#plantain squirrel photos

[helluvatimes]

Candle Delight

A Plantain Squirrel working through the fruit of a Candle Tree. Photo credit: Eleanor Chua.

At about 20 feet (or 6 metres), the squirrel was still okay with our presence. But it got nervous when we moved in to about 12 feet (or 3-1/2 metres) where it abandoned the fruit and scurried away. 

[blackswallowtailbutterfly]

My Garden Flowers Part 3

All photos mine. The small buttercup and evening primrose are edited for colour since the camera didn't catch it and washed it out.

In order of appearance:

In order of appearance:

061. Wild Basil (Clinopodium vulgare) Didn't do so well the last place I had her in, but she seems happy in this spot, so fingers crossed.

062. Crested Iris (Iris cristata) Not pictured as she hasn't flowered yet.

063. Smallflower Buttercup (Rancunculus abortivus) Not much to look at compared with other buttercups but one of the only native buttercups with (limited) edible uses.

064. Smooth Solomon's Seal (Polygonatum biflorum) Not pictured as she hasn't flowered yet. Soon, hopefully!

065. False Solomon's Seal (Maianthemum racemosa) Not pictured as she hasn't flowered yet, but she's growing well so hopefully next year.

066. Blisterwort (Ranunculus recurvatus) I didn't plant that. She just turned up last year. Not pictured as I haven't got any pictures yet.

067. Fairy Spuds (Claytonia virginica) Not pictured as she hasn't flowered yet. She's a wee little spud in the ground.

068. Flowering Dogwood (Cornus floridus) Not pictured as she hasn't flowered yet but she is slowly spreading out.

069. Plantain-Leaf Sedge (Carex plantaginea) Not pictured as I haven't got pictures yet. I should. It's a neat plant. Evergreen, too!

070. Virginia Bluebells (Mertensia virginica) One of the prettiest plants I've ever seen, from the shape and texture of the leaves to the purplish pink buds to the bright blue bell-shaped flowers. They're spring ephemerals, though, so they're long gone by now. But will emerge next spring!

071. Evening Primrose (Oenothera biennis) Only lives for two years and reseeds itself. It's a common weed along sidewalks, but its flowers glow yellow in the evening and often remain in bloom at night.

072. Squirrel Corn (Dicentra canadensis) Not pictured as she hasn't flowered yet. The leaves are really cute, though.

073. Large Toothwort (Cardamine maxima) Not pictured as she hasn't flowered yet.

074. Wintergreen (Gaultheria procumbens) Not pictured as I haven't got any pictures yet.

075. Great Burnet (Sanguisorba officinalis) A cultivar, not sure which one. I'll get the wild type if/when I can.

076. American Plum (Prunus americana) I was not expecting her to flower this year! Hopefully she will next year too, and without aphids this time so I can have some plums. :)

077. Smooth Aster (Symphyotrichum laeve) So like I said, I do think New England asters are the prettiest of this genus, but smooth asters are very nice in their own way. Tender bluish leaves, and delicate light purple flowers.

078. Sweet Grass (Hierochloe odorata) Not pictured as I haven't got any pictures yet. She only flowered one year. Hasn't since. I won't miss a photo next time.

079. Nodding Onion (Allium cernuum) What's better than pretty flowers? Tasty pretty flowers!

080-081. Swamp Rose Mallow (Hibiscus moscheutos) Two different cultivars and the red one has died, but I did get my hands on the wild type! That will hopefully bloom this year.

082. Stiff Sunflower (Helianthus pauciflorus subrhomboideus) Holds her own against the much more aggressive Nuttall's sunflower. Sometimes called beautiful sunflower. I don't know how one decides which species of a very showy genus gets that name, but I guess she won out.

083. Pearly Everlasting (Anaphalis margaritacea) Another one that was hard to choose a photo of. You just hardly believe they're real!

084. Marsh Marigold (Caltha palustris) I planted her where there's a drip from the eavestrough so she can get very wet when it rains. :) She is not a marigold but instead part of the buttercup family.

085. Nuttall's Sunflower (Helianthus nuttallii) Whenever I am expressing frustration about sunflowers, it is almost always this species. lol Very beautiful but very aggressive.

086. Larkspur Violet (Viola pedatifida) Not pictured as she hasn't flowered yet.

087. White Turtlehead (Chelone glabra) Not pictured as she hasn't flowered yet.

088. Small Sundrops (Oenothera perennis) Not quite as intensely yellow as some of her relatives but still very bright.

089. Bigleaf Aster (Eurybia macrophylla) You generally grow her for foliage rather than her flowers, but flowering she is! Very drought-tolerant, but spreads more readily in less harsh conditions.

090. Bride's Feathers (Aruncus dioicus) Southern Ontario and surrounding area's evolution really went off on the lacy white flowers, and this species' flowers might be the laciest of them all.

[dansnaturepictures]

22/12/2023-Lakeside and home

Photos taken in this set are of: 1. Starlings in the garden. 2 and 3. Black-headed Gull on the green out the front, one a few I really enjoyed seeing there at lunch time. 4. An eyecatching Jay which it was joyful to watching picking at the ground at Lakeside, a key bird moment of my day I was thrilled to see it. 5, 6 and 9. Views at Lakeside on my lunch time walk. 7. House Sparrow beside the allotments at Lakeside, it was immersive and lovely to watch these bustling birds and hear their sweet shriek in the bushes by the allotments. 8 and 10. Another pretty and intense sunset this evening.

