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Weeds and what not: Part two

9/25/2020

It has been said before that a weed is "a plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered." This statement was actually part of a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson. While we may not have figured out what to do with these plants, nature has already defined their purposes.

One such "weed" would be jewelweed or impatiens capensis.

"One of the sepals (outer parts of the flower) is modified into a large, pouch-like structure with a long spur, which gives the flower a pleasingly artistic shape. Its interesting shape, bright orange color, and decorative red-orange flecks make the jewelweed flower irresistible to people and pollinators alike," posted Kent Karriker in a Plant of the Week article for the U.S Forest Service on its site www.fs.fed.us.

"Seedlings sprout in early spring and reach maximum size by August. Flowering begins in mid-summer and continues until frost kills the plant," Karriker continued.

Jewelweed has also been used in Native American medicine.
The sap is said to relieve itchy skin.
While jewelweed attracts a variety of pollinators from hummingbird to butterflies, it doesn't seem to attract goats. Thus it gets a "meh" and a one star out of five rating.

Another wildflower with weed in its name is Joe-Pye weed.

Joe-Pye weed is a 3 to 6 feet tall unbranched native perennial plant bearing branched flower stalks at the top, according to United States Department of Agriculture website. An article titled “Joe-Pye Weed – A great butterfly plant with an unusual name” posted on www.soitgrows.com, explains the plant’s name.

“The plant is named after Joe Pye, an American Indian herbalist that used the roots in a concoction which cured typhus fever,” the article said. It went on to say that “some tribes also used Joe-Pye Weed as a diuretic to treat urinary infections and stones.

I have seen the goats eat Joe-Pye weed so I'll give it a three out of five rating as they don't bother to go out of their way to munch on it. However if they were butterflies, it would likely get a higher rating.

Another weed is New York ironweed. (Top photo on this blog.)
A post on www.wildflower.org said "New York ironweed is a tall, clump-forming perennial, growing five to eight feet in height."

The flowers are a lovely dark purple. The post went on to say the plant is common in wet open bottomland fields. The fact that the weed likes wet places may explain why I haven't seen any in my vicinity this year. The dry summer seems to have stunted their growth in my immediate area.

This weed won't get a goat rating as we haven't come across any this year.

The next weed on the list is pokeweed. We have a couple of pokeweed "volunteers" in the backyard.
Pokeweed is usually about 6 to 10-feet tall, but may in some instances reach 21-feet tall, according to David Taylor in a Plant of the Week post for the U.S Forest Service.

The plant has flowers that range from white to light pink. Pokeweed berries are dark purple or almost black.

Taylor went on to post a warning that "the entire plant is poisonous causing a variety of symptoms, including death in rare cases. The berries are especially poisonous. ... The fruits are important food for mockingbirds, northern cardinals, and mourning doves."

A post on www.goatworld.com echoed the sentiment, "Pokeweed is very pretty, but toxicity is low. The goats NEVER eat the berries or leaves, but they do rub their horns on the trunks/stalks. The birds love the berries, and it does not seem to effect them."

I guess it is good that Kyle and Kennedy don't seem to express any interest in this weed. This gets a goat rating of "bleh" or zero out of five stars for being poisonous.

Though not necessarily weeds, my last two wildflowers in this post sported mid-summer blooms.

The first is turtlehead which is named for the shape of its flowers that sort of look like the heads of turtles.

According to a Plant of the Week post for the U.S Forest Service by Patricia J. Ruta McGhan, "turtlehead is also known as balmony, bitter herb, codhead, fish mouth, shellflower, snakehead, snake mouth, and turtle bloom."

McGhan said the plant favors damp ground and can grow to a height of two to three feet.

"Turtlehead plants are used in natural medicine. Traditional practices create a tonic from this plant that is claimed to be beneficial for indigestion, constipation, and stimulating the appetite. It is also an anthelmintic (de-wormer) and a salve from the leaves may relieve itching and inflammation," McGhan posted.

The turtleheads on our walking grounds are scarce. I have only found two plants over the years. While scarce, they keep coming up every year. Thus these plants are protected by me and won't receive a goat rating. I hope they never stumble upon the flowers.

In contrast to the wet loving turtlehead, milkwort will grow in dry, sandy or rocky woods. These tiny flowers can be pink, white or purple. There are several species of milkwort. It's so tiny that the goats haven't even noticed it. They may have crushed some inadvertently though. As a result, milkwort doesn't receive a goat rating.

