More Irises

Irises around the propane tank

Burgundy/Bronze Iris.

Please let me know if you can come up with a better color description for this iris.  It is beautiful but the color is difficult to determine.  I was surprised that the outside buds look black but this is the inside color.

Another view of the Irises in the "triangle."

Irises by the stairs

Irises

My friend, the "Iris Queen", "Iris Maven",  or  "Iris Obsessed," has several varieties of Irises on her property.  I have been trying to take pictures so she can see that her irises are doing well; I'm also trying to prove that I'm a "good enough plant mom" that she can give me some of her babies when I get my own property and rest easy that the babies will be well cared for.

This year, I took over 30 pictures of her irises; it was difficult to chose which ones to show but I have narrowed it down to about 17.  Yes, I will have multiple blogs with iris pictures- this is really the only way to do this.

First up, Oriental (Japanese?) Iris: my friend said these are hard to transplant as they are very particular and I decided to start with them since she has not seen them bloom.

Do yuu see the sphecid wasp in the stem?  I didn't know it was there until after I took the picture.  I'm just glad it didn't try to sting me since I'm allergic to hymenoptera stings.

Can you see the pentamid bug curled up the bottom petal?  I tried to get a better picture but it kept curling back up in the petal.

This is what I call the purple striped iris.

It is my understanding that this is supposed to be the same as the one above but it looks more blue than purple and the beard (fuzzy, caterpillar looking section on the petal) is a lighter, much lighter yellow.

Group of irises out in the "triangle" on the other side of the driveway.

Poppies!!!

For the last three days I have been observing the poppies in my yard.  Yes, I probably should have been working on my take-home exams or my final research paper but seriously I just want to play in the yard.

I observed some things about poppies that I didn't know so I'm going to share them with you. 

This is what I call a poppy head. I'm sure that you know that the bloom is inside the head.

 I captured this photo right before I went to bed one night.  I can't remember why I went outside to begin with but clearly I wasn't with it or I would have noticed something special about this head to bloom process.  Did you notice it?  If not look below and maybe that will help you out.

Yup, those are the "petals" which the bloom was inside.  Notice the silky, white inside and the hairy rough outside.  I guess Mother Nature is taking car of the bloom while it is maturing.

Pink poppy; I don't think this one bloomed last year and the bloom appears more delicate than the others.

Red/Orange poppy; I finally figured out why I can never remember what color this poppy is and I keep changing my mind- NO, I'm not color blind.  One time I look at it and it appears red and another orange.  I think its a conspiracy to prevent me from telling the property owner what color her poppies are.  Mother Nature is laughing at me but I still love her!

Here is the other thing about poppies; these pictures were taken the same evening as the above bloom pictures.  Do you see what they do that is different from many flowers such as irises?  There are two more pictures to help you out.

Did you figure it out?  The poppies close up during the evening and then re-bloom in the morning. Odd little things aren't they?  The other thing about them is the plant is UGLY!!! Yes, I said it UGLY.  If I didn't know it was a poppy, I would remove it from they yard because the plant looks like a weed unless it has a poppy head.  Fortunately, Anne told me what these guys were so I left them alone.  This year I weeded around them so they could get more water; they seem to need more water than the other flowers in the yard.

One final shout out to the poppies blooming next to the Irises.

On a personal note, I'm f*cking glad this semester is over with.  I walked into finals week with 2 A's and 1 maybe C.  I'm hoping to keep the A's and move the C up to a B; I have already determined my reward for such activities. Being a Ph.D. student is not easy; definitely not as easy as being a MS student.  I better be able to get a job after this.

With that being said, I look forward to lots of summer blogging.  I have several pictures already which I took while I should have been studying.  Consequently, there are multiple blogs in progress (cats, irises, insects, unknown flowers to be identified, and mutant dandelions) and hopefully I will get a couple of them done next week so be on the lookout.  That's right, I wrote "mutant dandelions" and you know you HAVE to know what that's all about!

mmmm

Ever wonder why I post things regularly and then don't for awhile.  Well, me too; I always have great intentions to blog.  There are blogs in my head about fire ants, katydids, boxelder bugs, wasps, etc.