Magpie, a prominent Carrion Crow in a tree, Blackbird, Robin, Blue and Long-tailed Tits, Tufted Duck, Great Crested Grebe, Coot, Moorhen, dashing Herring Gull and Cormorant enjoyed again the latter in flight, intimate views of Grey Squirrels dashing around, daisy, plantain, old man's beard, some eycatching dock leaves probably broad-leaved dock and moss or lichen were other highlights on my lunch time walk. At home today it was thrilling to see Blue Tit in the garden with House Sparrow and Starlings gathering together on the roof out the back and Jackdaw and Magpie enjoyed at home today too.

[ferretly]

Weasel-like mammals hide fruit until it ripens, possibly showing forethought absent in most creatures

[ID: a photo of a tayra, a large dark brown weasel-like creature with a bushy tail and a tan head and neck. it stands on a bare branch in front of a blurred background of leaves. end ID]

snippets from the article:

Humans buy unripe bananas, then leave them on the kitchen counter. The tayra, a relative of the weasel native to Central and South America, appears to do much the same thing, picking unripe plantains and hiding them until they ripen, according to a new study. The authors speculate that tayras are showing a human-like capacity to plan for the future, which has previously been shown only in primates and birds.

[...]

Many birds and animals cache food, but most do it with leftovers—food that could be eaten now but isn't needed. Shrews stash extra insects; squirrels hide nuts. Soley says tayras are different because the unripe plantains aren't edible yet. "It's like knowing that it's going to be food in the future," Soley says. That means the tayras are thinking about their hunger a few days from now and planning ahead.

this is from 2011, sorry, but I was looking back for an update on the study (couldn’t find one 😔) and still find it fascinating!!

[chaletnz]

Mistico Park La Fortuna

Tyrza and I were up super early and ready to go for our 5:30am pick up hoping to get to Mistico Park very early and be among the first to enter and walk the hanging bridges. Unfortunately, we were left waiting as our shuttle did not arrive. By the time we had waited a little more than half an hour the hotel's reception had opened and I asked Fernanda to call the tour company and try to figure out why we were not collected. There had been a miscommunication with the driver so they changed our pick up to 7am (and gave us a full refund) and we went for a little walk around and bought a pastry at a nearby bakery that was open early. During this little walk I managed to lose my room key but the driver had arrived so we just hopped in and that was an issue for later. When we arrived at the park, we realised it was admission only and didn't include a guide, we didn't mind though and headed into the park to look for sloths. Tyrza spotted some little animals that looked like raccoons right away and we watched them eating their breakfast and rustling around in the trees for a while. Next I spotted a huge bird that looked a bit like a peacock way up in the trees. I was also fairly confident I saw a toucan in the trees too, but it was so far up I couldn't get a photo of it. Tyrza saw a squirrel and we saw a lot of butterflies and spiders but no sloths. The park was awesome in any case, with about 8 suspension bridges throughout that we took our photo opportunities on. The volcano was still covered in clouds so we couldn't get perfect photos despite our great viewpoint. The souvenir shop and restaurant were super pricy so we just got our driver to take us directly back to our hotel. I looked for my room key along the path we walked as we headed back into town for breakfast and coffee at the Chocolate Fusion Cafe. I went for a mango blueberry smoothie bowl topped with some caramelised cacao beans on top, and a mocha since this was a chocolate specialty cafe after all! It was delicious and probably less than $10 all up. After breakfast Tyrza and I went our separate ways so I could look further for my key. It was starting to get really hot and humid as I was walking around retracing my steps so I went to ask the hotel front desk for forgiveness thinking they might just say okay whatever and be done with it. While Fernanda could sympathise with my day of problems she said it would be $20 to replace the whole door handle. I walked for another hour to search again but it was still nowhere to be found so I reluctantly told them it was gone forever, coughed up the $20, and the maintenance man came to replace the whole door handle and keys. I surmised that someone picked it up and took it or handed it in to some random shop because I searched every piece of the ground and bushes over two hours and asked in a few shops but noone had seen it/didn't understand what I was asking them. By evening it was raining very heavily so when there came a break in the rain Tyrza and I regrouped to walk down to the La Fortuna pub which was empty. Georgi came to join us (not in a rain break so was soaked) and we ordered our drinks, I had a piña colada with ice cream, Tyzra tried a float of the local beers, and Georgi had two pints of the house beer - her typical starter. Once happy hour hit we ordered 6 drinks, 2 each of the Cuba Libre, Mojito, and Guaro Sour and did a mix and match so we could each try two. At another rain break we made a dash to Pollo Fortuneño where we ordered a share plate with ribs, chicken, tortillas, beans, and fried plantains. After dinner we ran into some of the group getting dropped off after their cooking class and salsa lesson so we all went out together for a drink at Lava Lounge. I decided I wanted a sickly sweet dessert brownie with ice cream and Georgi decided it was her now birthday so we all ran with that, she got free shots and a happy birthday song from the live musician in both English and Spanish.

