There have been a lot of rats around the house this year and Leon traps them now and then to try to keep the population down. One of the traps he set in the greenhouse disappeared and two days later I heard some shuffling outside my home office window. I said, “Leon, I hear something outside my window here–can you go check?” And he did.
It was a poor young opossum with the rat trap on its toes. Leon set it free and picked it up because it was cute and he had to show me! He then let it go in our woodland garden and it wandered away during the night. We had opossums in the neighborhood when we first moved here 27 years ago. One was living in our crawl space, and Leon picked that one up, too. I’m excited that a creature like this is finding space to exist in our neighborhood.
The summer seemed so extremely hot and dry and was quite miserable from a gardener’s perspective. The ornamentals put on their early show and then fizzled early. The natives are faring better but I have supplemented their water every week or two to be sure I don’t lose any. The summer of 2022 was the driest summer in Seattle’s history. And the fall is dry so far, too–and no rain in the forecast for at least ten more days. I’ve noticed how the western red cedars are putting out far more cones than usual. When plants are stressed one response is to hyper-procreate to try to ensure the survival of the species. I really hope all these trees don’t get sick and die in the near future. The evergreen state feels like the everbrown state lately.
Some of the perennials in my native plant garden have also hyper-procreated (as have some of my relatives, to be sure). I harvested some seeds today and will plant them over the winter solstice holiday break with the native seeds I purchased.
The fluffy seeds are Douglas aster, the tiny ones are large-leaved avens, and the pea pods are large-leaved lupine.
My worries about the thimbleberry divisions were misplaced. They have leafed back out and look fresh and healthy.
My porch-light “mothing” hobby has dwindled a bit with the cooler weather but there are still some fun surprises. Here are some of the gorgeous visitors in the past month.
The most common moths in September were brown-lined loopers and small dusty waves. There have been a few sliver “y” moths, too–one of my favorites. Other beautiful moths are the light brown apple moth, the flame carpet moth, the square-barred bell moth, the gold ribbon argent moth, the thicket knot-horn moth, and the garden rose tortrix moth, whose claim to fame is looking exactly like a splat of bird crap. The small dusty waves are interesting because they come in myriad colors and sizes–from white to grey and with varying numbers of spots. As humans, we are always looking for animals to be easily identifiable. We forget that each of us belongs to the species Homo sapiens and look at how varied we are! Most animals have significant variability in their appearance, too. Inconvenient for identification, but critical to survival and evolution.
The leaf hopper was a tiny, spectacular beauty, Menosoma cincta. The green jewel is the southern green shield bug. And the spider is a surprising one, possibly the Eurasian armored long-jawed spider, a long way from home.