salamanders Archives - Orion's Cold Fire

On a Lighter Note

October 8, 2024October 8, 2024 photog Current Events, Life in Dunwich, OCF, photog's Corner At Play in the Fields of the Lord, montauk daisy, red raspberries, salamanders, wolfbane

Wow, was I in a black mood yesterday. I shouldn’t dwell on the motives and the just desserts that our insect overlords have and deserve respectively. It’s not good for my soul.

So today Camera Girl and I were walking around the yards looking at what Fall has done to the place and we saw some interesting stuff. We checked out the garden and there were some ripe raspberries left on the plants.

So we ate them as we walked.

We picked three butternut squashes that were still on the vine, even thought their color wasn’t very hopeful looking. But the vine leaves were dying so it made sense to pick them.

I snapped a few foliage shots

I checked the Montauk daisies and they had bloomed.

I went over and checked the wolfbane and sure enough it was opening.

Then we went by the wall and I took a shot of the opened seed pods of the milkweed

And then on a whim Camera Girl checked under one of our reptile and amphibian tins and even though almost nothing showed up there all year except for crickets she found this.

That’s the only spotted salamander I can remembering finding all year. She really has a knack for finding good stuff out of nowhere. In May I will have known Camera Girl for fifty years. And our association has been very satisfactory. I applaud her parents for raising such an excellent daughter. I hazard to say that she is one in many millions in term of her qualities. And not just at finding spotted salamanders!

So today was much better than yesterday and my mood is much improved. Insect overlords, do your worst!

Oh and here’s a song I found.

Mid-October Walkabout

October 16, 2021October 16, 2021 photog Photography hover fly, katydid, milkweed, milkweed seeds, New England Autumn, Northern Water Snake, photography, salamanders, wolfsbane

I have said a lot of bad things about New England weather. Winters here are too long, too cold and involve way too much snow removal. And all the other seasons are too short and too weird because of the winter bias. But there is a little slice of Autumn in the middle of October where if things happen just right there are some very cool things moving around in the yard.

For instance, we haven’t seen a water snake around the yard all year.

But here at the point where the water snakes will soon head underground for the winter one of them has taken to sunning himself in front of one of the gardens. He looks as if he’s been feeding extraordinarily well. I assume all the rain has resulted in a bumper crop of frogs and fish. He shows up in the afternoon and basks in the sun soaking up the heat he needs to metabolize the food in his stomach. The temperatures are predicted to start falling into the 30’s at night. That probably will send this snake underground for the winter.

And when all the other flowers in the yard are almost completely gone two flowers reach their peak in October.

Here’s the Montauk Daisies with two visitors a hover fly shows up for some pollen and nectar.

And a katydid gets to work devouring the leaves.

And the other flower I always look forward at this time of year is Wolfsbane. Also known as Monkshood, the appearance of it’s bright purple flowers tell me Halloween is right around the corner and time for me to dust off my classic monster movies and quickly finish up my fall yard work. Snow in late October is far from unheard of.