes she found

Below I used an image Connie sent me 

on a postcard "Thank You" to Bryce Eleanor--the cat-lady-in-training.

 to niece Maggie, also a cat and animal lover

back

This is worth a smile.