[lanecross]

Just chilling and looking down upon ya😏 Plantain Squirrel (Callosciurus notatus)

#squirrel #animals #ig_myshots #singapore #photo #nature #winsornaturepark #cuteanimal #naturephotography #omnivore (at Winsor Nature Park)

[clarindayap]

Some old and cute photos taken in 2017 of a plantain squirrel in action and looking very adorable jumping around, probably feeding on the ants on the small branches.🐿💖🌷 (at Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve)

[pghpatsucks]

A Modest Proposal

Once upon a time, I was short on cash and I had word that there was work for me over in Lawrenceville on a construction site. It seemed like a good opportunity and a good work for a good wage. The only problem was the commute...

(Fig I. A Lengthy Commute)

To get from my apartment in Oakland over to work would require me, essentially to get there almost an hour before work started everyday, for me at the time; a prohibitively long amount of time to spend in traveling. On the map, the two places seemed so close, only a few miles, a few minutes if I had a car. Why is it so difficult to get from place to place in this city? Again and again I wish to go places and find it very difficult to get there. Often times I long for a sojourn down to South Part to commune with the resident herd of bison, or haunt my favorite bait shop towards Verona. These things make me happy, and trying to get there by bus leaves me damnably unhappy. Wasn’t ��it Hegel who said something about how we only start to see how structures are designed when they stop working?

I find that my experience is not unique. A lot of people can’t get near where they want to go, least to mention within a reasonable amount of time. What are the effects of this inefficient mode of travel? Why, it reduces mobility, not only geographically, but socially, economically, spiritually. I posit that this is by design. It is no coincidence, but a vast and insidious conspiracy against those who ride the bus, to prevent them from matriculating in communities other than their own. The bus routes carry concealed barriers, barring travel between social, racial, class boundaries.

(Fig II. Entangling Pittsburgh Port Authority Routes)

I think the difficulty in traveling from Oakland to Lawrenceville for instance. is an artifact of a different dynamic between the neighborhoods. Before Lawrenceville was gentrified, before the trendy strip of bars and restaurants opened on Butler Street and the gleaming ziggurat of Children's Hospital rose above the rooftops a decade ago, people in Oakland probably seldom had a reason to stray in that direction. Thus there was no necessity to bring people in and around the universities into the working-class neighborhood. Now though, an upwardly mobile class of young people, churned out by Pitt and CMU clamber to spend time and money in the newly hip environs. But the infrastructure of getting from one place to another, the routes demarcated by bus lines have yet to catch up with the new character of the neighborhood and the influx of youth and capital. The disjuncture here is telling, and speaks to a system arbitrating access in a crooked way. That transit barrier is another facet of the system of social and racial segregation built into the urban geography.

As a gesture toward some kind of empirical confirmation of my assertions, here is an EarthTime Map cross referencing city bus routes with redoing maps. They seem to be in some sort of harmony.(https://earthtime.org/explore#v=40.44742,-79.96648,10.773,latLng&t=0.04&ps=50&l=transit_paac_stops_all_routes_served,bdrk,pa_redlining_pgh_choropleth&bt=20180101&et=20181231&startDwell=0&endDwell=0)

These are the sort of dimestore sociological observations that you can glean from just about anyone riding the bus, with and without credentials and expertise. We can understand the PAT System to be a web of malign influence, a means of obstruction and occlusion. It’s a rotten way to attune yourself to the rhythms of a living city, an organism all its own. It’s sprawling and diverse, and a motivated party can find themselves experiencing a variety of situations and stimulations following a progress of their own devising through the city streets. I think the way to escape the implicit ideology and social programming hidden in the bus system is pursuing the opportunity of the latter fact, to foment a sort of counter-conspiracy in opposition to the machinations of the Port Authority.

That practice might be, borrowing from the French Situationists, “The Dérive”. This is a psychogeographical practice of drifting in order to disrupt the mundane strata of urban commerce, defined by Guy Debord as, “the practice of a passional journey out of the ordinary through a rapid changing of ambiences." By prioritizing psychic atmosphere and play within our travel, slowing ourselves down, ambling through urban space instead of rushing through it, we can augment our understanding. By taking alternative routes, embracing digression, getting lost down discursive alleys we reject the civic regime of alleged efficiency implemented by public transit. 

(Fig. III. A Quest for Fried Plantains)

A few weekends ago, after visiting my grandparents in Regent Square, I had a hankering for some fried plantains. My favorite plantains come golden brown, served with salsa verde at Chicken Latino in the Strip. Finding myself frustrated in devising a way to get there quickly by bus, I chose instead to pursue this quixotic goal on foot. I trudged from a bus stop in Squirrel Hill, back through Oakland in the afternoon, crossing Forbes and working my way through Polish hill, doubling back through byways to find my way down toward the Strip. It was around 5 miles, and I admit, the journey did much to make me relish the plantains once I arrived to dine. All the places I would have passed, carried inside a vehicle, were made vistas of exploration as I cut across various grades of pavement. It wasn’t a speedy journey, to be sure, but it did instill a kind of refreshed appreciation and wonder toward the variation and energies of all the city blocks between me and my destination.