There are also blogs about where I have been (Texas, Minnesota), what I'm up to (classes, research, crafts- I made a dress, a whole dress, my very first one), and information about other things which strike my interest.  Often I'm quite passionate about these things!

Have you seen these blogs? Me neither, but have faith they are all in my head and this semester is almost over.  Two more weeks plus finals and then hopefully I can reestablish my routing blogging.  But until then please enjoy a video or two.

Nebraska Craziness

So I decided last weekend that I couldn't take it anymore and I drove with a friend to Nebraska.  We stopped in Lincoln and meet with a couple of her friends for lunch.  Lunch wasn't great but her friends were quite nice.  Then we drove to Fremont where I had scheduled an appointment to get some color done.

Of course, it wouldn't be a trip to Nebraska during the winter if it didn't snow while I was there.  So after the tat I drove in a winter storm to meet Don in Bellevue.  They had closed the shop due to the snow but Don had dinner with us and stayed in the hotel room with us.  The next day, we went to a record store (you can't take a trip with my friend Carlie without hitting up a record store) and then went to the shop so I could add a few more piercings to my right ear.

BTW- the initial piercing did in fact hurt. The one on the top was the worst and I may be reconsidering if I get the other ear done. However, I think Don did an excellent job and as one of my friends said, "I like it and it looks natural." We drove back after we had dinner with Don.  In case you were wondering, YES this is how graduate students roll!

NOTE: I had another moment regarding "HIM" and now I keep singing this song in my head.  There are days where I can't understand the human brain and how it works.  However, I'm hopeful that some day, he won't be on my mind or that when I think about him it's only in passing and not for days on end. However, I digress and I hope you enjoy the video.

Blog Statistics

I noticed this handy blog tab which is labeled STATS so I checked it out and I found out some surprising things about my blog.

Top three posts:
3rd Place was a tie at 24 views- Boxelder Bugs  vs Lady Bugs and Veteran's Day
2nd Place at 123 views- Preview of Entomology "101"
1st Place at 184 views- Lab 3: Pentamid Sampling & other Unexpected Finds

My blog has been visited by people from 10 different countries; the top 3 are:
3rd Place- Brazil with 67 visits
2nd Place- Canada with 192 visits
1st Place- US with over 2,500 visits




I thought the picture was cool to look at and maybe next year I can compare.  Interestingly, I discovered a new country- Lativia.




The number one referering site is www.google.com; number one key word is boxelder bug; the number one referring URL is no surprise to me but it belongs to my fantastic friend, Anne!


Wow- I didn't know I had a "fan-base" but I clearly do so I will keep at it and try to post more insect facts!

I was surprised to see that my birthday blogs and one of my Halloween blogs made the list of top visited so I know its not just about the insects.

Sleeping cats

Have you ever noticed that cats sleep in so many different places?

Woudin behind my nightstand

Tzani in "my" chair; I insist that the chair is mine, however, I rarely get to sit in it since one of the cats is almost always in it when I want to sit down.

Woudin in the bathtub

Woudin on a box; really a box- this doesn't seem too comfortable to me but apparently he is happy here.








This was in the summer so I'm guessing he was trying to cool off but I really think he can sleep anywhere.

Tzani on my foot rest

Woudin in “his” cubby. By the way, I bought this as a “reward” to Woudin and Tzani for being so well behaved when we moved out to the country. Tzani still will NOT have anything to do with it.

Tzani in the towel closet

Doesn't she look happy? If I would let her get away with it she would live in the towel closet.

 

Tzani on the day bed- this is where I can find her. If you come and visit, you will find her under my new bed with Pandora neither of whom likes strangers but they get along with each other.

Woudin in the cat carrier- a familiar sight

Woudin also likes the to curl up in the sink and he fist so perfectly and he is so cute in there. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of him in there. For a day or two he was stationed in the crawl space under the house but I didn't get a picture of him there either.  Eventually, Pandora went downstairs, walked along the pipe, hissed at him, and then came back upstairs.  He figured it out and emerged safely from the crawl space.