The best that I could do on the supermoon lunar eclipse

Butterfly bush seems to be taking hold

We've been getting enough rain that I've let nature handle that chore.  Still have blooms and new shoots as of yesterday.

You can't have my nut

The squirrels are busy this time of year.   This one caught my eye because it seemed hunkered down on the fence and wasn't in a hurry to move (even with Russ with me).

This is how I saw it...

 

This is what it had in its mouth...

 

 

And this is what it reminds me of...Scrat from the "Ice Age" movies...

 

It's a bee...it's a butterfly...no, it's a frog?!

This frog has been hanging out in our coffee cup planter on the front steps.  I'm used to grasshoppers being in our plants.  It seems annoyed when I add water so it hopped up on a flower this morning...

Nuts! (shagbark hickory)

I'm still looking for the shagbark hickory tree near my yard.  I have a few oak and quite a few honey locust.  The squirrels have been cracking open and burying shagbark hickory nuts for the last week or so. 

The pictures of the squirrels aren't the clearest, but you can see how they get a mouthful...

They only come out at night

Not really, but I'm more likely to see frogs and toads at night.

I normally don't leave my deck light on because of the bugs it attracts, but this frog was glad I did leave it on this particular night.  A great spot to sit and grab bugs. 

 

 

I see this toad almost every night recently.  It seems smart enough not to fall in my deep window well but I'm sure I've pulled it out at some point.

 

Oh Deer, we got munched again!

When I went to get the paper Monday morning, one of our hanging plants was on the ground and it looked like deer had gotten to it.  But there were some flowers left so I hung it back up.  When I went out this morning, the baskets were still hanging but had been completely stripped!  Something came back to finish the job.

Here are the plants as recently as last Friday....

And here they are this morning...

I'd be more upset if I just bought them but we we've enjoyed them for the summer so I guess we'll take them down a little earlier this year.

Green Stink Bug (almost didn't see it)

It somehow got on my watering can this morning.  Blended right in.

Never forget

Two days later

Don't worry, I won't be giving you daily updates but the color caught my eye today.  This is the same shoot as the previous post.  So two days later this is the change I've seen...

 

And here is two days ago for comparison...

 

Late bloomer

Butterfly bushes bloom in the summer and technically it's still summer but I wasn't sure what I would see the remainder of the year.

Well, it looks like the bush is taking hold and we've certainly had enough rain to help it along. 

 Here's a photo of a new "shoot" or "bud" from today...

 

You can see it compared to the old ones.  It's looking good Ruth!