IamOK's Blog

My Backyard.....
Jul 20, 2010 | 6:29 AM PST
Tags: Hot Peppers , Potter-wasp , Cicada

Crepe myrtles are happily blooming everywhere, they look so cheerful even in these otherwise hot hot days.

The squirrels have pre-empted me, they took away all my blue-berries. My tomato plants are healthy and beginning to bear fruits and am only hoping the squirrels will leave me some.

I have planted some very hot peppers, those tiny ones from Thailand, I am almost addicted to hot chilly-peppers. It is such a relief to know that the squirrels are not the least interested in them so that I can happily look forward to harvesting them. (Sometimes, I pick up some small ones and just chew them.)

There is nothing much happening around here. The two potter-wasp pots are still up there, and today is the 31st day. I know there is life inside because the big spider has returned twice to sit by its side with his net-string around the pot. I feel it is my responsibility to see that the hatchlings are protected.

I forgot to mention the pots are not of equal size, indicating there are male and female potter-wasps inside.

Some cicadas have begun to sing in my backyard. Isn't it so wonderful, there are creatures the Lord created who spend their entire life just singing.

Glow-worm and me.
Jul 17, 2010 | 10:00 AM PST
Tags: glow worm , science of light energy. , Patti Page

Just an update....

All of my day lilies are dead and gone. A few straggler magnolia blooms are all that are left on the magnificent trees. But, my crepe myrtles are in full bloom.

Oft in the stilly nights, I sit out to meditate in the cool and quiet country side. It is such a soul- comforting feeling that when I open my eyes, there are hundreds of glow-worms (fire-flies, lightening-bugs) flying around unmindful of the presence of a lone human. They glow and glow...... I believe the females do not glow and the males do so to attract females of the species and lead her to the path of matrimony. Isn't it a miracle of Creation that we humans have yet to learn...... How I wish we too could flash our lights to attract our life partners. Oh!!! the rueful song Patti Page sung with so much feelings. (Please watch/listen to Patti Page singing Tennessee Waltz on YouTube).

 One day, I shall write a sonnet on how the glow-worm is the better suitor than man.

But, then what about our scientists.... when will they learn how to produce the purest form of light as a glow-worm does. Glow-worms are the only known producers of light energy in the universe which does not waste heat energy. 

And, we all gardeners know that it is neither a worm, nor a fly, nor a bug.....  glow-worms are beetles.

Insect World
Jul 8, 2010 | 11:14 AM PST
Tags: spiders , Potter wasps builds strong pots

Can't complain of heat considering what New Yorkers are going through, but sure enough, Marietta is rather warm. Even, the invasive Japanese knot-weeds, my polygonums, are wilting under the sun

Best days of my 'day lilies' are behind. There are fewer flowers and their leaves have begun to turn pale.

It is eighteen days since the potter wasp had made and sealed their pots. I haven't seen the mother wasp come to feel the pulse of her baby inside but something is happening, I am sure. Two days ago, I saw a large spider settling down over the pots and I felt uncomfortable enough to go out and shoo him away.

(A while ago, I was watching Andrew Zimmerman eating roasted spiders !!!.... he eats anything and everything...... so I know spiders are considered as good food by some and I have no reason to be afraid of them. But I somehow felt the spider was there to set up his trap over the pots to catch the hatchling as it emerges. I may be wrong but that is what I did.) 

Yesterday, I noticed a small but beautiful iridescent blue wasp-like insect, one-third the size of potter wasp, working very very hard to crack open the pot. So, I guess, the insect world around the pot is getting aware of life inside the pot but can determine nothing precisely what his intentions were.

What I learnt for sure however, is that those tiny pots are mighty strong. Wonder, what else goes on in the insect world when we are not watching them.