Lovely October days, in and out

Amazing, in our close to 80 degree weather, to know that our Canajun colleagues have already celebrated Thanksgiving, and I hope it was a happy one for all of you.  Ours is nearer our actual harvest -- farmshare doesn't end till mid November -- but a bit too near Christmas and New Year.

Meanwhile, I thought I'd celebrate Indigenous People's Day yesterday with a stroll out on the Preserve, this having been Lenni Lenape territory long ago, to honor them.

And found milkweed, which, after this pic

I blew at and scattered the seeds far and wide, in hopes of feeding future monarch butterflies, which have been very scarce this year.  Most butterflies have been scarce -- a couple of monarchs, a few tiger swallowtails and dusky swallowtails, more Red Admirals, the usual little whites and blues and sulfurs and browns.

But I was blessed yesterday, with a sight of two American Ladies, a first for me, on the field in the Preserve, near where I used to see buckeyes a lot.  At first I thought this pair were Red Admirals, but too fancy a design for that.  Then I wondered Painted Ladies, but not the right pattern for that either.  

And my good old Golden Book of Butterflies explained my confusion, after it identified them as American Ladies.  They are all three in the Vanessa species, and there's another on the west coast, so that's why I was uncertain, many points of resemblance.  Beautiful but impossible for pix, very very flighty and arguing amongst themselves.  But that flourish of orange color on the upper wing is pretty identifiable. So if you want a pic, since my link didn't work, google on American Lady Butterfly.

Then this morning, this is what I saw on waking, among the houseplants in the bedroom, the duncanus domesticus

lurking and gazing steadily in the hopes of waking me early to give him breakfast.

Further Adventures in Waging Peace and What Can Happen

I went to hike on the Preserve, in pursuit of my Waging Peace effort for November 11, and after a lovely hike, bit tired, day turned beautiful and warm, I decided to sit and admire the lake from the bench outside the Audubon building.  I noticed a gang of people on the steps, evidently a meeting or symposium or something, they have them a lot for people interested in the natural world, didn't take much notice.

Then a nice guy came over and sat with me, as I was looking through my binoculars just in case I could see anything moving, and asked what I'd seen today.  I mentioned the yellow rumped warblers on the trail, and commented that it was a bit early in the day to see much activity. Whereupon he introduced himself:  Pete Dunne. If you want to know why this was exciting, go here

So we had a nice chat and he said he'd seen me sitting in the sun on the bench and decided "there's a person who knows how to use a day like this."  And ducked out of the meeting. So we talked about the season and I indicated I'd been down to Cape May quite a bit, and he stunned me by saying, yes, I know, on the hawkwatch platform, remind me of your name again. I guess when you watch birds as much as he has, you note people, too!  wondered what my field marks were..

Then he had to return to his meeting which turned out to be the statewide Audubon staff meeting, and the reason he was there, rather than up on the Kittatinny Ridge between NJ and Pa watching hawks and the fall colors.  He's well liked and I can see why.

Then home again, and friend and artist Mike E. showed up with a couple of blades he had promised me for art, possibly weaving, purposes. These are blunt and not high enough quality for him to get them set again and sharpened, so he gave them to me for peaceful uses!  My version of beating swords into plowshares. Blades into Looms!

So  I got a couple of huge immediate rewards for my efforts today.

Waging Peace. All Together Now!

There's a certain obligation when you blog, to note significant days and not look as if you didn't notice them.  So November 11 is one of those days.  But, as on Memorial Day, I'm very careful about any kind of observance that risks glorifying war and making it look exciting and dramatic.  Anyone who has lived through one, either in or out of combat, knows better.

So this year I decided to honor the men and women who have gone through terrible hardship on behalf of us all, by waging peace.  

Starting with a hike on the Preserve, to bring back peaceful nature pix for us all, as a healing thing to do.  And by continuing to take care of the people and animals around me every day.  And, in another post, I'll tell of the adventures that happened today partly as a result of these decisions.

See the dark areas in that bank above?  those are the lairs of our native red fox.  Real foxholes.

And here is a whole universe of mosses and lichen, with its own history of coexistence and conflict and resolution.