REPTILE AND INSECT WEEK!!!

 Heidy-Ho, Blogging Buddies!!

Well... nothing major here but a few pics you might find amusing.

To start, a couple of pics of a Datura plant in my back yard.  They are part of the nightshade family.  I love them and they are gorgeous... but a couple of things one should know before planting seeds.  First, they are toxic.  From wildflower.org, this is stated:  "Extracts from this plant and its relatives are narcotic and, if ingested, potentially lethal. The narcotic properties of species have been known since before recorded history. They once figured importantly in religious ceremonies of southwestern Indians."

Now then... all that means is to not have kids or animals that would tend to "play" with the plant or its flowers.  Wear gloves when you are working on it.  The second thing?  Once a flower has bloomed and is drooping, cut it off at the stem.  If you don't, it will generate a seed pod that will contain a gazillion seeds!!  And they will sprout and grow!!  And you will have a massive area covered in these plants!  (They are NOT small!)

They put up the "buds" throughout night/day... but the blooms typically only open in the evening/overnight/early morning.  They are "one day" blooms so they will droop by the end of the sunshine.  But they are worth seeing, in my opinion.  So... at 5:35 a.m., you see what's coming!

A couple of hours later...

Interestingly, as I was clipping off the drooping flowers, I encountered a matching green item... but had to laugh out loud.  It apparently has NO problem with the toxic situation of this plant.  It was having a lovely breakfast!!

Welcome to the world of Hornworm!!

Finally, an early morning walk when it is just barely light enough to see the asphalt is the only thing one can do in the currently insane summer weather!!  I think 79 degrees is the hottest I can handle at 6:00ish a.m., so I head out as soon as I can see my feet!  On a recent walk, however, I noticed I was about to step on something... so I managed to halt albeit a humorous moment for an old broad to drop from about 4 mph to a standstill instantaneously.  When I looked more closely, I found a little critter making its way across the street in front of me.  It was about 2.5 feet long and stopped when I was ready to take a pic.  Nice little thing.  We parted ways with no problem.

So... just wanted to get these pics out.  Reptile and Insect were making their way across my path of work/exercise.  Guess that's just how it should be, however.  It means Nature is working hard to stick with us... and I hope that continues!

Until next post...