In sum, I probably can’t cohesively remake the Pittsburgh transit map to be more functional on my own. Neither am I holding out hope for broad reaching institutional reform. Instead, I am proposing smaller acts of independent inclination, resisting social engineering, through journeys of self determination and curiosity.

*The pictures of buses in this post are made using Deep Dream, mixing found photos of Pittsburgh busses and mixing them with the brushstrokes of renaissance paintings depicting damned souls in perdition.

[cheikosairin]

The PLANTAIN SQUIRREL (Callosciurus notatus) "Aiyoo, please lah. Don't photographs me. I'm very shy you post my photo on social media" 😅 ° ° ° ° #plantainsquirrel #bajing #rodentsofinstagram #squirrels #squirrel #funnysquirrel #squirrelsofinstagram #hindhedenaturepark #bukittimah #Singapore #sgnature #sgparks #nparks #nparkbuzz #sgwildlife #sgbiodiversity #SabahanWildlifePhotographer #sabahanphotographer #olympusphotography #olympusforwildlife #olympusomdem5 #omdem5 #olympus_animals #olympuswildlife #olympussg #microfourthirds #microfourthirdsgallery #mzuiko75300mm #mzuiko75300mmⅱ (at Hindhede Nature Park) https://www.instagram.com/p/B7Sc2XAAxpb/?igshid=1h6n1a7cc3uky

[ossaflores]

I came across this old photo of some of my rodent skulls and I realised I haven't posted about rodents much for a long time so here they are for #skullsundays today! 🐀 I do have more now (including the rest of the capybara family!) but this is most of them I think. There is a capybara, beaver, patagonian mara, porcupine, marmot, nutria, springhare, guinea pig, prairie dog, chinchilla, muskrat, grey and plantain squirrels, a small rat and degu! 🙂 #skullcomparison #bones #skeleton #skulls #capybara #capybaraskull #rodents #rodentskulls #guineapigskull #beaverskull #porcupineskull #springhare #animalskulls #animalbones #osteology #zoology #gothic #wicca #skullcollection #skullcollecting #skullcollector #macabre #taxidermy #oddities #curiosities #wunderkammer #itwasdeadwhenwemet #vultureculture #ossaflores http://bit.ly/2vQtRRT

[helluvatimes]

Hanging On For Dear Life

A plantain squirrel checking out a ginger flower. Photo credit: Eleanor Chua.

This was captured by Nell after following the squirrel a good while. The original image had some messy foliage around the tail of the squirrel. This was fixed in post by outputting the squirrel tail and bum to a layer mask before brushing away the distracting foliage.

[wendyimmiller]

Groundhogs in my Garden!

I suppose most suburban gardeners have some mammals to deal with in their garden – squirrels, rabbits and deer being the top nuisances in my area, so far. That is, until this fat-and-happy groundhog took up residence under my neighbor’s shed, and we think it has a mate, too. (We’re not sure – they all look the same to us.)

The first plants to fall victim to groundhogs were Echinacea purpurea, which were sheared to the ground (sorry, goldfinches!) and the spent flowers of comfrey – which I don’t miss at all. That’s all so far in my back yard.

Sweet Potato Vine and Persian Shield.

My front garden is just starting to show groundhog damage, most obviously the sweet potato vine here in before/after photos taken just a day apart. So fleeting! And I’d taken that “before” photo so I could brag about how great this pairing looks, proclaiming “Look Ma – no Flowers!” or some such. Ha!

Our resident groundhogs have also defoliated several Morning Glory vines I’m training as privacy screening, among several other vines (Crossvine, Sweet Autumn Clematis and Purple Hyacinth Vine) but Morning Glory is the most vigorous of them all. Or was until the ‘hogs got ’em (a fitting nickname, given their appetite).

Screen shot from Cosmos and Cleome.com

These select few plants (thankfully) among the many I have on offer for resident mammals are right in line with what my research reveals about their preferred diet. For example, I found this list of plants eaten by groundhogs in the Pennsylvania garden of the blogger Cosmos and Cleome.  Echinacea, sweet potato vine and morning glory are all there! The good news is that they’re the only plants on this list that I’m growing this year, so that gave me hope.

Until I did more research and learned that “In the wild, groundhogs can live up to six years with two or three being average.” Probably more like six because we’re short on groundhog predators around here (just the occasional red fox).

Interestingly, “When alarmed, they use a high-pitched whistle to warn the rest of the colony, hence the name ‘whistle-pig’. Groundhogs may squeal when fighting, seriously injured, or caught by a predator. Other sounds groundhogs may make are low barks and a sound produced by grinding their teeth.” Have a listen.

What’s hard to find are research-based lists of what they eat, beyond “primarily wild grasses and other vegetation, including berries and agricultural crops, when available…sheep sorrel, timothy-grass, buttercup, tearthumb, agrimony, red and black raspberries, mulberries, buckwheat, plantain, wild lettuce, all varieties of clover, and alfalfa.” Never heard of some of those! We DO have clover all around us (though not in MY lawn-less garden.)

From another source: “They especially like certain garden crops like carrots, beans and peas. They will even climb trees to eat apples and pears. Groundhogs have been known to decimate an entire garden by taking a single bite out of a dozen different zucchini or peppers. They do the same to pumpkins ruining farmers’ seasonal chance of selling them at Halloween.” Glad I’m not trying to feed any humans from my garden.

