A Bite of the Apple.

8-5-10 VERMONT: The past two days have been hot, very humid, misty and hazy with no breeze. Yesterday we were about 90° again. I haven’t done much more than a little weeding, filling feeders and a walk around—too hot. Today I made dinner, a gazpacho, with a lot of it coming from our gardens. It got an, “Excellent”, from the master chefess.

Since we’re on food, what do turtles eat? Fish? Snails? Crayfish? Algae? Water plants? How about apples? Yes, apples. This painted turtle spent a hour boxing this apple around the pond and learned what every bobber knows that it’s hard to bit a floating apple. The apple probably fell off a tree on the bank and rolled into the pond. Later I found it at the side of the pond. It had dozens of little bites taken out of it. Do you think a fellow reptile might have induced her to taste it?

New blooms: lobelia.


Checking it out.

Underwater attack.

I never found the cocoons of the monarch caterpillars [7-29-10 post], but this adult is newly arrived in the neighborhood.