All posts by laurahinnj

Bunnies

Friday bunny fix

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Delia at Beginning to Bird was fixin’ for a bunny fix so here’s a pic of Freckles lounging in the clover patch beside our pond.

Freckles is the most unassuming of bunnies; she’s as happy to nap all day as she is to race around the living room when given an opportunity. She’s hardly ever grumpy and never bossy. She doesn’t get as much attention from me as she ought to simply because she is so undemanding compared to the others. She loves to sit on my lap in front of the TV and be petted, but there’s something about her fur that sends me into fits of itchiness so I don’t treat her to lap time very often.

After her photo shoot outside today I took the opportunity to pluck some of the offensive fur that she’s been shedding like mad the last few weeks. I was glad to see the tufts of fur landing like feathers on the lawn, but I think half of it found its way right back into my eyes. Argghhh!

Snapshots, Wanderings

Guesses, anyone?

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This is another in the pea family, like yesterday’s vetch, but the only obvious similarity is in the foliage. I think the flowers are stunningly beautiful – pink and yellow – and when I first came across it I thought it must be something very exotic, but once I figured out what it was I saw it everywhere along the sandy roadsides of the Pine Barrens. The only hint I’ll give you is that the plant contains the chemical rotenone and is thought to have been used by American Indians to stun fish, among other things. I’m not exactly sure how fish are stunned using a plant, but it’s fun to imagine how that might be accomplished.

Garden, Pond, Snapshots

Someone’s been awful busy

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Suddenly our little backyard pond is full of baby fish. In fact, I think we have more babies than grown-up fish-making fishies. It’s quite a surprise when your pond population seemingly doubles overnight. Makes you wonder how you could have missed the fish being so busy! Some years are like this; the fish are very fertile and make lots of little gold and black speckled babies, other years there are none or at least none survive long enough to be visible to us. I wonder why that is?

My husband and I have been amusing ourselves the last few days by trying to get an accurate count of just how many babies there are, but it’s next to impossible. They dart and hide very efficiently. We’re guessing whether they’re goldfish babies, koi babies, or mutts of some sort. The fish aren’t telling; neither is the fairy who keeps watch over their antics.

Wanderings, Whatever

Name me

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The good idea file is empty today, my camera battery needs recharging and I have all these photos of wildflowers from the Pine Barrens that I don’t feel like writing about. So instead we’ll have a little ID quiz with some hints for those of you that don’t frequent NJ’s bogs.

Many of the photos I took at Webb’s Mill Bog last week look sort of *impressionistic* like this one; I didn’t mean for it to be that way and instead think I may have had one too many cups of coffee that afternoon. I like the look anyway and I knew what these plants were so didn’t need a tack sharp photo to help with ID. You don’t really need it either, as the photo shows the relevant parts, but you do need to know that this is another carnivorous plant that grows in wet, sandy bogs.

Happy guessing!

Remembering, Whatever

A man and his sons

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Can you see the happiness in this man’s face and his sense of good fortune for having such handsome sons? This is among my favorite photos of him; from a time before I was born and a time that I imagine to have been among his most contented.

As fate would have it, he lost his eldest son Neil, the freckle-faced redhead on the left and another son, Stephen, before I was even born. Two brothers I claim but never knew.

I wonder about whether he was a different father before the loss of two of his sons. I’d guess he was and think this photo must give a hint of the man he was before.

Bunnies, Garden

Not the only ones

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Bunnies aren’t the only ones…
who enjoy fennel…
and dill…
and parsley!

I found four of these black swallowtail caterpillars yesterday munching away on the parsley in the herb planter that Mary included in this post. I’m reasonably sure that the caterpillars in the other photos (taken in previous summers) are black swallowtails also. Unlike monarch caterpillars which look the same throughout their growth, swallowtails change with each instar and there’s a lot of variation among individual caterpillars. This one I photographed looked like a bit of bird poop yesterday when I first spotted it.

So in addition to providing fresh herbs for our table and the bunnies’ twice daily salads, my little garden herb patch feeds the next generation of flutterbies!

Wanderings

Bog beauties

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Bogs are unique places; the sphagnum mats (if you’re daring and foolish) allow you the chance to walk on water, you can watch plants eat animals, and you’re offered a view into the past. Bogs that I’ve visited in upstate NY have that primeval sort of feel because they’ve remained untouched and unspoiled since the last ice age. Webb’s Mill Bog in the middle of NJ doesn’t have that same sort of effect because it’s relatively small and next to a major highway, but I’m sure there are similar bogs elsewhere in the Pine Barrens where one can witness this topsy-turvy world without the rush of cars speeding by in the distance.

At the edge of the water, on the buoyant mats of sphagnum moss, tiny orchids gently nod in the soft breath of a late spring afternoon. These wanderers from a much more lush tropical home rub shoulders with sundews and purple-veined pitcher plants, half-filled with rainwater, digesting the days’ catch. The orchids also have their tricks to lure insect pollinators; a colorful lip or beard covered with fleshy hairs that serves as a landing platform for insects. Of the pink orchids that bloom in the Barrens, the Grass Pink Orchid is the one with its beard on the uppermost petal.

I don’t imagine these plants to be rare elsewhere in the country, but for me they’re a colorful reminder of times spent in less urban wildernesses.

Snapshots, Whatever

Just about done

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I’m almost finished with the 3 weeks of *classroom* training for my new job. It’s going well and I’m learning about a lot of social service programs that I never knew existed, even though I’ve worked at the agency for more than ten years. That’s one thing I’ve figured out about social workers; we’re expected to be a resource for our clients and a good social worker should know all of what is available to help people. There are simply too many programs for anyone to know very much about all of them. As a caseworker I worked in the Medicaid program and knew it very well, but didn’t know much about anything else. We spent all of about 10 minutes learning about Medicaid in training today, so you can imagine how little the others were able to pick up and *know* about that particular program. At least I’m an *expert* at one of them!

To begin with I’ll be placed in the homeless services/emergency assistance unit taking applications and finding placement for homeless individuals and families. Next week, our training time will be spent making site visits to some of places where the homeless are provided with temporary housing – shelters, motels, rooming houses, and transitional housing sites. I’m looking forward to the chance for some field time, although I imagine it will be eye opening.

Speaking of eye opening: I learned that my county spent more than 9 million dollars last year providing services and housing for the homeless. Can you imagine? Typically, families are put up in motels, at a cost of approx. $1800 monthly due to a lack of any more affordable alternative. Do you or I spend $1800 on housing each month? That $1800 isn’t buying a room at the Hilton either – those welfare motels in our shore towns are some of the most run-down places! I’m curious to hear how much you know about the homeless in your own communities; I think if I asked my neighbors the same question, most would say that they’re not aware of a homeless problem in our area. I mostly thought that the homeless were found in cities, not in an affluent area like the one I live in. Clearly I was wrong – what about you?

So anyway, that’s the update on how I’ve been occupying my workdays. I miss the routine of my old job and my friends, but life is good.

The pretty yellow flower is Hudsonia ericoides – Pine Barrens Heather. Great patches of this plant cover sandy places in the barrens, but this one was just about finished for the season.

Wanderings, Wildflowers

Another sundew

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I know that I had promised wildflower pics, but these other Pine Barrens oddities have me enamored. I’ll save the pretty bog orchids for another day.

I shared a pic of a Thread-leaved Sundew a few weeks ago; today I have this Spatulate-leaved Sundew. Isn’t it pretty for a bug-eating plant? Please click on the pic for an enlarged view! These plants are thought to lure insect prey by their attractive red coloring and the beads of sticky liquid secreted on the leaf tips.