On the subject of groundhog damage, it’s disheartening to read that “An adult groundhog will eat more than a pound of vegetation daily. In early June, woodchucks’ metabolism slows, food intake increases, their weight increases by as much as 100% as they produce fat deposits to sustain them during hibernation and late winter.”

But enough reading – time for action! I bought some of this repellent and am spraying the remains of my most vulnerable plants.

And my neighbors and I have decided to pool our resources and hire a wildlife-trapping company to take our ‘hogs away. And not just for the sake of our gardens. We’re learning about possible damage to the homes and sheds they live underneath.

So to our chubby, voracious underground neighbors I say – “Safe travels!”

Groundhogs in my Garden! originally appeared on GardenRant on June 26, 2020.

The post Groundhogs in my Garden! appeared first on GardenRant.

from Gardening https://www.gardenrant.com/2020/06/groundhogs-in-my-garden.html via http://www.rssmix.com/

[dansnaturepictures]

12/09/23-Lakeside and home

Pictures taken in this set are of: 1. A bold and beautiful Great Spotted Woodpecker that I was thrilled to see in the trees in the middle of Kornwestheim Lake at Lakeside, a bird I adore and always love seeing. It was a euphoric moment, my first at Lakeside since early in the year. 2. A beautiful spider in its web in the front garden. 3. Another nice one to see early on in my lunch break out the front, a crane fly. 4. Plantain with a hoverfly on at Lakeside. 5. Hawksbeard/ox tongue. 6 and 10. A beautiful Blue Tit which was within a sweet flock of Long-tailed Tits in trees over Concorde lake. 7. A beautiful Blue Tit in the garden this afternoon, great to get a photo in a strong run of seeing and hearing them at home they're regular lately. 8. View out the back with a bit of brightness as it became a sunshine and showers type evening. 9. Woodpigeon that was near the woodpecker at Lakeside.

I got smashing views of Long-tailed Tits on my brilliant far reaching Lakeside lunch time walk as a whole, with Speckled Wood taking over for butterflies with a fair few seen which was good and a great Migrant Hawker view again too. Close views of Moorhen and Grey Squirrel, Feral Pigeon dashing through the air over the northern fenced off area almost raptor like, two Mallards joining a Black-headed Gull on a stick that so often seems to be there on Kornwestheim Lake, Robin and Chiffchaff heard at Lakeside, Jackdaw and Magpie out the back today and picking at the mowed grass on the green out the front at the end of my lunch and Collared Doves from home were other highlights. Bee, pond skater, white deadnettle, water mint, creeping thistle, ragwort, dandelion with a fly on, bindweed, broad-leaved clover, marjoram and snails on the balcony, speeplebush at home with a spider's web between two of the tall flowers were also good to see today.

[turfandlawncare]

Groundhogs in my Garden!

I suppose most suburban gardeners have some mammals to deal with in their garden – squirrels, rabbits and deer being the top nuisances in my area, so far. That is, until this fat-and-happy groundhog took up residence under my neighbor’s shed, and we think it has a mate, too. (We’re not sure – they all look the same to us.)

The first plants to fall victim to groundhogs were Echinacea purpurea, which were sheared to the ground (sorry, goldfinches!) and the spent flowers of comfrey – which I don’t miss at all. That’s all so far in my back yard.

Sweet Potato Vine and Persian Shield.

My front garden is just starting to show groundhog damage, most obviously the sweet potato vine here in before/after photos taken just a day apart. So fleeting! And I’d taken that “before” photo so I could brag about how great this pairing looks, proclaiming “Look Ma – no Flowers!” or some such. Ha!

Our resident groundhogs have also defoliated several Morning Glory vines I’m training as privacy screening, among several other vines (Crossvine, Sweet Autumn Clematis and Purple Hyacinth Vine) but Morning Glory is the most vigorous of them all. Or was until the ‘hogs got ’em (a fitting nickname, given their appetite).

Screen shot from Cosmos and Cleome.com

These select few plants (thankfully) among the many I have on offer for resident mammals are right in line with what my research reveals about their preferred diet. For example, I found this list of plants eaten by groundhogs in the Pennsylvania garden of the blogger Cosmos and Cleome.  Echinacea, sweet potato vine and morning glory are all there! The good news is that they’re the only plants on this list that I’m growing this year, so that gave me hope.

Until I did more research and learned that “In the wild, groundhogs can live up to six years with two or three being average.” Probably more like six because we’re short on groundhog predators around here (just the occasional red fox).

Interestingly, “When alarmed, they use a high-pitched whistle to warn the rest of the colony, hence the name ‘whistle-pig’. Groundhogs may squeal when fighting, seriously injured, or caught by a predator. Other sounds groundhogs may make are low barks and a sound produced by grinding their teeth.” Have a listen.

What’s hard to find are research-based lists of what they eat, beyond “primarily wild grasses and other vegetation, including berries and agricultural crops, when available…sheep sorrel, timothy-grass, buttercup, tearthumb, agrimony, red and black raspberries, mulberries, buckwheat, plantain, wild lettuce, all varieties of clover, and alfalfa.” Never heard of some of those! We DO have clover all around us (though not in MY lawn-less garden.)

