Critters

 I don’t know about you but since Elsa paid us a visit on July 7th, I have had an over-abundance of wildlife critters in and around my yard and sometimes in my house. The entrance to my subdivision, including three homes, were flooded by Elsa’s heavy torrential rains. I was shanghaied and unable to partake of the “outside” world for four days as I watched the water slowly recede into a super-saturated earth. Thankfully, my home was high enough, farther up the street, and outside the inundation of water.

But back to the critters. My first notice of a slight change in my own little ecosystem involved some herbs I had planted in pots near my back porch, dill to be specific. Each day I puzzled how instead of getting bushier, they were getting thinner so I at last took a closer look and discovered caterpillars on three of the stems, eastern black swallowtails, a friend in the know told me.

After they devoured every last feathery green leaf of the dill, they went on to my parsley but were sated before the plant was stripped. This was on July 10th.

And then, on August 28th, I managed to snap a phone shot of this little guy on my 

penta plant. I think it posed just for me.

As I understand it, most people plant butterfly gardens especially for this process but my butterflies came by chance of Elsa I think.

I also have had sightings of two black racers (snakes). One caught me by surprise as I opened my porch door to step outside. It “raced” under my foot trying to get away from the huge thing coming at it! Now I am careful to rattle the door before opening it. Before I was widowed all these wildlife problems would have been out of my range of responsibility, but now I have had to “brave up” and take care of things myself. Snakes always scared me and I would be lying to say they do not scare me now, but it is a different level of scared and with a little reading and understanding, I realize I need to share this planet whenever possible. My mantra has become “if you don’t bother me, I won’t bother you”.

Wasps also have invaded my space more than usual since Elsa, the paper kind and maybe some yellow jackets. I have tried to dissuade them from coming into my porch by spraying peppermint (a web thing) but they are diligent and keep hanging around. I have decided to wait for cold weather. Again, my mantra.

Yesterday, another critter came to visit. As I made my way to the kitchen to start breakfast, my eyes lit on the intruder sitting below a rocking chair in my family room, not a frog but a toad, and how he got in is a mystery. I got my broom and thought I might herd him out the door but he was too fast and scooted under another chair out of sight. I went to the web and discovered an upside down bucket with a cover slid under it (I used a pan splatter screen) was the solution but it took me almost two hours to catch the little devil. It did work though and he is happily back to roaming the outside world again.

Don’t let anyone tell you days of retirement are uneventful. Each morning brings a new surprise and keeps me on my toes for which I am very thankful. All creatures are here for a reason and have as much right to be here as I do. Taking the life of any creature is a thing I desperately try not to do...except mosquitoes, that is.

How Do You Feel About Trees

 

How do you feel about trees? Love them, hate them, indifferent to them? I have thirteen pines, big ones, in my backyard. Yes, an unlucky number, but I don’t believe in that stuff, although one is giving me some cause for concern.

A few years ago I had three backyard pines cut down which were too close to the house for peace of mind, and one had water inside (found after the fact). All of them were over ninety feet tall and over forty years old. My fence had to be taken down for access and huge equipment invaded my property leaving their marks of intrusion for months to come. For a few days I was as the cliche says, “a nervous wreck.” It was not a happy time and not something I will lightly agree to again.

But back to my problem tree. It also is nearing one hundred feet to its tippy top, curving and twisting its way to the heavens, and that is one of the causes of my concern. Pine trees like mine should not curve. It does have plenty of luxurious healthy-looking pine needles on the heavy branches of its uppermost parts. Woodpeckers, however, have been attracted to it, and a wiggly line of their drilling is marking its lower third. That worries me, too.

But I am a lover of trees and wildlife, and I am wrestling with the first step of calling a tree service because I know what they will say, “Cut it down.” How many living things will that displace? Thousands, maybe millions. Is it really necessary? Will I regret not having it cut down later, later when the frenzy of Hurricane what’s its name is raging all around me and the upper part of the trunk is swaying to and fro in the fierce winds and rain? Probably.

I wouldn’t call myself a tree hugger but I do have a special love and respect for trees, having been known to take photos of leafless winter trees, lonely trees, trees in fall colors and spring greens, trees heavy with pecans, and trees that have fallen in storms whose upended roots reminded me of wild hairdos. So many trees, forests even, have been sacrificed to civilization right here in our own fair town that the thought of cutting down another for my own benefit seems so selfish.

Trees seem so dispensable nowadays. They used to be much more important. I am thinking of the turpentine industry in the very early 1900s. It could be that the seed from which my “problem” pine grew is a relative of one of those early pines, and that story that I wrote years ago about my mom putting turpentine on a lump on my head when I fell down the stairs, well, suppose that turpentine came from a tree that grew right in my backyard. I know, silly, but possible.

And so, I am thinking more than twice about removing my twisting pine. Maybe its destiny is to fall or snap during a storm and do some damage, but how would I know that for certain, and is it my call anyway?

A Visit to Remember

 

This question has been coming up on Facebook lately, too often for me to resist answering. Where is a place you have visited that, if you could go again, you would? It did not take long for me to come up with an answer. On my first visit I did not appreciate everything I should have due to some particular circumstances, but now I would cherish the opportunity of a return visit.

In early 1964 Jim and I planned a trip to Beckley, West Virginia, to visit Jim’s mom. I was pregnant with our first child, but I was anxious to see my mother-in-law again. I knew that when she heard we were coming, there would be homemade chocolate and coconut cream pies waiting for our arrival. Pregnant people have food cravings.

We planned on two days to get there from Delaware, and thought we might do a little sight-seeing on the way as long as snowstorms eluded the forecast. We usually went from Manassas to Culpepper and on south to I-64, at least the part that was finished, but this time we decided to go to Front Royal and down the Appalachian Trail for a more scenic view. Our map told us that Luray Caverns was on the way and after reading about it, we decided we would stop there for the tour.

It did not look like much when we arrived, sort of like a welcome center, but we were in for some spectacular sights. Military personnel got a special discount so that was an additional plus to our adventure. A prominent sign informed us that in the caverns it remained a constant 54 degrees Fahrenheit. That was no problem since the air outside was colder. We were already bundled up in winter coats, hats, and gloves.

As we followed a downward path, eventually we came to Dream Lake, a spring with stalactites reflected in the water appearing to connect to stalagmites making the actual bottom unseeable. It was beautiful, made more so by the electrical lighting illuminating the cave walls. As we walked on we saw many large rooms with crystallized calcium stalactites in all colors of the rainbow, reds from iron, black from manganese, and blues and greens from copper. I had never seen anything so beautiful.

The Great Stalacpipe Organ is one of Luray’s many touted features but because it had some man-made parts, I was not as impressed as I should have been. I thought it would have been better to leave it au naturale since tunes could be played on the actual formation, but instead a custom console had been connected to the stalactites. Granted, the music played from the natural “pipes” was impressive.

The caverns have stalactites (form downward) and stalagmites (form upward), all with majestic names that somehow fall short of their real beauty, Giant’s Hall, Elfin’s Ramble, Saracen’s Tent, Castles on the Rhine and many more. I thought I was in a fairy tale.

The actual hike through the caverns is about 1-½ miles and being pregnant at the time, I did not give it the attention it deserved, and so, yes, I would love to go back. If you are ever nearby, stop. You won’t be disappointed. And if you cannot go in person, click here for a virtual tour. There are other virtual tours online, but I liked this one best and, still, it does not do the formations justice. Be sure to click “full screen”.