This is what we do. Continue. Accept change. Adapt. Create and wonder. Make change. Be change…peacefully.
Today…

I add this here in case you are interested in why native plants are imperative for insects. I did not know HOW imperative until I read this book. In the future, I will be replacing any drought tolerant alien plants with natives. It seems obvious, but even though I’ve been gardening for decades, there is always more to learn and wonder about. Also available on Audible if you have unused credits. Just a few monarch chrysalis’ left here. the ladybug nymphs have pupated (there were 100’s!!) and emerged as ladybugs, and the praying mantises have mostly gone off to create their ootheca. Still seeing beautiful swallowtails though.
apparently, he had milkweed bugs for lunch-leftover wings! end of summer… it’s a feast! some of the milkweed had ladybug eggs that hatched inside the enclosure and into fall we go!
The praying mantis on the sunflower was there for around a month. One night Phil found her eating one of her male suitors. The next morning she was mating with (perhaps) a preferred choice. They were there the entire day and by evening only she was left and finally crawled away. I’m only seeing females in the yard now. Maybe all the males became snacks! I miss seeing her there everyday!
Also today, I worked on organza for the upcoming flower workshop kits. Got the fabric hemmed, dyed, ironed and wired. Next I will pleat, discharge, and dye it. I’m working out the materials for two different kits. I hope to have everything ready for the shop in about a week. A couple of the kits will be indigo dyed.

No photos but my grandson was by today and we made “garden soup”. If you want the recipe:
-mint leaves
-sweet red mini bell peppers
-pomegranate arils
-basil leaves
-lemon grass
-dirt to taste
Mix all in a bucket with garden trowel. Enjoy!
What a pretty helper…
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She has big eyes. A looker.
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Love how sunflowers fade at seasons end. Garden soup sounds yummy! As a child I used to make “mush”, which included grass, dirt, two kinds of berries and birch pods…mix with water, eat. 🙂
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So dramatic aren’t they?
My go to was clay from the ditch and huckleberries.
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love you being change… peacefully
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So many angry people right now it makes me sad…
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as we wandered about a nursery the other day, Don pointed out the plumbago, which is indeed beautiful … but nope, not a native … thanks for the book title, which I’ve placed on library reserve
love the garden soup recipe … I’m thinking it will go well with basil leaf burritos stuffed with native grass seed heads and flower petal salsa
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I’ll always be thankful for childhood times of roaming and playing freely outside, left to wonder unsupervised!
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Love your recipe too!
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Love the Garden Soup! Thank You for the recipe!
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It really smelled good!!
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Thanks for sharing the book. We are reading The Hidden Life of Trees. So many things to wonder about.
Soup sounds yummy!🥰😊
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The bigger revelation I got from this book was that native insects often cannot thrive on alien plants and that it takes a VERY long time for them to evolve to the point where they can. We don’t really have that time! Thanks for sharing your book rec!
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i need to make some of that soup
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