From another source: “They especially like certain garden crops like carrots, beans and peas. They will even climb trees to eat apples and pears. Groundhogs have been known to decimate an entire garden by taking a single bite out of a dozen different zucchini or peppers. They do the same to pumpkins ruining farmers’ seasonal chance of selling them at Halloween.” Glad I’m not trying to feed any humans from my garden.

On the subject of groundhog damage, it’s disheartening to read that “An adult groundhog will eat more than a pound of vegetation daily. In early June, woodchucks’ metabolism slows, food intake increases, their weight increases by as much as 100% as they produce fat deposits to sustain them during hibernation and late winter.”

But enough reading – time for action! I bought some of this repellent and am spraying the remains of my most vulnerable plants.

And my neighbors and I have decided to pool our resources and hire a wildlife-trapping company to take our ‘hogs away. And not just for the sake of our gardens. We’re learning about possible damage to the homes and sheds they live underneath.

So to our chubby, voracious underground neighbors I say – “Safe travels!”

Groundhogs in my Garden! originally appeared on GardenRant on June 26, 2020.

The post Groundhogs in my Garden! appeared first on GardenRant.

from GardenRant https://ift.tt/31kq8wI

[tauers-go-dutch]

Africa Part II: Cape Town, the Capstone

After a horrendous breakfast at the Victoria Falls airport, we arrived in Cape Town. The drive into town is a bit hard, since you go past the townships (basically millions of shacks without insulation or running water) and see the true disparity of rich and poor). More on that later.  

We checked into the hotel, and went out to explore a bit. We walked through the Company Gardens, a big public park with plants and animals from all over the world. We saw some very fat squirrels and some fuzzy baby ducks. Very cute. We made our way to a bar/restaurant and had some beers and wings (well, Mariah had a margherita pizza). We decided to head back for some milkshakes and an early night sleep. We stayed in the heart of the city, specifically Long Street. The little boutique hotel was cute, but we were quickly informed that we were in the bar district. The problem is, the bars don’t close until 4 am, and blast bass the entire time. So our plan for sleep went out the window pretty quickly.

Table Mountain 

Mariah followed the ducklings for longer than she’d like to admit

A bit reminiscent of Bourbon Street. And just as loud... *this is a guess, as I’ve never been to Louisiana

The next morning we started out with some great brunch at Jason Bakery (egg-bacon-cheese-mushroom ragout sammie for me, plantain french toast for Mariah).  Next up, a drive down to Boulders Beach, where we got to see all the penguins! I think this was easily Mariah’s favorite part of the trip.  Not much more to say here, the pictures speak for themselves. We then continued onto the Cape of Good Hope. This was a highlight, as we spent several hours here, so we had the opportunity to hike up to the lighthouse and Cape Point. Again, this is just something where the pictures speak for themselves.  

These little guys were not shy 

On the way back we saw a wild ostrich on the side of the road.  It’s kinda funny, cause the shape of its neck looks almost exactly like the Guinness ad. Once we got back, we explored the Watershed at the V&A Waterfront.  This is a collective for local artisans to sell art, primarily made from people in the townships as an employment program.  The coolest place we found was a shop that made art from used bags of tea.  It was all really well done, and we picked some things for us and some as gifts.  We explored the Waterfront a bit and then went down to a fancy Italian restaurant- True Italic- for dinner.  It was very good, even though the only vegetarian option for Mariah was mushroom ravioli (she actually enjoyed quite a bit).

Cape of Good Hope

Lighthouse keeper’s quarters

The V&A Waterfront

The next day was the big one- the reason for the whole trip. First thing in the morning, we got up and hopped into a van and drove down south for about three and a half hours.  Once we got down to Gansbaai, we grabbed some coffee and started our orientation.  We were about to dive with sharks. Great Whites, to be precise.

The boat ride was short but choppy.  It was fairly chilly, but we were fine in shorts and a hoodie. Once we were out in the deep, we changed into wetsuits. Mariah and I took the first dive into the water, climbing into the steel cage anchored on the side of the boat. The water was frigid and murky- we couldn’t see more a couple of feet in front of us. Luckily, the sharks came right away. Unfortunately they only made a few passes before leaving us for the better part of an hour.  But they are majestic and very stealthy. They were on us before we would ever spot them, and that fin above the water is just for the movies. We kept looking for them (which had me a bit paranoid that they would pop up next to me at the end of the cage), but we called it and hopped out to warm up. We moved up to the top deck, and the sharks started to come back. The view on top of the boat was much better than in the cage. Again the speed and suddenness of the sharks was on display as a massive shark started hanging around the boat.  I was unfortunately too slow to capture any good picture, but it is a memory I’ll keep for quite some time.

You’re gonna need a bigger boat

This guy was massive. I wish I had something in the photo for scale. 

Bucket list: Check!

