seeing my husband asleep, he is in so much pain when he is awake and sleep is so fleeting for him, right now he is asleep. seeing sunshine pouring through my windows, snow melting, birds singing, (and in summer my garden makes me smile) seeing my son when he is happy and excited about life. seeing my mom (almost 90) and my sister still alive and having a good day, with less pain. my two kitties and the two kitties of my sons, they just love unconditionally seeing good people treating other good people, good and even being kind to people who treat them bad innocence

We have hummingbirds galore... different sizes and colors, even! They love my Pineapple Sage plants, morning glories, honeysuckle vines, and we also keep feeders full of nectar for them... I tried to photograph them over summer, but I didn't know how to use the macro settings on my camera at that time... We have a pair of HUGE owls that live in the oak trees, and there are hawks, doves, goldfinches, cardinals... we have tons of deer, coyotes, coy dogs, fox, ground hogs, squirrels... and even the less desirable voles and moles and other rodents... we are loaded with critters! Cindee, you'd love it... except for the cold winters... we have a veritable nature preserve here... we have woods, fields, bog, and swamp... there's a fast running stream with fish, turtles, beaver, muskrat, herons, and I've even seen the occasional snowy white bird... I'm not sure if it's an egret or what it is... There are butterflies, every kind of bird and bug you could imagine, tons of native plants, and fields of wildflowers! In spring and summer, it's really nice here... fall is nice, too, but I'm not a big fan of winter... the birds fly south, the bugs are gone, the animals hole up for winter... the trees and shrubs are bare... the fields are brown... but when spring rolls around again, everything comes back to life!

Susan, Thanks for linking the thread. I enjoyed reading it and the articles linked within the thread too. Everything they said....I heartily second. This certainly is an epic year. You might remember way back in March when I was commenting on the huge abundance of moths (oh, how I wish I had known they were cutworm moths then---I would have been running around spraying and swatting them) and I compared their numbers to something from a "horror movie". Nothing has changed, but now the scales have tipped a bit so that there's a lot fewer destructive moths here and a lot more beautiful butterflies. So, the horror movie has abated and the beautiful butterfly population has taken over. Every plant I have in bloom that appeals to butterflies or moths of any type is covered by them all day and evening. They almost are fighting over the blossoms, or at least standing in line waiting to get to them. Our wasp population is still so low it is almost non-existent, so I expect the high populations to continue. I've only seen a couple of red wasps this entire spring, and no black wasps or yellow jackets. However, a couple of weeks ago the small predatory/parasitic wasps starting showing up. I was relieved to see them and the lacewings, but wish they'd been here two months earlier. The bee population seems lower too, but I had a lot of them when the fruit trees were in bloom and when the hollies were blooming. Otherwise, though, I am not seeing many bees. I'm not having any pollination issues in the garden, so there are enough pollinators for that to occur as usual. Just name any butterfly that a person might see in southern OK, and I am seeing them here. I'm even seeing some I almost never, ever see. Furthermore, they seem extraordinarily friendly. What's up with that? I cannot count the times I've had butterflies come land on my shirt, my arm, my head, my face...or even fly right into my mouth while I'm talking this year. I just don't recall that happening much at all in the past. I'm also seeing caterpillars I've never seen before, and I have no idea what most of them are. I had a cherry hornworm in the garden on Sunday. I don't know why it was there. I don't think there's anything in my garden that's a host for it, but our woodland has oodles of wild cherry trees as understory plants. I removed it from the garden, and put it under a tree on the edge of the woods. The cutworm population here is dropping, I'm happy to say, but I still find one now and then or see one of the moths. I am seeing ever-increasing numbers of sphinx moths of all kinds---not just the usual ones we always see, but others that I don't recognize. I believe your assessment that conditions in OK mirror those in Texas is a valid one and I wholeheartedly agree. Of course, I'm surrounded by Texas on three sides, so that would not be surprising. I've been very concerned about the swallowtails. None of their cats has taken one single bite of my parsley yet, which is planted more for them than for us. In the last two weeks, I've seen 2 or 4 swallowtails a week, but prior to that, I was seeing maybe 1 per week if any at all. Those darned checkered whites and cabbage whites are still everywhere and I hate having them here, but they're really the only cats causing damage in my garden other than the climbing cutworms. I think we're going to have a wonderful summer in terms of butterflies. I worry we'll have too many moth cats though. I haven't seen any SVB moths yet, but am expecting them any time. If ever there was a year to cover squash plants with floating row covers for as long as possible, this is it. I've linked a report on lepidoptera observations made in southeastern OK, not too far from me. Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: Report on Southern OK Lepidoptera Population

Finally no more little skippers. There were still clouds of them even a couple of weeks ago--it's been very warm. Only asters (numerous species) and a shade-loving goldenrod are still in bloom. I had been noting the occasional monarch--presumably migrating--right up to this past weekend, when the rains finally came. Saw them on a recent trip to upstate NY too. Predominant bird right now is bluejay--never saw so many in my yard before. Hope they don't chase away the cardinals, chickadees, titmice, and other normal winter residents. Tons of berries and fruits of all descriptions, as well as seeds, all over the place--crabapples, acorns, dogwood berries, late raspberries, pokeweed berries, coneflower and rudbeckia seeds, grass seed, native bittersweet. There's so much food around that I've been noticing dogwood berries remaining on trees or falling to the ground all over the neighborhood--unheard of. Lots of evidence that chipmunks are using our brush pile--acorn shells all around, our dog is intensely interested in sniffing there. Rabbits not as evident as earlier in the season. I hope at least some became meals for hawks, because when their numbers increase too much my young shrubs can't get through the winter. The color on the poison ivy is particularly gorgeous right now (I don't have any, although I wouldn't remove it if it popped up in an out-of-the way corner). I bet some people admire it but have no idea what it is (what it is is one of the best wildlife food plants that exist). I'd much rather see poison ivy climbing a tree than English ivy (yes, I know many of you will vigorously object to those last couple of sentences). Also my spicebush is a lovely yellow. This is the first year that rabbits didn't eat it down to the ground over the winter, and it looks lovely, planted in a small island with coralberry, ninebark, ferns, and a dogwood that's turning only a muddy brown-red this year. The virginia creeper's color isn't particularly nice this year, and most trees even upstate just looked kind of grey, after a very hot and dry season. The trees and shrubs in my miniwoodland are all still green. A good fall for fruit but a poor one for color.