What is this bug?

(The big bug, not the little one, although I am curious about them too.)

I've seen them for a few days now. They hang out on my screen at
night. Last night I think I saw a younger one flying around. Most of
the time they just sit there. One other one was seen crawling around
another screen. I haven't seen them before this summer and I have
lived here for 4 summers now. Big mothers.

11am
The Ramapo police department or the fire department has been
disturbing the peace for the last 15 minutes with some demonstration
of their equipment at a nearby school, using their sirens, probably
to impress the kids.

How bizarre. Watching C-Span. Rep Steve King republican of Idaho
first heralds the fall of the Berlin Wall, as a demonstration of the
appeal of democracy. Later he is showing off a model fence which he
adds barbed wire to, that he proposes for the Mexican border.

Does he not see the contradiction? If Berlin is all about tearing
down walls, why are we planning to build one?

Have heard cicadas in the past few days, in the morning. Their first
calls were different than the usual. Hope to get a recording of them
at some point.

The tree that has one part that thinks it is fall already has some
bright orange leaves on it. It does this every year. Last year it had
some fall colors in September. The third week of July is a bit early
I'd think.

A flower in the butterfly mix O&R gave us. Wonder what it is. Others
are getting ready to bloom too but all seem small, miniature. Looking
forward to butterflies checking them out. Glad they are sprouting,
most seeds don't sprout for me.

Is this comfrey? Nice little purple flowers.

A bug seen inside last night. I get lots of these. I escorted this
one outside, then tossed it.

Sunday 7/16
They're back. The ants. I saw three or four in the window sill as I
was eating dinner and one on the sink, which I washed down. I spread
baking soda all over in the window sill so hopefully they will stop
using that. We've got some hot weather coming up so let's see if they
make an appearance inside.

One hot cat. It's hot here in NY.

Today's garden pics

Flowers on the mint! Never seen that before.

Some nice colors on the overly wet geraniums.

Berries on the unknown bush next to the privet. (The privet has some
smaller berries that I guess will turn black at some point. It has
stopped smelling, alas. What a great smell when it is fragrant.)

I have lots of progress in the butterfly assortment in the planter at
the top of my landing. This flower has some imminent buds. I believe
it is part of the slim leafed plant to the right. Looking forward to
flowers on any of these. (I think they are safe from the woodchucks,
rabbits and deer being on a second story landing!)

No good pics yet but my neighbor has a Rose of Sharon that has been blooming for a few days. I thought they were later but have seen some blooming in Nyack lately as well.

A hummingbird was seen by the monarda yesterday. I was upstairs in
the kitchen and couldn't take a pic, and it wouldn't have come out
well anyway.

Other birds seen helping themselves to the raspberries which is fine.
I don't mind. If I get any I'll be happy and there are plenty more to
come.

Activity around the bird house finally. I'd seen a bird or two
picking off the raspberries but today saw the song sparrows for the
first time in a long time. I thought they may have abandoned the
birdhouse/nest. I have no idea if they have any babies.

Saw a yellow bellied woodpecker picking bugs out of the post the bird
house is supported by at the same time.

Also saw three birds with white markings on their backs fly up as I
drove out. Would have been nice to get pictures of them. Not sure
what they were.

I now have ants in the bathroom. Large black ants. I had small ones
up til now in both the bathroom and the kitchen but they seem to have
disappeared. (I am almost ready to put food out in the kitchen
again.) I am escorting them outside. Do they make their way back in?
They area crawling over baking soda so hopefully that will discourage
them.

Lots of unknown plants but I'll only post one now. A blue flower is
coming out of the tip of this one. Wonder what it is. (Is this comfrey?) These plants
were taken out of the pots where other plants are dominating. I'm
calling them strays.

What is happening to my lilly? Too much water?

And, thank goodness, a good shot of the monarda. My camera has been
refusing to focus on close-ups for the past two days. Not sure why or
if it is permanent. Great detail in the bud at this stage before it
starts to open up. Glorious!

Let's see the humidity. Anyone?

Finally hot and humid today. As I pad around the house I wonder,
someone must have made a picture of how humidity moves in a house.
One side of you feels sticky and clammy, the other doesn't but will
soon. Humidity must move around like mist except that you can't see
it, except when you see mist. I'd love to see a good computer graphic
of humidity moving around a room. It must move like mist, like
clouds. Let's see the graphic. Anyone?

goose on the roof pic from 4/4

Here's a pic of a goose that ended up on a roof of a nearby shed back
in April. It honked for awhile and then flew to another roof. I don't
know what its problem was. I think it had a happy ending, I don't
know. Maybe it wasn't a problem at all. Maybe it just felt like going
there... Still it was strange to see it fly through the woods. And it
sounded unhappy.

Has anyone had the problem where their credit card statement from
Capital One Bank address doesn't show in the return envelope they
provide? It has happened to me for 4 months now. Why don't they fix
it? Is this a plot by Capital One to make us send our statements in
late, because if we have to write the address on the envelope
ourselves we might make a small mistake which delays their receipt
of our payment which they then use as an excuse to charge us more
money? It has gone on for 4 months now.