The suckers helped with the seasickness

There is also reason to return. While the sharks are able to be viewed throughout the year, they only jump during the winter (June through August) months.  Apparently this is when the seal pups are swimming for the first time, coupled with the low orca activity due to colder water (I learned orca naturally hunt great whites).  Also, the kelp bed in the area naturally funnels the seals (or sea lions, I don’t quite remember which are down there) through a corridor, making the waters sort of a smorgasbord. However, this is becoming more and more infrequent as the kelp is becoming overgrown, and the sharks have a harder time swimming through. Once back in Cape Town, we did find some great burgers and shakes before hopping in bed. I think we were tired enough to sleep through the club music this time.

Cheers to swimming with the great whites and living to tell the tale! 

The next morning we started out on our food tour.  We started out in Lady Bonin’s Tea, a quaint little tea house that combined traditional South African tea with the care and technique of Asian tea houses.  We learned about rooibos, honeybush, and buchu tea.  We had samples, and left with a few bags of tea to go.  We also had a rooibos latte to go.  Great stuff!  After the tea house, the tour took a long, meandering stroll through the city.  It was fine and all, learning about the city and the Company Gardens, including how it got its name (The Dutch East India Company used it as a stopping point on their route, and picked fresh produce to replenish the ship for their journey), but we hadn’t eaten in anticipation of food. The length of time between stuffing our faces was entirely too long. But the reward was worth it.

Mariah was in heaven

The Company Gardens. Still in use today! 

We had lunch at this local spot called the Eastern Food Bazaar, which is basically this big cafeteria that specialized in various Asian fare. Ok, it sounds like it would be awful (and the picture of the food isn’t too appealing), but holy shit it was good. Bunny chow is basically delicious Indian curry in a white loaf of bread. I could do without the white bread, but the food is incredible. It was so good that we ended up going back later in the week. After lunch we went over to the Woodstock neighborhood and had some drinks at Woodstock brewery.  We had a flight of their wares and tour of their brewery. They were in the process of digging their own well and coming off the water grid in the midst of the drought- a very good idea considering the incredible level of water used.  We also left with a souvenir, which is now sitting in my cellar.

Way better than it looks

If I could remember what this was, I’d tell you. Even Mariah tried a bite. 

We mosied over to the Biscuit Factory, a collection of shops in, you guessed it, an old biscuit factory. We looked around a bit, but ended up in a chocolate shop.  They were incredible, especially the sesame dark chocolate. We sampled about everything and bought quite a bit (unfortunately they were oxidized in the flight back home). We also had a hot white chocolate, which is not usually my thing but this one was great. After a quick stop at a local butcher, we drove up to the Bo-Kaap neighborhood. This neighborhood is colorful; literally, the houses were colorful. But the thing is that this neighborhood is predominantly Islamic, and apparently suffers quite a lot of discrimination. It’s too bad, as we visited a spice shop and picked up some great stuff, and had some tasty sweets.  

Your Dutch is showing

Bo-Kaap 

The crew with our ridiculously sweet fried treats

To cap off the night, we partook in First Thursdays, which is a festival promoting drinks and food all throughout the city. We ended up going out with some friends from the food tour. It was a great time! We went to a gin bar, and then another swanky bar, then a shitty dive bar. Good times all around.  

In the morning, we started to work off our hangover by waking up at 5:00 am to go for a hike up Table Mountain. I wasn’t hurting that bad, but Mariah probably would have liked to sleep in a little more. It didn’t help that the other two couples in our group were in excellent shape, so our pace was pretty fast. But we made it up, with our guide giving us great insight to the surrounding flora and history of the mountain. The views were beautiful. That evening we went to a beer bar to watch a World Cup match- Belgium vs Brazil. The Brazilians were lively but ultimately left disappointed.

Cape Town’s water supply

Made it!

Made some new friends

Go Belgium! I like your beer!

The next day we had a bike and wine tour in Stellenbosch, the oldest wine region in the country.  It was great, since it was the off season and our tour became private by default.  We went to four wineries: Neethlingshof, Skilpadvlei, LovanE, and Asara.  The wines were fantastic, including the pinotage, which comes from a hybrid grape first developed in South Africa.  The bike ride was great too, as we saw some great wild life, including a fish eagle perched on a fence by the side of the road (I couldn’t snag a photo in time, unfortunately).  Our guide also gave us a lot of insight into life in South Africa.  He explained that for all its troubles, it has the most opportunities of the surrounding countries.  Immigrants flock to SA (from Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, etc.), often overwhelming the system.  Immigrants are the ones who largely populate the townships.  Townships often have no insulation, running water, heat, or toilets.  The water comes from public fountains, and port-o-potties are brought in for the neighborhoods.  The silver lining is that (most of) these neighborhoods have official standing in the government, and have representation within the local government.  Unfortunately the government is not organized, is not well funded, and is corrupt, resulting in inadequate housing. These people don’t have jobs, or end up working minimum wage-esque jobs serving people (predominately white people) in the city. The optics of the racial divide are still quite clear and observable, unfortunately. The country still has hope, which is good. They recently elected a new leader who I’m told is reminiscent of Nelson Mandela. Hopefully that can bring on continued change.

We splurged for dinner at a Dutch inspired eatery, Kloof Street House. You should know that I usually think Dutch food is garbage, but this restaurant was tops (or top, as the Dutch say). My steak was capital, the frites smashing, and the desert decadent (I think I hit all the ole-timey English phrases there).  

