WiseAcre Gardens

Lophocampa maculata

I still can’t tell which end is the head but from other photos on the web I can at least make a reasonable identification of this caterpillar. Guess I need to expand my Field Guide library to cover creepy crawlies since I’ve started taking photos of them.

Yellow Woolly Bear Background

Who cares which end is which. It looks like lunch no matter how I look at it.

Rooster Background

images are linked to a 1024 x 768 sized image suitable for use as desktop wallpaper.

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Prunella vulgaris

This is a Eurasian alien often found in lawns. It is a member of the mint family and tea / gargle made from the leaves is/was used to treat sore throats and mouth sores. In China a tea made from the flowering plant was considered ‘cooling’ and used to treat ‘heat’ in the liver. The plant contains the diuretic compound ursolic acid and is used to treat kidney aliments.

I don’t know about heated liver except it’s best cooked with onions. And as far as a diuretic goes – nothing beats a pot of strong coffee.

And now for something completely different.

Lichen Wallpaper

What do you get when you mix algae and fungus? I got another desktop background

More? How about tacking up a cat on your desktop?

I couldn’t resist posting this photo of my daughter’ssqueeze cat. Poor Mavie was ‘raised by’ my youngest daughter when both were toddlers. She used to take poor Mavie to bed and lay on him so he couldn’t escape. Now he isn’t happy until someone gives him a big squeeze.

If you think he’s cute enough the image is linked to a larger image suitable to use as desktop wallpaper.  You can’t squeeze him but he’ll be happy enough as your cat background.

Following a lead I went to take photos of Bur Cucumber – Sicyos angulatus – and found a bonus subject when I arrived. Swarming around the old barn and the plants twining it’s way up the side were dozens of paper wasps.

I like this photograph because it caught both the unusual seed pod and flowers at the same time.

This member of the  wild cucumber family could not hold my attention long with the wasps demanding I pay attention to them. More than one had landed on me and I was a bit worried they might mistake me for a threat. I’ll go back and take photos of the plant later. Maybe then I’ll mention the difference between Wild And Bur cucumbers. But for now just one more quick shot of a paper wasp.

You looking at me?