MORE OF THE WASP NEST AT WALNEY - 8-4-25

As I write this (8/6/25 at 3.52 p.m.) it is 77 degrees F. (25 degrees C). The cooler temperatures have been wonderful, with hardly any humidity. No doubt the temperatures will be rising again but we have been making the most of it.

 On the 4th we went to Walney Pond. Above you can see the wasp nest I added to my collage I shared here. Gregg spotted it first - I fondly call him 'eagle eyes' as he sees these things before I do. This nest was at least a foot in diameter and a foot-and-a-half long. Very active as we could see its residents going in and out of entrance holes. It is in a tricky area and is not even ten feet from where everyone walks and low, head-height. We worry about children playing in the area, and have envisioned someone running into it, perish the thought! We have already gotten in touch with the appropriate department at the local government center. Hopefully it will be taken care of soon and we will keep checking as we often pass by. I looked as we drove off. If you know where to look it can be seen quite clearly, but not immediately obvious when closer.

I took several photos using the zoom lens and found it fascinating to look at when on the larger screen of my laptop. Clever and amazing these nature's engineers. Not sure what kind of wasp or maybe a hornet? Any experts out there? I've looked online and seen similar, maybe the one at this link.

Last shot further along the pathway from the other side. It is also quite close to the edge of the pond.

A couple of more photos and that's it from this area.

Next we drove to the Visitor Center just up the road. 

Common milkweed were growing among all the Black-eyed susans, not only in the flower beds in front of the house...

but also in the separate round butterfly garden. 

First I wanted to share something else. I saw a flurry of movement on the steps of the house and if you look on the far right of that first step you will see...

a skink, possibly a five-lined skink which are the most common lizards in northern Virginia, according to what I found out at this website. Please let me know what you think if you check it out.

Another much smaller lizard crawled out of that larger crack on the right but wasn't as brave as its larger companion. It disappeared immediately.  

I saw a bug on this Black-eyed susan and couldn’t find a lot of information but identified it as an assassin bug. Once it forms full wings, its back will no longer be visible. Also found a clearer photo of it here.

Here's a closer look. I had a hard time focusing.

Onto the Black-eyed susans.

One last photo for today taken of the flower bed in front of the old house that is now the visitor center.

There will be more flowers soon.

Thanks for looking and enjoy your day.

I AM GOING BACK A FEW YEARS WITH THIS RESHARE...

 and as I had no errands to run, it was a good time to relax and take a virtual road trip down memory lane.  In 2007 we were gone for two weeks (pre-retirement years).  We flew to Seattle from Washington-Dulles Airport, and rode a ferry up to British Columbia.  We planned to drive down as far south as Monterey and Carmel in California. We were looking forward to it as we used to live there in the early 80's.  This post is from part of the southern part of our trip.

We are at Joshua Tree National Park in California.

I have always been drawn to the desert, ever since our first road trip across country.  Gregg was changing duty stations in 1977, from east to west coast.  We had only been married a couple of years at that time, and it was just the two of us.  When we reached the Southwest I was mesmerized.  It was polar opposites to where we live, where it is very lush and green.  But the desert has its own incredible beauty that I found fascinating. 

The red dot on the map below shows Joshua Tree's approximate location in California.

When we went into the visitor center, we saw a large mural showing what we might find in the desert, from fauna to wildlife.

It was very dry as you might imagine, and for east-coasters we were pretty much prepared, except for two things. We had plenty of bottles of water in an ice-chest and sunscreen and a hat with a brim, but a good lip balm/moisturizer would have been beneficial. I forgot about that. I couldn't believe how fast my lips became dry and cracked. Gregg didn't have as much trouble but I was always feeling parched. After this particular day we headed for the first drug store we came across and added lip balm to our supplies.

If you read this sign it will give you a clue as to the second thing I should have been prepared for.  This is the part of our trip I didn't think ahead.

I didn't think about my feet!  I should not have worn flip flops and I had been living in flip-flops since I left Virginia.  I should have worn the type of shoes someone might wear on a construction site, the kind with steel caps in the toes. Maybe a sturdy pair of walking boots or at least a pair of sneakers. That would have been much better. Most definitely I should not have worn flip flops!

Along the marked-out path you find many, many, many fallen needles, and they all seemed to stick into my exposed toes, and those toes were telling me they had run into a porcupine. Whenever we went to the desert after this trip, I made sure my feet were well protected. The city girl from Virginia and country girl originally from the UK, learned a good lesson that day. I dabbed my sore toes with antiseptic cream from the small first-aid kit I had packed before starting out on our journey.  Extraordinary how simple life lessons are learned on these trips.