Turtle Valley Winery

The next day was our final one in Cape Town.  It started on a solemn note, as we visited Robben Island, the chief prison used during apartheid and where Nelson Mandela spent 18 years of his life. We learned of the history of the prison, and most of the tour was hosted by a former political prisoner that was held on the island.  It is incredible to learn about what Mandela and the other leaders went through, and how they kept their faith and hope in a new ideal as they endured incredible hardships.  It was powerful, and made you wish for more compassion from humanity.  

The lime quarry where many prisoners spent their days working. That cave is where Mandela and many others would take a break and discuss current events without guards overhearing.

Our guide, a prisoner himself. He has to wear sunglasses all the time because of the damage working in the quarry did to his eyes. Taking a photo with the flash on would get your kicked off the tour, because it could be the final straw to blind him. 

Nelson Mandela spent 18 years in this cell and 27 years imprisoned total

After reflecting on our morning, we went out to have the best of what South Africa could offer. We hit up a local food court and had some seriously good wraps. And a quesadilla. And a burger. Ok, the burger was overkill, but I had heard about this chain called Rocomamas. I had to try them in my perpetual search for the best burger on each continent. I got to say, this is the clear leader for Africa amid a pretty barren field. But really, this place holds up, and it would be a contender within Europe (it would be good by North American standards as well, but the competition is much more fierce that it would be on the lower tier of the AP rankings).

We grabbed an Uber straight from Rocomamas to the airport, ready for our African safari!

Safe travels, my friend

Tot ziens, for now! 

[thomasreedtn]

Garden Update ~ Tulips, Trillium, Trout Lilies, and Trees

More blooms from the ever evolving yard! Today’s flowers celebrate the letter “T,” and represent just a small smattering of bee and butterfly delight. Yes, some hungry pollinators have already found our yard. In addition to the wild trillium I saved from a destroyed woods a few years ago, we’ve also got trout lilies from the same woods, along with still massive amounts of dandelions, plantain and wild violet, courtesy of Nature herself. I thought I’d share some of today’s more stunning displays:

Behind those peachy beauties, you can see the later blooming magenta yarrow, which has become its own tough competitor in the colorful riot to dominate this permaculture haven. I leave some of the “heal-all” with purple flowers because the bees love it so much, but my goodness, it loves to spread! Fortunately, the heat kills it off in late Spring and early Summer. The garden angel keeps an eye on the last round of tulips, which should bloom in another week or so. Alliums and irises will follow those.

These mysterious white tulips arrived without name via the squirrel relocation program. They’ve settled in well next to the grape hyacinths, more yarrow, and long awaited peonies. Hopefully, we’ll get some blooms from those bushes this year!

Meanwhile, these peony-style ruffled tulips make me smile:

Trillium and trout lilies continue on the north side of our house, getting their slight supply of sun in early morning before the ferns pop up.

I love these rescued plants, which also included Jack in the Pulpit and a very delicate pink flower whose name I’ve never learned. Not to be outdone, many of the fruit trees and bushes are already in full blossom. Below, you can see our North Star cherry and three-way Asian pear, with a bed of garlic growing in the background.

The yellow daffodils surrounding the trees died back just as the dandelions decided to assert their claim. It’s definitely a pollinator’s paradise. All the additional blooms have transformed yards that used to make me cry in embarrassed and sad frustration into an ever changing palette of colors, form and taste.

The abundance continues to overwhelm a little bit, but in a good way. All those chives at the base of the trees made a mighty tasty vegan chive pesto, which we enjoyed over pasta two nights in a row. I loosely adapted Kevin Lee Jacobs’ recipe, using nutritional yeast instead of parmesan. he rhubarb you see to the far left middle of the photo formed the base of a delicious rhubarb salsa, coupled with Egyptian walking onions and last summer’s frozen Poblano peppers:

For the rhubarb salsa, I just mixed and matched about six different recipes to taste — fresh rhubarb, chopped poblano’s (or whatever hot pepper you have on hand), chopped Egyptian walking onions, since they’re marching all over the garden beds, apple cider vinegar, chipotle pepper powder, a smidge of raw honey, and just a dusting of ground cumin.

This salsa means rhubarb makes the cut — quite literally a root cutting — to transplant into the new yard. I’m currently making my way through all the perennial veggies and unusual fruits growing now or frozen last year, so that I can decide which must repeat in the new yard, and which can stay here as their living experiment.

Details on our new place will eventually find their way onto the blog. For now, suffice to say, the yard presents the opposite challenge these yards did. Here, I had a blank slate, and anything I did would be an incredible improvement over the status quo. The new place is already beautifully landscaped for year round color and has some planting limitations built into the yard. Instead of filling everything from scratch just to inject a little beauty into a weedy, dry, compacted landscape, this new process involves careful observation, selection, very deliberate hardscaping, and perhaps some substitution. More Zen than Bollywood. More formal than wild.

All good things in their proper season … I’ve had some leads on people who might be interested in these properties. Meanwhile, we wander through the blooms and harvest the bounty I planted years ago. May your life blossom as abundantly as our yard!

    from Thomas Reed https://laurabruno.wordpress.com/2017/04/20/garden-update-tulips-trillium-trout-lilies-and-trees/