While it's not a wildflower, winterberry also puts on a good fall show. Although, its bright red berries and green leaves are more reminiscent of Christmas colors.

"The leaves of Common winterberry are not shaped with sharp teeth like other hollies and are not evergreen. The purplish green foliage turns black, in fact, with the first frost," according to a post from the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center on www.wildflower.org.

"These shrubs are either male or female--a trait typical of the holly family," the post continued.
While birds seem to be able to eat the berries, they are listed as having a low toxicity for dogs, cats and horses. As for goats, the jury is still out. Kyle and Kennedy have nibbled on them with no ill effects. So the goat rating on this is four out of five stars, but I will have to take this rating down to zero as I will now not allow the goats eat this shrub.

The real winner of the goat ratings are acorns. While they are not wildflowers, they certainly provide much needed sustenance for wild and tame critters alike. Acorns sometimes end up being a distraction as the goats will not move until they are forced away.

They receive a five out of five star rating from the goats and now the dogs who are sampling acorns too.

That just the nature of things 'round here.

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Weeds and other what nots: Part one

9/25/2020

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As the calendar officially heralded the start of fall, the pre-game show was already underway.

Colourful late summer blooming wildflowers were and still are providing bright spots in the fields and forests.
With hues ranging from white to yellow and purple to orange, they brighten up the landscape.

I hope to try to point folks down the right path to help identify some of the wildflowers I have seen blooming over the past few weeks.

However, internet searching has sometimes lead to more questions than answers and plant identification is not that easy with literally thousands of options to choose from.

This post will deal with goldenrod, wild asters and a couple more orchids. A second post will deal with the "weeds" and other whatnots.

For a bit of fun, I decided to have my goats "rate" some of these late summer and early fall flowers.
One of the most noticeable plants in late summer is goldenrod as it floods fields with its brilliant color.

There are several species of goldenrod.

The website www.westernpawildflowers.com listed at least 10 kinds of goldenrod that call Pennsylvania home.

They include blue-stemmed/wreath goldenrod or solidago caesia, early goldenrod or solidago juncea, lance-leaved goldenrod or solidago graminifolea, large-leaved goldenrod or solidago macrophylla, rough-stemmed goldenrod or solidago rugosa, showy goldenrod or solidago speciosa, sweet goldenrod or solidago odora, tall goldenrod or solidago altissima, zigzag goldenrod or solidago flexicaulis and silver rod or solidago bicolor.

An article titled “A paradoxical native weed with a colorful story” by Jill Jepson posted on www.motherearthliving.com said the genus solidago comprises between 60 and 130 species.

With all those plants falling under the same name, identifying the exact species may be next to impossible.

The site uswildflowers.com said “goldenrods are notoriously difficult to identify to a particular species … so make sure you don’t rely on a single source for your identification information.”

Author Jill Jepson went on to explain that goldenrod “has long been scorned (though mistakenly) as the bane of allergy sufferers, yet people on three continents treat disease with it.”

An article by Tom Oder titled “Dear allergy sufferers: Don’t blame goldenrod” posted on the Mother Nature Network’s website offered up a potential culprit behind people’s allergic reactions.

The less-showy ragweed, which blooms at the same time, is the real culprit ...,” he said.

Goldenrod pollen is too heavy to be carried any distance on the wind and is pollinated by insects, according to the article.
The article also said ragweed relies on airborne pollination.

Allergies aside, the goats love goldenrod and often trim the plants on the sides of the path as we walk along.

They give goldenrod a five-star rating for colorful presentation and accessibility.

Wild asters often open up and compliment the goldenrod with their various colors and varieties.

An aticle posted on www.wildseedproject.net titled "The beauty and pollinator benefits of asters and goldenrods" by Heather McCargo said, "asters and goldenrods attract loads of late season pollinating insects ... Research by entomologist Doug Tallamy of University of Delaware lists asters and goldenrods as the wildflowers that support the most species of butterflies and moths.
Deer usually avoid asters and goldenrods."

In my case the goats avoid the asters, but not the goldenrod.

McCargo went on to provide some descriptions for some asters including the white wood aster, the large-leaved wood-aster New England aster, tall white-aster and others.

While the white wood aster and tall white-aster sport white petals as their names say, the New England and large-leaved wood-aster break out in purple to light lavender blossoms.

Smaller, but not to be outdone is the calico aster.
"... This member of the aster family rewards growers with a profusion of blooms in late summer and into early fall.

