I love this time of year when I have to pull a blanket on in the early morning hours and when I wake up I turn the hot water on to make tea.
The Virginia creeper on the fence is turning red and the bugs will soon not be noticed as much. Usually I only see a bluish green large bodied dragonfly around my raft while I am floating on a lake or river so recently when a dragonfly visited the antenna of my car it really got my attention. It was peculiar in the way it landed right on the top and just froze for a minute. It had a small thin body that seemed black but clear wings I could see through with one black line perpendicular to the body on each wing.
I would not have paid much attention accept this dragonfly flew away only to return a minute later. It was almost like it thought the tip of my antenna was a flower. It landed again for another minute or so and flew away over my house roof only to once again return to the top of my antenna again.
This went on for 20 minutes or so and allowed me plenty of time to run in the house and grab my camera. I started shooting pictures from the porch, not sure if I would scare it off.
Eventually I was able to be almost on top of it with slow baby steps. I had to grab a book and look up this curious flying wonder appropriately named a spotted wing dragonfly.
Another bug that also caught my attention as I opened the screen door and saw it staring at me that is called a ten-lined June beetle in the scarab family. This one also has a name that makes sense because it has a large orange-brown body and with what looks like 10 tan stripes down its back. It really started to give me the creepy crawlies.
We've been out in the garden picking tomatoes to cook up some homemade salsa and I am happy to report that I have had no horned tomato worms this year.
When we lived in San Diego because we could grow tomatoes nearly year round I always had this worm that is so good at hiding on the plants. I heard that is you pick them off the plant and mix them in a blender with water then spray them back on the plants it will keep others from staying around. Margarita anyone? I am glad we don't have any is all I can say.
Have a good one.
Lisa Welch is a Johnson Lane resident and can be reached at 267-9350.