I've written the president of the company. Let's see what happens.

name that animal sound

I heard a huffing sound in the woods tonight. I recorded it and
uploaded it to my Yahoo Briefcase here
http://briefcase.yahoo.com/lipwak in the "sounds from around the house" folder. The file is called: 070906.aif

Ok. So at first I thought is was a deer. Now, after someone suggested I look into bear sounds, I think it was a bear! Black bear. I looked up bear sounds on the web and the first site I ran across had two that I've heard before! Here is the "blowing" http://www.bear.org/Black/Sounds/chomp.wav They also chomp which I didn't hear.

The other sound I've heard and thought were deer is heard in the "bear family conversing" http://www.bear.org/Black/Sounds/bconversds.wav I've heard that many times so bear are more common than I think, unless deer make that sound too...

Check out this site http://www.bear.org/Kids/Sounds.html

Now I want to look for some deer sounds. (Fingers crossed I'm hearing deer more than bear!)

I tried looking on the web for animal forums where I could post this
question but couldn't find any. Can you tell what it is?

Thanks!

The rabbit again. Yesterday. Interpolated. With flash.

My head, reflected in the turned off tv. Kinda cool. I tried some
other shots like this, getting the sun back-lighting my hair in the
morning but they didn't come out as well as I'd like. Maybe someday.

My head with flash. Not bad.

Gloriously silent, still out today. That's one good thing about
living in an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood. Saturdays can be real
quiet. They might start singing and praying later on tonight but
during the day it can be wonderfully quiet.

It is also very nice out, little or no humidity, nice and comfortable. Haven't had too many hot days so far this summer. Cool nights
too. When will it get hot?

On my return from a trip to Maine, I notice some changes in the
garden. The monarda are blooming. The primrose have stopped. The day
lilies are still blooming. The bougainvillea hasn't changed much but
it does have some new leaves at last. I am surprised it hasn't
changed much since I brought it out in May. I planted some
raspberries my mother gave me (from Maine). That stock always gave
her two batches a year so I am hoping for the same since they
originated not far from here before they were transplanted to Maine.
I have one red raspberry on the batch I planted last year but I will
water them daily in hopes of getting more.

The potting soil is like jello. Weird. The geraniums by the bird
bath, which was turned over by a visiting mammal (raccoon?) I
suppose, have all had their flowers eaten off of them but are
otherwise fine. Nothing much has happened to the chrysanthemum or the
anemone. I wonder if they'd be happier in another spot?

The cat smells like cat litter. I suppose she spent alot of time
huddled there. She is glad to be home though and cried for me as I
put the new plants in. My mom gave me some of her raspberries,
geraniums and a bleeding heart. The bleeding heart and some other
hitchhikers in other pots are now in their own pots until they get
bigger. They'd get lost if I planted them in the ground.

I've heard a wood thrush again around here so that is nice.

Also, one ant seen in the kitchen when I got back. None in the bathroom. Let's hope they are finished with crawling around my apt.

Ate my first home grown raspberry for this year! Yum. Looks like they
will be ripening for awhile now. Yeah!

This evening, the neighbors who live in the rental next door (downstairs), had
some sort of Spanish fundamentalist Christian service. Lots of
shouting and an amen at the end. I thought the Orthodox Jews in the other
direction were going to start singing and praying since they were
outside on their porch but I didn't hear them after this.

I've uploaded a soundfile of the Spanish Christians to my Yahoo
Briefcase here: http://briefcase.yahoo.com/lipwak It's titled
"070106.aif" and in the "sounds from around the house" folder.

From my 2nd story kitchen window, I see a deer eating weeds in the
"garden". I say "garden" because it is a fenced in area that used to
be a tended garden but now the fence has several gaps and all that is
growing there are weeds, my raspberries and some mint. As the deer
headed over to the raspberries, I open the window and ask the deer
not to eat the raspberries. He/she looks up and after staring at me
for a few seconds, heads over to the gap in the fence and heads out.
Thank you! Nice to have obedient deer!

A RED raspberry has been seen! Lots more coming! Some even on the
bushes that I left in the shade. Hoping for two crops this year!

Possible bracts seen on the bougainvillea. Some reddish leaves. And a
few new leaves but overall it seems to be in suspended animation.
Odd, since it has been outside since May.

Reddish leaves seen on the unknown bush next to the privet.

The catalpa blossoms are fading.

The two monarda (bee balm) are beginning to show buds, the one on the
right moreso than the one on the left, which is a bigger plant.

Got the reel to reel to work so I can start listening to those tapes
I haven't heard in 30 years! Let's hope it keeps up.

bird of prey

As I walked back from getting the mail today I heard lots of peeping going on in the trees. I stopped and looked up and there was this guy (female?) sitting on the branch, looking down at me. We looked at each other for awhile and then he/she flew off. Someone has suggested that this is a broad-winged hawk. I guess that is an ex-squirrel it's got. There were several younger birds that flew off when this one did. (I should have gotten a movie of this so the sounds could be heard too.)

Yesterday's two fawns and (mom? dad? friend?)
At least two fawns have been seen around here lately. Maybe this is a reunion with one of their parents?