There are/were a few things keeping me from posting. Hunting season kept me out of the woods. Burned out and computer weary. Setting up my netbook to the tv and letting netflix entertain me. Fall chores, 10 cords of wood to unstack, move into the basement and stack again. Building raised beds and hauling truckloads of compost. Rock hunting at a local guarry so I have more ‘blanks’ to make birdbaths out of …and on an on.

Now I have a new and a very major distraction participating in the usability study for Google’s prototype Chrome Notebook – the cr-48. This computer is basically a browser. No hard drive, no programs will run on it like a normal desktop. Everything has to be done on the internet.

If you want to know what it’s like – use Google’s Chrome browser and forget there’s a computer behind it. Needless to say I’m spending a lot of time searching and trying out all the ‘apps’ I can find that will replace my desktop programs. Since I’m testing I also thought I’d use a number of other Google products.

Blogger is very nice. Simple to use, it must be fool proof if I didn’t have a problem. I guess the only reason I went with WordPress was I wanted to self host this blog and all my files on my own web site server. Having access to all the pieces used to put it together makes it possible to ‘fine tune’ the design and besides I like to play with code too. I’m no code monkey but have learned a few things. But Blogger is perfect to run a blog without all the hassles.

Picasa – hey who can’t use a gig of photo storage. I was starting to run out of space on my own server. This just doubled my storage space. But the thing I found cool was the ability to create a slide show and drop the code Picasa generated into a blog.

So here are some wiseacre photos pulled off this blog and turned into a slideshow. These are the only bugs I found so far

There’s nothing much to see on my chromenotebook blog on Blogger. A few observations and impressions but the notecard that came with the notebook is worth a look. The only problem with it (same as all other blogs) is that it reads a journal ‘backwards’ from the beginning.

They say to ‘Stop and smell the flowers’. I say, you better check the flowers out before you go sticking your nose somewhere it may get bit. Sometimes what looks like a tiny bit of debris stuck to the flower turns out to be a real surprise.

Ambush Bugs usually are not spotted as easily as this one on a wild bergamot flower. For some reason this bug ugly predator wasn’t even trying to blend in with the flower. Still, if I wasn’t purposely looking for these bugs I probably would have never seen it.

Wild Bergamot – Monarda fistulosa

Wild Bergamot is one of those plants where I know I can find Ambush Bugs. I have to inspect plenty of these wildflowers but I’ve never failed to find Ambush Bugs when I’ve gone hunting for them.

Ambush Bug – Phymata (something or other)

Impulsive flower sniffers are likely to meet other creepy crawlers. Getting eye to eye to eye to eye to eye to eye to eye to eye with them can be a startling experience.

Not so itsy bitsy spider

Locally, peak bloom time has passed for the Wild Bergamot. I was surprised to find some good quality flowers, most are pretty ratty looking these days. From the looks of it I’m not the only one hanging on to their charm.

OK, back to the Ambush Bugs. The yellow blush of Goldenrod is now starting to fill the fields and the ambush bugs are taking up new positions. Goldenrod is a favored flower of these bug eyed creatures. Like bergamot, a close inspection of goldenrod will almost always turn up a couple of ambush bugs.*

* results may vary on location. At least here in the center of St. Lawrence County, NY, ambush bugs are plentiful during these two wildflower bloom times.

A different angle reveals the folded wings and the large ‘biceps’.

How nasty are they? A pic from a previous post – Spearmint Surprise – from last year will give you a hint. Anything that takes on a White Faced Wasp is no wimp.

I’m trying out this Bee Balm for the first time. The catalog stated:

‘Dwarf cultivar with large heads of red flowers. 16 inch tall’

Bee balm – Fireball — Phlox – Purple Flame
Coreopsis – Zagreb — Sedum – k. Ellcombinianum

Calling this bee balm a dwarf is a stretch. The ones I planted this spring were topping out at 3 feet. Even the short Phlox – ‘Purple Flame’ grew a good foot over the stated 16 inch height. The Coreopsis – ‘Zagreb’ gained a good 6 inches over what the catalog stated but that was no surprise. I usually expect it to grow 1 and a half to 2 feet high.

Sometimes a mistake turns out to be a well planed design. Next year the Zagreb will probably gain another 6 inches in height. Good thing the bee balm and phlox growing behind it ate their Wheaties.

The Fireball flowers were right on, the big red blooms turned out nicer than expected.

Monarda – ‘Fireball’

I figure if the Fireball over-winters in this spot it’s going to be winter hardy just about anywhere I might use it. A deep freeze is going to settle in behind that stone wall.

…and now for something completely different.

I’ve heard about the ‘Birds and the Bees’ and always thought they were a bit more discrete than this. The way this Coreopsis ‘Zagreb’ flower is being mounted makes me think this might be some sort of ill mannered fly wearing a bee overcoat.