Fox Sighting

On my walk down my driveway this morning I saw a fox ahead of me. He saw me so headed up the bank. He changed his mind and headed down the drive ahead of me and around the bend. When I came around the bend he was waiting farther ahead on the look out for me. He then took off into the woods.

This evening I happened to look out my study window and there was a fox, same one? I don't know. I managed to get these pictures. We couldn't figure out what there was to eat in the gravel. In the grass he seemed to be catching crickets or grasshoppers.

Mystery Plant

Three weeks ago we started noticing a plant blooming in the wetlands away from the driveway. I used my binoculars to look at it to see what it was. We first thought it was a butterfly bush, but realized the leaves and blossoms were wrong for that. Finally my husband waded into the tall grass and briars to spray bittersweet, briars and mile a minute and picked a stalk of the plant.

Does anyone know what it is? Is it an aster?

Birds are back.

During the summer I took down the birdfeeders because the deer were making them a regular stop. As a consequence I didn't see any chickadees or titmice all summer. The woodpeckers flew through occasionally as did some goldfinch. When I put back up the feeders I wondered how long before the birds found them again. They must have been keeping watch because they were back the very next day. So how do they know? Do they communicate that with each other and between species?

This is the nest of the wren who built it in my hanging plant. It's like a little cave.

Labor Day Weekend Projects

I've been struggling with where to move hostas. They just didn't do well where I had them for the last three summers.

Here's where they've been. You can see the holes where I moved some out earlier.







Here's another picture showing them moved out.


Here's where I moved them to. It doesn't look like much now, but I think the hostas will be happier on the edge of the woods.












My hanging baskets are now in full sun with the sun's position in the sky moving to the south every day. Being back at work means I don't get to water them daily as I had to all summer. I was going to compost the whole thing, but the geraniums looked to healthy. So I trimmed off the verbena and the other plant whose name I don't know and left the geranium. It can stand to have a dry pot.


This is the other hanging basket already trimmed. It looks happier already.














Caught this moth on the water hyacinth. Here are the goldfish that live in this pond.

















My final project of the day was to dig up a hydrangea that never has bloomed - too much pruning by the deer. I didn't have the heart to
throw it away so I moved it to a new location near a stone wall and planted this volunteer butterfly bush in it's place. I know the butterfly bush should be happier since it was growing in the rocks along my driveway. It doesn't look very happy in this picture but eventually it will be attracting butterflies from far and wide as it grows overlooking the pond.