Feeding at Dusk

Tree swallows feed at dusk on this warm October day.

I spotted a female hummer on my lone feeder this evening. I will offer her just made sugar-water in the morning and hope she makes her way down south.

Window open for Owl

It's been very warm and suddenly cool, but a few days have allowed us to keep the windows open through the night. The bonus after fresh air and no energy bill is the sound of what is outside. The trill of a screech owl in the still dark morning is a prize to me. There are some that sound like a horse whinnie, but this fall's owl sounds like a tiny scream.
I wonder if the owl we are hearing is one that was born in a large woodpecker box two years ago. We had a box of three; one adult was lost (hit on the road by a car) but the remaining adult adult finished raising the brood to fledge.
Here is a pic of one of the brood. I spotted this face in the box and realized we had baby owls, a first! We keep hoping that owls will return to the box. (And isn't that handmade box something!)

Time to plant Garlic!

I have grown garlic for the past couple years, using my extra grocery store bulbs. Even so, the flavor and texture of what comes from my own garden soil are way better than the store bulbs.

This year I took the next step and purchased some "seed" garlic. This garlic is specially produced to plant. I chose a stiffneck variety called 'Music', 2 packages with three bulbs in a package. I got about 30 cloves (check out how nice and big the cloves are!) and planted them in a prepared raised bed.

The cost was about $1 per clove, so my experiment is pricey, but hopefully the results will be worth it.

Across the field

A view over the yellow-green soy beans to the intracoastal waterway and a lone sailboat making it's way south. This time of year large boats move out of the north to warmer climes for the winter. Many stop at the marina in Coinjock along the Albemarle&Chesapeake Canal where a contrast of economies is displayed: ordinary frame houses front the canal towered by luxury yachts in the alongside slips.

The Miners and the Butterfly

As we watch the amazing rescues of the Chile miners today, the story of the miners and the white butterfly is one that sticks: two miners reportedly stopped to watch a white butterfly in the mine and the stop to gaze at that wonder saved them.

There is the idea of a sign and the idea of the chance of it all, but I take away the idea of the stop. I love to stop and look as close as I can at the wonder. It's a stop I learned in childhood; my Father alerted us to look at the bird, the bug, all the wildlife around us.

So stop and gaze, it's all a wonder. Here a Sulfur Cloud Butterfly samples a Hummingbird Vine bloom.