[Image description: a picture of a bumblebee drinking nectar from a purple bee balm flower. The venation of the wings is clearly visible.
[Image description: a dozen muscovy ducklings form an interlocking mass of bodies and bills during a nap pile on a bit of driveway. In the foreground, their mother keeps a watchful eye on the sky]
A few of them took an opportunity to investigate me but were still a little hand-shy. In another week or two they will be trying to bully me.
My Ceanothus americanus is flowering and absolutely crawling with insects. Below are pictures of the star-shaped flower buds before bloom and then some more of the blooms themselves
We've also harvested a ton of cherries this week, along with snap peas and a second round of lettuce. Our trap tomatoes are growing a little slowly but our production ones are beginning to set fruits.
What's growing on with you all?
[Image description: the white and pink flowers of a black lace elderberry peek out from underneath the dark purple leaves]
I'm very hopeful that I will get some seeds from it this year, it would be awesome to grow it out to see how the genetics play out.
[Image description: a top down photo of thirteen muscovy ducklings standing in a block, with one duckling off to the side. Each duckling has a different color pattern, with shades of yellow, brown, and grey showing]
I've never had a clutch of ducklings line up so nicely before
[Image description: fourteen muscovy ducklings, each a mix of yellow and brown fluff, rest in the grass under the watchful gaze of their mother]
[Image description: a blue merle Australian shepherd looks to the left of the camera with wide eyes and perked ears. The background is a black, orange, and red hexagon blanket and blue curtains]
[Image description: A blue merle Australian shepherd lounges on the grass in the shade next to a rhubarb leaf that is the same size as him]
[Image description: a disc of white flowers sits atop a stem of elderberry, Sambucus canadensis]
As of mid day, imgur (on mobile) no longer provides the direct image link to allow for mirroring on Beehaw using .
I always try to upload directly first, but tend to share pictures at the same quality I'm using for our business - which is to say at the highest quality image my device can capture. Those images rarely play nice with pictrs limitations so hosting elsewhere and mirroring are the best way for me to post plant and animal photos I take, and provide the best fidelity so others can enjoy them.
So, do folks have some suggestions for other image hosting that would let me accomplish this easily (I'm not particularly tech savvy)? Do I need to just spin up a pixelfed account and mirror/crosspost? I'd love for you to share your thoughts
I'm still waiting on my Pycnanthemum muticum, clustered mountain mint, to germinate. But in more positive news I was allowed to take a cutting of Monarda bradburiana, spotted bee balm, home with me yesterday.
What's growing on with you all?
Edited to add an image of the bee balm:
Since when did punk rock talk about politics 🤣
Since the dawn of punk rock? Read a poorly photocopied zine fer cryin' out loud. Half of the Dead Kennedys first album was about Dianne Feinstein or Jerry Brown and the political landscape of San Francisco. Literally every Bad Religion song is political. Let's not even get started on all the Brit punk that Thatcher inspired.
Relevant youtube link
We mow in sections, on the highest setting, and so infrequently that our neighbors were surprised that we even have a lawnmower (battery powered, charged by solar). For a year or two we didn't mow at all, just walked around with a sheet of plywood with a tow rope and some wood screwed into the bottom to act as crimpers. There are thousands of lightning bugs at our place again now, as well as dozens of species of solitary native bees and wasps. It's super rewarding watching the dragonflies perching on the tall native bluestem in between their hunts.
Certainly not the U.S. citizens
The newly listed company warned in its initial public offering (IPO) paperwork that its unique approach to content moderation can sometimes subject it to disruptions like in 2023, when several moderators protested against its decision to charge third-party app developers
I seem to recall over 8000 subs going dark but sure, just a handful of people protested.
Arizona, California, Florida, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Hampshire, New York, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington State and Wyoming are participating.
It's a shame more aren't participating but I can see the reasoning behind staged access and iterative improvement. The real pity is that data they've already got won't be preloaded in this stage. It would have been the nail in the coffin for Intuit and other companies' predatory practices on lower income folks, at least as they exist currently.
"As a result of this criminal act, Amazon's license to operate within the U.S. has been suspended until executives can provide the communications they were legally ordered to preserve," said an FTC spokesperson while smiling wryly in my fever dream where laws matter.
Amazon employees were using signal to coordinate anticonsumer policies and then destroyed the records, which the FTC had ordered them to preserve. At least, that's how I read it.
Personally, I think it's fantastic that you're examining your language in this way. It's certainly not ill-mannered, unsolicitous, infelicitous, or untoward of you to do so.
Sync is back in its rightful place on my device home screen, only now it points me at Beehaw. Things are looking up.
Friendly mod reminder not to eat things on the advice of strangers on the internet.
In my experience, the ants that nest in our pots tend to favor the species we let have dry periods between waterings - in other words, our driest pots. If we can get the ants out of the picture, the aphids will lose their defenses and your predators can have a field day.
One method we've had some success with is submersion in water, using medium to large storage totes depending on the size of the pots. The tunnels flood and sometimes collapse, and you can flush them out.
Something else you could use is diatomaceous earth, which is generally available in garden and hardware stores. Make sure to liberally coat the soil surface and stem, and try to dust the aphids as well. Don't inhale it. You'll need to reapply it whenever it gets wet, so I'd recommend bottom watering whatever you can - I have a few small (1m x .3m) rubber boot trays I use for that. Something to note is that the DE is a broad-spectrum tool, so it won't discriminate between the ants, aphids, or the predatory insects.