This week’s work gave me plenty of image material for the blog, as is so often the case while tending the different stations on the land. I’ve never seen so many species of swallowtail, and this pipevine swallowtail on a zinnia was striking. Sometimes what I see isn’t so good, namely the grasshopper eyeing the bean leaves, but then our handy egg hens never turn down a snack – there’s a cordless power tool for everything. The orb weaver spider I found one morning on the hard nursery shade cloth created it’s own patterned weave at the center of its web. These always get a break for the insect control…

In the span of a year here I’ve seen some stunning insects, and in some of those situations my prior background in collecting serves us well. Don’t need to whip out the field guide to know that some of these lawn jewels can hurt real bad or stink up the joint right quick if messed with. The large, fuzzy bright red “ant” is a wingless female wasp called a velvet ant, or cow killer. Though slow to anger it has the longest stinger of them all and packs a wallop. This is the second Spring in a row where I’ve first seen the smaller reddish brown species of velvet ant…

Insect life isn’t the only diverse ecological realm at Cactus Island; mycological organisms in their bright colors and curious forms also shine within our slice of natural ecology.  I’m not really a ‘shroom guy, but what grabs me, grabs me……especially so when it could end up in a drawing or painting.  This tells us that our sandy soil ecology is healthy and that there is a vast network of underground mycelia living in symbiosis with plant and tree roots. When it rains it becomes evident in the fruiting bodies that quickly emerge, last for a few days and disappear as quickly as they appeared.  Several times, while remodeling the house,…