More of Summer Miscellany

Miscellany - A group or collection of different items; a mixture.

Synonyms:  assortment, mixture, melange, blend, variety, mixed bag, grab bag, mix, medley, diversity, assemblage, potpourri, pastiche, mishmash, ragbag, hodgepodge, hash


Ya, that pretty much explains this blog post.

Summer continues, and no hawking activity.  Sassy has finished dropping her 12 tail feathers, now they just have to all grow in.  Flint continues to resist my attempts to speed things up.  Ah well, in the absence of any hawk stuff . . . how about pretty stuff regarding summer?

Rich and I met up with my friend Patti this last week and went to Madison for the never before attended by me Wednesday Farmer's Market, and also to visit the Olbrich Botanical Garden.  I usually visit the garden in the spring, but wanted to see what it looked like mid Summer.  They also have a butterfly event going on right now in their Conservatory.  I'll post some of my pics, as well as Rich's with his much nicer, newer camera.

There are many spots you can sit for awhile and enjoy the serene beauty that has been created with plants and flowers.

I like the color palate of this grouping of annuals above.  Even the green plants have a warm, red hue.

Summer flowers are at the height of bloom.  The fountain below you can even see the lake in the distance.

Inside the conservatory were butterflies, brought in as pupae and hatched out.  They are mostly native to North America.  They were pretty, certainly, but not nearly as dramatic as the ones I photographed when I visited Florida.  Still, between Rich and I we got several fairly nice pictures.

The little guide sheet they gave out said this one is a Julia, Dryas julia.  The one above was taken by Rich, the one below, by me.  As you can see, Rich's camera can take a much sharper image, however, I think I centered my subject a little better.

Another of the same kind of butterfly.  This one taken by me.  These are three different butterflies, but the species must have been rather photogenic, as we have several pics of them.

Below is a Pipevine Swallowtail, Battus philenor.  Rich has a few pictures of this species, but they are all fuzzy, and not in focus.

This is a White Peacock, Anartia jatrophae.

The guide identifies this one below as a Question Mark, Polygonia interrogationis.

The butterfly below is a Queen, Danaus gilippus, and a rather dark one too compared to my guide. The overall image is a little hazy, as it was taken with a pane of glass between myself and the subject. The display of carnivorous plants was attracting the butterflies, although I think they may have been too big to slip down inside and get eaten by the plants.

I like the picture below simply for the composition of it.  It was taken with Rich's camera. You can see all the tiny details of the flowers.

Rich caught me taking a picture of a most interesting species.  I didn't find this one in my guide anywhere.  One of the volunteers at the gardens playfully wore giant butterfly wings, and directed visitors and answered questions.

Some of the flowers seen that day.  These lilies below taken by Rich's camera.

Same subject, different cameras.  Who did it better?

And finally, enough with the flowers, I really like this composition of daisies taken by Rich.  This picture is nice enough to be a screen saver, with the sharp foreground image, and soft faded background.

It was a nice day with my guy . . .

And my girlfriend!

OK . . . how about some birds?  Below are some of the canaries I bred this year.  I've not bred canaries for probably 10 years.    Soon, I'll see if I can find some homes for them.  They are not any specific breed, just average 'mutt' canaries.  Still . . . it has been a little fun breeding them again.

Mmmmmm . . . they say . . . . fresh spinach!

No leg bands, that is, no closed and registered leg bands.  Just plastic family bands, so I can keep track of who was bred by which adult birds.  All these pictures are of the babies from this year.

Dare I go back to flowers?  Yes, I dare, if only for a quick comment.  At the farmer's market, I bought myself these nice summer flowers on the left. The next day, my friend Liz came to visit from La Crosse. She always had a very nice garden.  She brought me a nice arrangement as well, on the right, and some plants in pots to add to my yard.  Thanks Liz!

How about we go for fish?

Rich likes to go to auctions.  Last year, he found and bid on a fish tank.  He got it for $7.  He's always looking for tanks for me, as I breed rats for hawk food.  Fish tanks make really nice enclosures for rats.  He brought this one home, and it lay on the floor all winter during hawking season, as I had no time to really do anything with it, and I don't breed rats during the winter, as we are hunting and catching plenty of fresh food for the birds.

Once the season was done, and I was cleaning up my home of all the collective clutter from the winter that didn't get put away or dealt with because I was hawking, I took a closer look at this tank.  It was an entire setup!  Well, rather than put rats in it . . . how about fish!  So I did just that.  The picture above is back in April, when I set it up.  I even purchased a sturdy little table to place it on.  The picture below is what it looks like today.  I changed out some of the fake plants above for real ones below.  Also, there are residents now.

I've lost a couple of the fish since I set it up, but for the most part, the community is doing fine.  Here below, on top, is one of my Gouramis.  Below it, my two Angel Fish.  These are the big bad guys in the tank . . . they came in just a few months ago as small fish, but grew and grew, until now they are the largest in the tank.  Other residents are some Neon Tetras, some Danios, a trio of Corey Cats, and one Chinese Algea Eater.  It makes a nice addition to my home . . . but one more thing to feed and clean.

How about we finish up this Miscellany with a dog.  Here is Monty, using, perhaps not completely by his own will, one of the other treasures Rich found at an auction, for just $25.  It's good to keep a Jack Russell tired.