Although individual calico aster flowers are no larger than half an inch, large white clusters of the flowers bloom up and down the length of each stem ...," stated an article on gardeningknowhow.com by Tonya Barnett.

Wildflower.org lists the calico aster as the host plant for the pearl crescent butterfly and that explains why there are so many pearl crescents in the electric company right-of-way that is littered with calico asters.

There are tons of other wild asters that call Pennsylvania home including the New York asters, smooth blue aster and others.

The goats' feelings on asters is "meh" or a one star out of five, but they could be convinced to bump it up to a two-star rating for variety and presentation.

he goats tend to avoid the asters like the deer. However, they will attempt to take a nibble if I am trying to photograph one.

That propensity for trying to eat my photo subjects is one reason I make sure the goats are somewhere else if I find a small patch of flowers that I haven't identified yet.

Two of those new-to-me plants just happened to both be members of the orchid family, ladies-tresses and downy rattlesnake plantain.

A post on wildflower.org about ladies-tresses said that the flowers are one of the few orchids that have a fragrance.
"They grow in two to four spiraling rows, forming a dense spike six inches long.

The individual flowers, about half an inch long, curve downward slightly, nodding.
The lip is about half an inch long, with a flaring, crimped margin," the post continued.

According to the post, a dozen or more species of ladies'-tresses are known in the eastern United States. The orchids tend to grow in fields, damp meadows, moist thickets and grassy swamps.

Like the ladies'-tresses, downy rattlesnake plantain are also members of the orchid family.

"The rattlesnake plantains get their name from their broad, rounded leaves similar in shape to those of plantain, a common lawn weed," wrote Collin Koers in a Plant of the Week article for the U.S Forest Service on its site www.fs.fed.us.

Koers also posted that the " ... downy rattlesnake plantain is evergreen. Its dark-green, oval leaves ... lay low to the ground in a circular arrangement around a central growing point ... and may persist for three to four years."

The orchid is easily recognized by the white veining on its leaves.
"Despite being listed as endangered in Florida and exploitably vulnerable in New York, downy rattlesnake plantain is one of the most common orchid species native to the eastern United States," Koers posted.

While it may be common in the eastern U.S., the patch I located was exploitably vulnerable to a couple of goats I know.

Thus both the ladies'-tresses and downy rattlesnake plantain will remain unrated by the goats for as long as I can keep them away.

That's just the nature of things 'round here.

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A Real Trail Mix of Critters

9/20/2020

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In frustration of not being able to capture some wildlife photos due to the company I keep on my walks, I turned to automatic trail cameras. My devices are placed along the paths we use and it is interesting to see who or what uses the paths when we are not around.

The motion sensitive cameras also help solve the quintessential question of "Who is pooping on the path?" When I see these wild calling cards, I often try to scoot them off the trail so that nosy noses don't find them. This hopefully eliminates the eating of the poo or the rolling in the poo. One leads to several baths. The other leads to vet visits and antibiotics.

Click smaller images to enlarge

So far the cameras have helped me view many deer, turkeys, wood ducks, geese, foxes, coyotes, birds, squirrels, raccoons, porcupines, a fisher and the occasional bear.
The cameras can take many, many photos depending on what triggers them. They freeze specific moments in time.

Sometimes the lighting on these photos is just right to create the perfect serene scene. Since I have traveled these trails, the pictures often create a feeling of peacefulness for me as I can imagine being there in person. I can almost feel the cool autumn morning as a buck passes through the dark forest canopy and enters the pond area.

In the spring, I move one camera down to the pond's edge to catch waterfowl pictures. I get jealous as the trail camera can get much closer shots of wood ducks than I ever could. The camera also picks up geese and a heron that once spent enough time in front of one camera to be in several shots.

The one camera at the pond is set to a high sensitivity. It can't seem to capture a good photo of the neighborhood fox at night, but in the daytime, it will trip hundreds of time to catch the ripples on the pond water.

That's just the nature of things 'round here, I guess.

The devices also capture instances that I may not of have been able to view during the time I spend outdoors.

I appear to have a nursing buck. He seems to be hanging out with a doe and her fawn. I asked a fellow coworker and outdoorsman about it. He said the buck must be low on the pecking order to be hanging out with the doe and fawn instead of other young bucks in what are dubbed bachelor groups. He also added the doe probably had lost a fawn or else she wouldn't let him nurse like that. It is a little something out of the ordinary that I probably wouldn't have seen if it weren't for my spying.

