So, Camera Girl and I are walking through our annual farewell to summer ritual.\u00a0 Today I picked the very last string beans and the crops of raspberries and her beloved grape tomatoes are visibly shrinking down to the end.\u00a0 She picked the last eggplants but they were too small to eat.\u00a0 The pool has been closed for a couple of weeks and now I\u2019m putting away all the chairs and tables and stuff for the winter.\u00a0 Even the Japanese beetles are dying off and today I saw one of the preying mantids looking lonely for something juicy to eat.\u00a0 Although he seemed to be making due on small red dragonflies.\u00a0 These fliers are still prevalent but also seem to be running out of food.\u00a0 The various flowers are almost all dying.\u00a0 The only thing that hasn\u2019t bloomed yet are the Montauk Daisies and the Wolfbane.\u00a0 I guess there are still plenty of bees; bumble and honey, but there seems to be a desperation in the way they jump around on the goldenrod trying to get all the nectar and pollen before their neighbors get to it.<\/p>\n
And with the kids all back in school, it\u2019s a little too quiet for Camera Girl.\u00a0 She takes it to heart when the grandkids aren\u2019t around for more than a week at a time.\u00a0 I try to cheer her by reminding her how exhausting it can be when the summer schedule fills up a couple of weeks with back, to back, to back kids\u2019 events.\u00a0 Well, that wasn\u2019t a good idea.\u00a0 It just got her mad at me!\u00a0 So, I just sympathize with her grandmaternal feelings and remind her that a plethora of birthday parties are sure to be starting up soon and she\u2019ll be satisfyingly exhausted before she knows it.<\/p>\n
And Camera Girl has lived up to her name lately she has spotted a number of photographic subjects for me.\u00a0 She let me know that there was a hawk perched on the back of the bench that we put next to her new pond.\u00a0 I got a bunch of shots through the living room window with the 400-600mm lens.\u00a0 The contrast wasn\u2019t as good as I would have liked but when I download them, I hope they\u2019re passably good.\u00a0 She also spotted a big green (so she tells me) caterpillar on a walk we took in the park.\u00a0 We took it home for photos and it turned out to be a type of sphynx moth (white-lined sphinx moth; Hyles lineata).\u00a0 I was trying to keep it to hatch out the moth but the darned thing didn\u2019t know it was supposed to like tomato plant leaves.\u00a0 So, I let the recalcitrant larva go on its way.<\/p>\n
Tomorrow we are thinking about going to an antique car show which is something that people around Dunwich seem to do a lot.\u00a0 But we\u2019ll have to see.\u00a0 Tomorrow is the last day of my five-day promotional book giveaway and I\u2019ve been like some kind of fanatic watching the dashboard tickers recording the orders.\u00a0 I\u2019m kind of obsessed.\u00a0 But maybe I\u2019ll tear myself away to see Henry Ford\u2019s innovative horseless carriages paraded down the streets of various Dunwich environs.\u00a0 Enjoy the day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
So, Camera Girl and I are walking through our annual farewell to summer ritual.\u00a0 Today I picked the very last string beans and the crops<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,3366,1263,3],"tags":[2649,3341],"class_list":["post-38077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-events","category-life-in-dunwich","category-stuff-that-personally-interests-me-miscellaneous","category-photography","tag-autumn","tag-dunwich"],"yoast_head":"\n