Munchie

Something has been eating my nasturtiums. That makes me happy, this year, when so many of our bugs have gone missing. I found one forager in a photo I took of the few nasturtiums still blooming.

Nasturtiums, hydrangea, and hungry caterpillar, an inchworm, maybe.

I know this nasturtium looks like it's past its sell-by date, but it's doing good, busy making seeds.

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Algo se ha estado comiendo mis capuchinas. Eso me hace feliz este año, puesto que tantos bichos han desaparecido. Encontré uno de los comelones en una foto que saqué esta tarde de las pocas capuchinas que me quedan.

Primera foto: capuchinas, hortensias, y una oruga. Creo que puede ser una de las geomensoras. 

Segunda foto: una capuchina que parece estar muerta, pero en verdad está muy ocupada haciendo semillas.

All the colours of the rainbow

On the sunny side of the carport.

Nasturtiums, hydrangea, lavender, and fading bleeding heart leaves.

And the sun shone bright.

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Flores y sol al lado de la cochera esta tarde en todos los colores del arco iris. Capuchinas, hortensias, lavandula, y hojas secas de dicentra (flor sangrante).

Nasturtium

It's still warm enough for my crop of nasturtiums, and they're trying bravely to produce seeds, but the constant rain shreds the petals and the pollinating insects have fled. There may be no seed pods for my salads this year.

I rescued a few flowers that were hiding under the wide petals, and brought them inside.

Good in salad, but too pretty to eat.

At least one insect was still busy; it came inside with the handful of nasturtiums, too.

Earwig, too busy to notice the move.

So there are some pollinators out there, after all! I'll look for seeds again whenever it stops raining.

Backyard bugging

October already! The leaves on my maple are a patchwork of yellow, green, and orange. The fallen ones, on the ground, are brown and yellow. A couple of squirrels are spending their days in the top branches, stuffing themselves with maple seeds; the pathway underneath is sprinkled with maimed maple "airplanes".

Down in my primroses, the slugs and snails are partying. And I found a half-dozen caterpillars, green and brown, fattening up on the leaves. I've got a few in a jar to watch them pupate, maybe even see what they turn into.

Fat brown caterpillar, sleeping

This one's much smaller.

Yellow and green, fat and still hungry.

Three fallen maple leaves.

Detail of rotting leaf

And the nasturtiums are still flowering bravely, even though they never see the sun any more.

Nasturtium and rhododendron leaf.

I found a couple of interesting spiders, and a pair of mating slugs. Photos will be forthcoming as soon as they're processed.

Nasturtium

This is the first year nasturtiums have succeeded in blooming in my deep shade garden.

I'm happy.

Wayside flowers

It's been a good summer for flowers this year; in gardens and on roadsides everywhere we go, we find some that beg to be photographed. These are a few of my favourites.

Bellflowers. A trailing plant, creeping along a wall in Beach Grove. The spot on the wall above is a pretty jumping spider.

More bellflowers, falling out of a round-bellied pot.

Cardoon.

We were driving back from the beach, when I saw these towering over a fence. From the street, they looked like thistles, but what thistles!

We parked and went over. Up close, they are even more impressive; these lowest blooms were well over my head. The highest ones would be beyond my reach, even with a box to stand on.

(Wikipedia says the largest cultivars reach to 2 meters. These were quite a bit more than that.)

The owner was working in the garage, and came out to talk about his plants. They're cardoons, he said. I remembered the name. Long ago, I had been given some seeds and planted them in my garden. Nothing came of them, though, so I had never seen the actual plant.

Cardoon leaves.

It is a relative of the artichoke, and the buds can be eaten like artichokes. The stems and leaf stalks are also edible. The leaves of the wild plant are spiny, but they have been bred out in the domesticated plant.

Lavender flower head, Beach Grove roadside.

One nasturtium, growing through a rock pile.

Nasturtiums by our usual parking spot at the beach.

These lilies in the shade of a garage looked completely black. The flash brought out the deep red tones.

Red and yellow California poppies

A glorious smoke tree. So impressive, that we promptly went out and bought a small one for our own garden.

Pale yellow roses in our neighbour's yard.