Donner und Blitzen

It rained substantially overnight.  More was predicted so I swam in the morning.  Beetles, ants, wasps, and roaches were afloat but I only rescued beetles.  Afterward, I glimpsed a dragonfly and a cabbage white.  The New England aster was blooming.  So was the beautyberry.  At lunch, crows and squirrels ate mealworms.  Carolina wrens and bluebirds were unhappy that the dishes were covered against future rain.  A thunderstorm arrived around 2:30pm  and rain hammered the pavement.  By 3pm the thunder was loud and the lightning close, while the light was very low.  

 

Solstice

I swam in the morning while there was still some shade and rescued a handful of brown scarab Phyllophaga May beetles and one ladybug.  I think the ladybug was dead though.  A tiger swallowtail tried to wrestle nourishment out of a fancy daylily.   We went to a sunset vigil and a mockingbird circled overhead.  The first quarter moon had a faint halo.  

 

Hot

The day was sunny and hot.  I had a morning meeting so I waited till late afternoon to swim. Wasps were active and one head-butted my foot.  I rescued many scarab beetles, some were plain brown and others were bronze flecked.  A damselfly watched for small fliers.  I glimpsed a yellow butterfly but couldn't say what it was.  

 

Rain

I woke up to rain which was welcome because this year has been too dry.  A female pileated woodpecker pecked at the suet during a lull.  The rain stopped  before lunch and a family of awkward fledgling titmice came for seeds.  The sun came out in the late afternoon.  A skink ambled along a timber.  

Widow skimmer

I first saw the dragonfly in the front yard yesterday as I drove in.  But when I took the camera to look for it, I couldn't find it.  This morning as I dripped after swimming, it was in the back yard fighting a strong, gusty wind.  I picked the first blueberries, only a small handful. A brightly colored stinkbug flew off of the bush.  A largus bordered plant bug was drowned.  Lots of scarab beetles and one black ground beetle survived dunking.  I had hoped the wind would keep biting bugs away but one got in my face and I may have drowned it.  Birds were scarce.  

Too much running around

Yesterday the money plant pods were fully dried and ready to disperse seeds.  A green pod appeared on the milkweed.  The sky was mostly cloudy.  I saw a young rabbit on my way home. Today, instead, I saw an egret perched on something sticking up out of Pretty Lake.  

At home, a Carolina wren visited the glass dish.  A mockingbird followed but the crow stuck to the easy pickings off the patio.  I rescued many beetles but left alone a yellow fly, a bit bigger than a housefly but the same shape.  The New England aster began to bloom and there were tiny pink buds on the beautyberry and the mountain mint.  I saw a skink but it hid behind foliage.  Wasps were busy.  

Pleasant

Today was cooler, sunny, and very nice.  Nevertheless I waited till late to swim because biting flies terrorize me.  I saw damselflies and rescued very large ants.  Spiders took care of themselves.  Dragonflies patrolled the sky.