I thought maybe I could be lazy and set a trail camera up by the bird feeder for some good birding shots. In less than three days, I had over 3,000 captures to weed through. Sadly, most were dark as the older camera doesn't have a very high resolution and my feeders are in the shade. However, I was able to see both red and gray squirrels decimating the bird seed and getting in at least 50 percent of the shots.

I placed a camera in the back yard as I noted the absent of fallen apples under a tree with loaded branches. Sure enough, some deer visitors showed up. This most likely explains the late night barkfests at the Applegate house.

There are also those critters who like messing with the cameras. For whatever reason unknown to me, the goats seem to enjoy trying to eat or move the camera. If I don't catch them doing this, I usually end up with a goat's eye as the first photo and then a series of shots where everything is crooked. However, the goats' wild counterparts, the deer, have also been known to get up close and person with the cameras.

The dogs leave the cameras alone, but Sherman has this uncanny ability to take really good selfies no matter which camera he's on. The camera usually catches Clem as he does his zoomies around the pond. Poor Sadie, being all black, doesn't usually turn out too well on camera and she's too busy for selfies anyway.

As the cameras capture instances in time, some those moments can be very precious. Last year the cameras recorded a few shots of our 9-year-old bloodhound Buford's last walk. In the afternoon he was enjoying his walk and by late evening he had passed away in his sleep.

It is not just me who enjoys the natural surveillance that these cameras can provide.
The whole trail camera movement has changed how people view wildlife as they can now monitor areas 24/7 without being there.

There are numerous Facebook sites set up for enthusiasts to share.
Pennsylvania Wildlife Trailcams is an awesome Facebook group. However, you have to watch cause sometimes folks can share fake photos -- gasp, not on the internet.

The industry has also spawned a little bit of jargon. When someone mentions pulling some cards, everyone knows that that means they pulled the memory cards out of their devices to view the photos on them. So posts usually contain the phrase "pulled some cards today."

While a bunch of the posts are hunting related, there are those who are just posting their views of the natural world.

One post on the site brought a smile to my face. A mother posted that she had recently purchased her toddler a game camera and was now going through several hundred pictures of trees, grass and sky. A comment on the post said that it is wonderful to view the world through a child's perspective.

It is wonderful to view the natural world through a device that lets us be in nature 24/7 without being there. I check my cards once a week and am often excited for what I might see. Sometimes there is nothing and I am disappointed. Sometimes I forget to reset a camera and there are no pictures for the week.

However, sometimes there is a scene that is just beautiful and serene. That's just the nature of thing 'round here.

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The Humble Bumble Bee

9/12/2020

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After weeks of battling yellow jackets at the hummingbird feeders, the sugar water dispensers were then swarmed with honey bees. I purchased some "bee feeders" online to try to draw both kinds of bees away from the feeder. However, I was pretty sure that plan quickly backfired as it only seemed to draw more bees into the yard.

So soon after I placed a photo on Facebook about my "un-bee-lievable" troubles, the social media giant quickly let me view a post about submitting photos of bumble bees. Funny how that happens.

At least it wasn't an ad for more bee feeders.

I thought to myself "How many photos do they want?" and "Hope they don't mind that all the pictures will have a sunflower as the backdrop."

The post was for Bumble Bee Watch. It is an effort to have citizen scientists submit photos and location information to www.bumblebeewatch.org to help monitor bumble bee populations.

I don't mind the bumble bees and they don't mind me. In my experience, the bumble bees go about their pollination business and tend to the flowers. They mostly favor the sunflowers and tithonia blossoms, but will also visit the morning glories and other posies. I have rarely ever seen one at the hummingbird feeder, let alone harassing others.

This is an observation confirmed by the Bumble Bee Watch.

"Bumble bees are quite docile and will only sting when their nest is threatened or if they are cornered. Observing a bumble bee at a flower and taking pictures is generally a safe activity. Just be sure not to try to touch the bee or get too close," a segment on their website stated.
In other words, no petting the bumble bees even though they are fuzzy.
Wildlife Preservation Canada, University of Ottawa, York University, BeeSpotter, Montreal Insectarium, Natural History Museum, London, and the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation have teamed up for this effort.

The site was packed with a lot of information. In fact, it was almost overwhelming and the identification process seemed nearly impossible. I pretty much thought that all bumble bees looked the same and there are some that are just more bulbous than others.
But the creators of the site reassured me by posting, "Don’t worry! As there are many species and many that look very similar, bumble bees can be difficult to identify. We have an online key that will help you to narrow the possibilities based on the location of your sighting and the color patterns on the bumble bee. We have a team of dedicated bumble bee experts that look at every data submission to verify all identifications. ..."
I browsed their bumble bee species page and found quite a few bumble bees that were listed as including Pennsylvania in their range.