Gregg wearing good, sturdy sneakers. Such a smart man!

There were French tourists, wearing sandals I noticed, and the children were complaining to their father that he should have told them to wear boots up to their knees. No, I don't speak French but by listening to their 'ouches' and other exclamations along the trail, their imagined conversation spoke to me in volumes.

Cactus with trillions of toe-piercing needles.

But I'm smiling because all joking aside I am having a great time seeing the kind of things I don't get to see in Virginia.  I see lizards in the summer back home, but they are different to this little one, and was a bit bigger.

It is the first wildlife I see in the desert today and it posed very nicely for me.

This was the only bloom I remember seeing here, but probably I didn't know where to look.  (We have since been back to the desert in the spring when everywhere is ablaze with desert flowers.  It is amazingly gorgeous!)

We are looking at Teddy-bear cholla (Cylindropuntia bigelovii), and we are at the Cholla Cactus Garden.

There are several that stick out over the path. I can understand why pets are not allowed, not that you would want to bring them out in this heat. 

The Cholla needs to be protected but so do, of course, the dogs.

Another photo of our handsome lizard.

This is a Joshua Tree and I remember it being huge, towering high above our heads.  It can survive for more than 150 years and is only found in a very narrow swath of the Mojave Desert, where elevation and rainfall are optimal.  The Joshua tree is, unsurprisingly, losing its habitat due to climate change.

Those cacti with the long, narrow branches are Ocotillo.  A friendly tourist told me a little bit about them.  He said that if it rained I would be in for a treat. As it turned out, the following day we had a drop of rain. 

We had to return on the same road for a short time, and we went back to that very spot where we had seen the Ocotillo.  It was crowned with the most beautiful red flowers.  Unfortunately, I can't find those but you can see these following photos. They have the most delicate leaves among the thorns.  
The Ocotillo grows to a height of up to 20 feet.  In wet months you will see their delicate green leaves.  (You may remember these photos from when I shared them before.)   There is more information here.
Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you.

~Frank Lloyd Wright~

At this link you will see all kinds of cactus identified with very pleasing illustrations.  

Above is another photo of the Cholla Cactus.  This is the fuzziest-looking cacti which also goes by the name "Teddy Bear".  As mentioned above they are very spiny and if you get too close, those spines will try and hitch a ride on your arm.

The above photo shows a less cropped version of that shown earlier.

I hope you have enjoyed me resharing this trip to The Joshua Tree National Park.  It certainly was a memorable visit back in 2007.

Happy New Year!

MEADOWLARK GARDENS, VIENNA, VIRGINIA

On Sunday after a few days of rain, the sky was a perfect blue and the temperature, though fresh, was quite mild compared to what it had been. We decided to drive to Meadowlark Gardens.  I was very comfortable wearing a coat.  I could have done with a scarf to wrap around my ears, but I only thought about this when we sat on one of the benches for a few minutes to look across the lake.  It was a lovely day and we both had a great time being back.  Our last visit was in October 2019.

I remembered last year at this time there was no admittance charge, and such was the case today.  We always buy an annual pass as we are here a lot during the year, but it is very nice for people with larger families especially.  There were a dozen kids using lots of their energy, and at the same time being exposed to nature.  For the amount of cars in the parking lot it was not that crowded.  Perhaps with 90 acres to explore the place just doesn't feel crowded.   

The wildlife was a bit scarce but we did see a pair of Mallard ducks, male and female, a grand total of two birds flying from tree to tree, a pair of Canada Geese in the distance being chased by a little girl, with a mother chasing her (the geese thought it prudent to take to the air and fly across the lake), and later an American Robin. The only photos we took were of the ducks as everything else didn't hang around long enough, or were just too far away.

Signs of life in the sprouting of new buds on the trees...

and new shoots growing all over the park...

pansies planted...

a few flowering plants like the Woodland Camelia shown at the beginning of today’s post, and other vegetation in their dormant stage.  The grass was still very brown.  

There were several Winter aconite, these yellow flowers.  You can read about them here.

Our main purpose was to get out and enjoy a good walk in favorite surroundings, as even in the winter we get such a sense of peace.  It is beautiful at any time of the year.

I will have more photos later.  We didn't take as many as we normally do, but there are those left to share after I get them organized.

We visited Sunshine who is kept in one of half a dozen terrariums to the left of the entrance.  You just have to go around the first pillar to see, and we never fail to stop by.  Sunshine was very active, more so than I have seen before, walking at a fast pace in the lizard way, to get from A to B.  Sunshine (my nickname for this little beauty) is a fascinating Bearded Dragon, who always seems to be smiling.  

And on that note...