These bugs are teenagers

The ghost of Cicada.

This evening our walk was once again in the dark.  On our way through the yard I noticed a familiar site.  The exsoskeleton of a Cicada or 17 year locust was attached to the bark of the large pine in the back yard.  Here in our area the Cicadas emerge each summer in small numbers.  There are parts of the south that can experience extremely high hatch outs some years.   There may be thousands of the noisy insects in one tree all making a buzzing sound like a door or phone buzzer.  It can be deafening.  Here we may only see 4 or 5 dig their way out of the ground, climb a few feet up a tree and then they pop out of their shells as in my photo.  They leave the old shell behind and emerge as a flying insect their only task to find a mate and lay eggs.  The eggs will be laid under the surface of the soil and will grow for approximately 17 years before digging their way out and starting the process over again.  Next we walked on down toward the east end of the paved road and I noticed that I could now see the bands of the Milky Way directly overhead.  I could also see the Big Dipper or Ursa major to the north.   The weather is slowly but surely warming again.  The humidity is edging slightly higher each night and we should begin to see thunder storms out in the Gulf of Mexico each night.  Sooner or later it will rain again.  Thanks for reading my blog tonight.  Bye

Can't Pillory the Fritillary

Orange, black and pointy.  

The weather for our walk this morning was nothing short of perfect.   Cool temperatures this morning definitely hinted that a jacket would be needed in a month or so.  The dog and I circled around to the back yard and had a quick look at things there.  I have 5 orange trees several of which are bearing a heavy load of oranges this year.  At this point they are about 1.25 times the size of a golf ball.  Ultimately they will ripen at the size of a baseball.  I have Hamlin sweet oranges, Washington navels and a Japanese Mandarin that the exact variety of escapes me.  After looking at the oranges we walked over to what was left of my Passion flower vines.  The Fritillary butterfly that I posted last night  has laid her eggs on the vine and as you can see from the photo the caterpillars are eating whats is left of the vine.   It's not a problem as the vine has borne all of the fruit this year and it will spring back to life after the butterflies leave in the fall.  The dog and I then hustled on out the gate and made our way down to the west end of the dirt road and very much enjoyed the beauty of the morning.  Here in the south if you can endure the humidity and heat of the summer you will be rewarded with a very long period of what I would call comfortable days and nights.  A time when we can turn off the air conditioner and open the windows at night.  You can hear crickets and night birds, far away train whistles and dogs barking.   I really enjoy this time of year.   I sure hope everyone has a chance to enjoy the out door world because after all it was made for us.  Thanks for coming by.  Have a great day.  Bye.