Some of those included the rusty-patched bumble bee, the black and gold bumble bee, Ashton cuckoo bumble bee, northern amber bumble bee, lemon cuckoo bumble bee, yellow bumble bee, American bumble bee and many more. Some of these bumble bees are listed as common, in decline or rare.

"Approximately 4,000 described bee species exist in North America. More than 300 species occur in Pennsylvania," stated and article titled "Bees Important to Pennsylvania Agriculture" posted by the Penn State Extension at extension.psu.edu.
The article went on to focus on the bumble bees' importance in pollination.

"These hairy, large-bodied, mostly long-tongued bees are considered the second most important pollinators after the honey bee. With their ability to buzz pollinate (vibrate pollen off anthers), bumble bees are efficient pollinators of crops that are not frequented by honey bees. Colonies are established each spring by a single queen," the post stated.

The Bumble Bee Watch site described the life cycle of a bumble bee.

"Bumble bee queens overwinter under the ground in small cavities. ... In spring these queens emerge, search for a nest site and then begin foraging for pollen and nectar. ... Queens then focus on laying eggs and rearing her developing young. Once her first eggs emerge as adults, these bees serve as her worker bees, gathering the pollen and nectar and feeding the brood while the foundress stays in the nest and lays more eggs. ... As the summer wanes the colony switches from producing worker bees to producing new queens and males (often called drones). New queens and males leave the nest to find mates from other colonies. At the end of the season, the bumble bee colony dies off, including the foundress queen, workers and males. Only the new queens find a place to spend the winter, completing the cycle."
The site also said the best time to look for bumble bees is from March to October when the bees are most active.

As I ponder the possibilities of signing on for the effort, the honey bees have turned from worker bees into freeloading bees. They seem to have figured out that the free food in the feeders is easier than trying to gather nectar from the garden flowers. The yellow jacket activity has dropped off a little as they now have peaches that have dropped from the tree to eat.
The wildflowers, especially golden rod, have started to bloom and this should provide an alternative to my feeders for all the bees.
The humble bumble bees continued their work in the gardens even though their time is now limited.

However, that's just the nature of things.

This beautiful photograph below Anna took of a honey bee last week and posted it to social media. I immediately responded and this is now the "cover photo" for her The Nature of Things blog. I love this image and am so thankful Anna has allowed us to share this and other of her photographs and observations. This should be on a calendar.....hmm....perhaps a Then Nature of Things calendar???? (puts hand on chin to think. 8-)

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Eight-legged architects

9/9/2020

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Forest weavers

There are small eight-legged artists at work in the fields and forests around us. Most of their work goes unseen as they strive for more function than form in their pieces. However sometimes if the sunlight is just right or there is a heavy dew, one can see their awesome works. Their pieces are meant to be unseen so the arachnids can catch unsuspecting insects and obtain a meal.

I like to help the spiders achieve their goals sometimes. When the gnats are swarming, I will attempt to find a web and stand as close as I can to it. It is win-win situation for me and the spider, but not the gnats. I've never been a gnat fan and will never root for their team. However, I do appreciate what they provide in terms of food for the spiders, birds and other wildlife.
One of the type of webs that I photograph the most are the ones spun by spiny orb weavers. They are not very big, perhaps the size of a pencil eraser — or for you younger folks — the size of an earbud cover.

These tiny spiders proved very hard to photograph especially when there was a slight breeze. I must have taken 100 or more photos as my subjects moved back and forth and in and out of focus. Of course while I was taking photos, several webs were destroyed by my not-so-helpful posse. Apparently if I am distracted by something, it must be of canine or caprine interest. My band of homewreckers probably took down at least half a dozen webs that day.

A quick internet search revealed that there are several types of webs made by different types of spiders. There are orb webs, tangle webs, sheet webs and funnel webs.
The orb webs are the ones that are most recognizable as they feature a wagon wheel like design with connected spokes.
A 2015 post by Alison Hawkes titled "Learn How to Recognize a Spider By Its Web" on baynature.org, provided a description of the make up of an orb web.

"The web consists of a durable silk frame made up of the outer bridge lines with internal anchor lines that are pulled downward to create spokes. An elastic capture thread is then used to make the spiral lines that connect the spokes together ...", Hawkes posted.
Tangle webs unlike orb webs can appear a little disorganized and are the more abstract of certain spiders' artwork.

