A Venture Outdoors

Since the chiggers have hatched I haven’t been to the garden or in the yard. Chiggers love me to pieces, but don’t seem to have a taste for Dennis. Consequently, he is harvesting all the garden produce with no help from me.

I did venture out to the paved area by our front door this afternoon, lured by the burgeoning flowerbed, now in its pink and blue phase with campanula and prairie coneflowers.

The coneflower is native to Kansas and its adaptation to our climate gives it an edge up on non-native species. The first blooms are just beginning to open, as one can see in the photo. Soon I’ll post a photo of the full show, but by then most of the campanula blossoms will be gone.

Summer flies by so quickly. I can hardly believe the hostas are already beginning to bloom.

Heading back into the house I was startled to spot a spectacular moth on the stone wall, waiting for dark to fly away. Its dramatic black and white pattern inspires me to make a quilt. (That is most unlikely to actually happen; having it in my imagination is satisfying enough.)

The porch light attracts many insects, a fact that spiders do not fail to notice. The porch sports numerous spider webs, but the ones I enjoy the most are those of wolf spiders. The spider lurks in a carefully constructed, dark tunnel, then pounces when an insect flies into its web. Just look at all the insect exoskeletons that spider has sucked dry.

That was the end of my outing for today. I was careful to avoid touching any plant and hope I don’t wake in the night with furiously itching chigger bites. Tomorrow I plan to “suit up” with insect repellent and sulfur powder and venture to the garden. Dennis tells me the cabbages are making big heads and I have to see them for myself.

Copyright 2015 by Shirley Domer