I attended my friend’s celebration of life yesterday. This is a sign I made for her daughter’s memory book.
memory book
Month: June 2025
Symphytum officinale
I love checking out people’s gardens when I walk around the town, and I’m particularly attracted to riotous native shrubbery. If the owners are out working in the yard, I call out my compliments and stop to chat if they’re amenable. Today I met Elaine and Chet; they were really friendly and even dug up some comfrey for me to take home and plant. I’ve been wanting to grow it, but I never see it in nurseries, so when I spied their abundance, I wasn’t shy about asking for some.
Later in the afternoon our next-door-neighbour came over with more apricots from her tree. It’s starting to feel like we live here 😊
conversation with s.m.
My sewing machine is a needy nag, in the best possible way.
at the dept. of motor vehicles
Third time lucky for L. He passed!
waiting again
Another day, another medical waiting room. But this time, the plant is real!
mums
These flowers came home with me after our docent appreciation party on Sunday. Thanks Alli, for the great event!
Murgantia histrionica
I had seen adult harlequin bugs* before, but never the nymph stage. Both life stages are a major pest of cabbage and related brassica crops, feeding on the stems and leaves with their piercing-sucking mouthparts. That didn’t seem to be happening on the bladderpods today, as far as I could see. But who knows that those sneaky little mouth-straws are doing!
*This is different from the insect known in Australia as a harlequin bug, Dindymus versicolor.
cat and (tit)mouse
shinrin-yoku
Phloeodes diabolicus
I first learned about diabolical ironclad beetles a week or so ago, when K found one in the backyard. It’s an extremely cool critter: it is flightless and has a remarkably long adult lifespan of eight years, compared to weeks or months for most adult beetles. It also has an incredibly tough exoskeleton, able to bear pressure of 40,000 times its body weight (thus, the ‘ironclad’ moniker). I was pretty excited to see a whole bunch of them today! It was also a thrill to encounter a skunk moseying down the track in broad daylight. He raised his tail a few times but decided not to spray us (whew!).
hashiworks 