"Tangled webs are often referred to as cob webs and do not have a definable pattern to them," wrote Katrina Arthurs in an article titled "How to Identify a Spider by Web Pattern" on sciencing.com.
Hawkes also mentioned the purpose of tangle webs. She posted that "tangled webs are intentionally designed to be a jumble of threads, anchored to the corner of a ceiling or some other support beam — what better way to entangle an unsuspecting ant or cricket."
Sheet webs are often easy to spot after a heavy morning dew. They are low to the ground and are sometimes constructed in the grass of yards and fields.

"Look for a thin flat sheet of web. Sheet web spiders will hang upside down underneath the web and wait for prey to be caught in the web," Arthurs wrote in her post.

Funnel webs also employ sheets of webbing for construction. However, these will have a funnel shaped opening for the spider to exit and enter.
Arthurs posted that "funnel webs are the most common type of web. Over 300 species of spider use funnel webs. "

A couple of different websites mentioned woolly or triangle webs. Woolly webs or triangle webs are described as using a sticky substance to snare prey. The spiders silk can actually appear fuzzy.
No matter the type of web, I'm sure myself and my gang have unintentionally destroyed quite a few. There's nothing like and early morning walk with a face full of web and dead insects.

That's just the nature of things 'round here.

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Posing pretty, sometimes on poop

9/3/2020

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We have a saying, or rather a yelling, at the Applegate household, "Don't eat the butterflies." This mostly goes for the canines and felines, not so much the caprines (goats). So you can imagine my horror when I found the remains of a spicebush swallowtail in the basement. The mantra had gone completely unheeded and the furry perpetrators were vagrantly flaunting their rebellion.

However when the fuzzy killers aren't around, I can manage to get a few photos of the colorful visitors.
This year seemed to be a good year for the spicebush swallowtails in my area. I have seen them on a regular basis.

In the spring, the Eastern tiger swallowtails flocked to the rhododendron bush. I planted a butterfly bush which seemed to be a boon to several butterflies including the bright orange fritillaries. I am terrible at identifying them with the exception of the meadow fritillary which is dramatically smaller than the great spangled fritillary, Aphrodite fritillary and Atlantis fritillary. The site, www.butterfliesandmoths.org, provides a regional checklist with photos and that helps me narrow down the search, but I still lack in being able to pick out the small differences that make a different butterfly.

A few monarchs have stopped by. I plan to do another piece on them closer to late September and October when their numbers increase in the area. However, I am a little concerned that the recent run of dry weather will stunt wildflower growth and blossoms and leave the journeying monarchs without food.

Winged visitors have also included silver-spotted skippers and clearwing hummingbird sphinx moths. The hummingbird moths are always neat to watch as they hover around like their namesake.

I was also able to observe two eastern tailed blues and a Peck's skipper puddling near the neighbor's pond. Puddilng is described as a butterfly behavior where they seek out nutrients in moist substances. Those substances can include rotting plant material, mud, carrion and ... dog poop.

For the past few weeks, I had been trying to get a photo of a red-spotted purple. I was finally able to get one to land ... on a large pile of fresh dog doo. I kept hoping that it would find a nice flower or something, but it spread its tattered wings and posed pretty. So, I took the photo.

Then a few days past and a fresher looking red-spotted visited again, on the dog poop. This time I removed the poo, but it wouldn't pose as nicely as the tattered one did. Maybe there's a moral to this. Perhaps the tattered butterfly had seen more crap in its life than the less faded one. Maybe it was saying no matter the poop we have had to go through and what we look like in the aftermath of our crappy trials, we should just spread our tattered and faded wings and pose pretty.

Perhaps that is just the nature of things 'round here.

Story and photographs by Anna Applegate

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Author

"The Nature of Things" features the writings and photographs of Anna Applegate, who is a lifelong resident of Pinegrove Township, Venango County. She is a graduate of Cranberry High School and Clarion University. After a 15-year career in the local news industry, she made a change and now works at a steel finishing plant in Sandycreek Township. She is a avid lover of animals and nature, and a gifted photographer.

Very happy to be able to share Anna's great "The Nature of Things" blog.

Check out Anna's other artwork here!

Weeds and what not: Part two

Weeds and other what nots: Part one

A Real Trail Mix of Critters

The Humble Bumble Bee

Eight-legged architects

Forest weavers

Posing pretty, sometimes on poop

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