Can You identify This Flying Insect?

The other night while letting the dog out, I noticed this flying insect around my jasmine bush. It was most interesting. It flapped its wings much like a hummingbird moth, but that's where the similarities ended. Can you help me identify it?

Scrap Wood Scarecrow

With two little ones, August has been a really busy month for us, hence my lack of posts. But I'm back with a super cool project!

I've seen these scrap wood scarecrows all over the Internet and balked at the $40+ price tags. I had some free time yesterday, put the pieces together and coerced sweet-talked the DH into fastening them together for me.

Inspiration:

My stash:

 

Framework:

 Back Support:

 Front:

The screws are counter-sinked and the screw holes will be filled before painting. I may leave the top as is. I like the jagged line.

 

Now I just need to find some more free time to paint it and display it in the yard in time for Fall.

 

 



Pleasant Surprises

Yesterday while swinging with the kids, I noticed a brown spot in one of my young, maple trees. Upon closer inspection however, I discovered it was an abandoned bird's nest. I can't believe we had birdies and didn't know as nest watching is one of the kids and my favorite garden hobbies.

I've always thought my backyard trees were too young (think low to the ground) to be sanctuaries for nesting mamas but turns out that's not the case. After all, I've had several nests in hanging plants on the front porch and just this spring, in one of my front hedges. So next spring, I'll expand my nest search and see where else they set up.

Preserving Fuit the Lazy Way

I've written before about my awesome peach harvest this summer. We ate a bunch, gave tons away and still had peaches for miles. What I decided to do with the overripe ones was slice and core them and freeze them for smoothies. Delish!

The peaches on the tree are long gone but I still have about five quart-size Ziploc bags full of sliced peaches ready for dessert.

Here is my smoothie recipe that I use for my single-serve blender:

• Half fill the cup with milk. We use whole milk, but if you want a skinnier option, feel free to use reduced fat.
• Add frozen fruit. In addition to the peaches, I use strawberries, blueberries, banana, whatever is on hand. The riper the better as this eliminates the need for sugar.
• Blend.

That's it. Can't get any easier, healthier or lazier than that.

Enjoy!

Force-ripening Green Tomatoes

When I overheard a co-worker saying you can force green tomatoes off the vine to ripen in the sun, I thought this would be a cool experiment to try with the kids. We found our sunniest window, a south-facing one, lined the sill with paper towel and patiently waited. To our pleasant surprise, after just a few days, the tomatoes started turning red.

I did a little research on this and turns out heat is the main proponent required to ripen green tomatoes, not sunlight. This blogger mentioned sunlight inviting rot and toughening the skin. The rotting on my tomatoes was more of a sunburn at the very top, which I always slice off anyway. Further, the texture of the skin seems normal. However, next time, I am encouraged to try his brown paper bag and banana method.

How do you force-ripen tomatoes?

Afternoon Snack

Even though it seems my tomato vines are infected with a fungus, I've had and continue to have a very good harvest. One of my new favorite snacks is cherry tomatoes marinated in lemon juice, salt and pepper. Delish!

Mockingbird's Nest

Every year I have a mama mockingbird who makes her nest in one of my privet hedges. Usually she reuses the same nest and lays three eggs but this year the nest is a little bit higher...and larger and there are four eggs!

 

Isn't it beautiful! Read about some of my other garden babies here.