Thursday, April 14, 2011

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Blue Frogs

Near Hamburg, photographed by Dierk Haasis. Go and see them! It's spring, and they're blue because it's their mating season.

The text of the story is in German, but you can get help reading it, if your German is as rudimentary as mine, from an on-line translator like Google or Babel Fish (Yahoo's translator).

Monday, April 11, 2011

Red Wasps Visit Honeysuckle Blossoms

When I walked down to have a look at the honeysuckle vine which has just come into bloom on my back fence, a red wasp brushed past my hair on its way out of the foliage. I don't know whether these wasps pollinate honeysuckle or not -- have never seen one on a honeysuckle blossom.

When I used to have a vegetable garden, they would be thick on the blooms of the black-eyed peas.

Honeysuckle, April 11, 2011, 2nd View

Honeysuckle, April 11, 2011, 1st View

Saturday, April 9, 2011, had the hottest temperature ever recorded for that date in Nashville, at 92 degrees F. (33 degrees C.). And Sunday was almost as hot. The abundant sunshine encouraged all the deciduous trees to leaf out and the blue iris near my old flowering crabapple stump to venture to show its tight little buds, as if not to be outdone by the honeysuckle, or by the dogwoods which are still in full white bloom everywhere.

Blue Iris Buds

Crabapple Stump, with Iris

The tall shoots near the roots of the stump are leafing out, too. I'm hoping they are suckers off the old tree. It used to be covered with lovely pink blooms every spring, before it had to be cut down a couple of years ago, because it was dying. The leaves are still too young for me to identify the species definitely. These shoots may just be the offspring of the invasive golden raintree at the corner of the driveway.

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