Welcome to Friday! Elsa here, ready to dish up some interesting bits of urban nature from around the Ranch. Despite yet another week of 90’s, we managed to survive the miserable heat and, as always, join our weekly hosts, Rosy, Sunny, Arty and Jakey from LLB in Our Backyard. Don’t forget to click on their link, to see what the Gang and others around Blogville have shared this week. So let’s get started, ‘kay?
On our walks, we notice lots of crawly things, even encountering some real whoppers. Mom almost stepped on this one and thought it was some kind of cicada. It was nearly 3 inches long and as she bent down to look closer, its legs started wiggling which made me think it wanted to play. A swift tug on my harness by the upright made me think I may have misjudged the situation. Us dogs tend to like windup toys like that but mom was pretty emphatic about moving along once it started moving. Whatever. I thought it was pretty fascinating to watch. Just look at those silver eyeballs!
Annuals like these vining petunias are enjoying the hot weather to which I say, they can have it. These sunny days are way too intense for a Ninja like me.
Some of our neighbors have interesting yard art that both my dolt of a brother and I have to check out. I get the sense that this little mushroom village attracts a lot of visitors. Look how colorful these glass babies are!
On the other side of their front walkway, they had an important message for passersby. With all the anxiety peeps are experiencing during the pandemic, we hope they heed messages like this and stop complaining about having to wear a mask.
On our return route, we encountered some colorful poppy mallow. Mom really likes their bright color and vows to plant some saying they’ll make a nice ground cover to fill in some of open spaces in our side garden and the cup shaped blooms are really pretty.
Around the corner from the Ranch one of the neighbors always plants a few pumpkins in the strip of ground between the street and the sidewalk. We stop to check out the pollinators and see how well the pumpkins are doing. We may not have trick-or-treaters this year but I think there’ll be plenty of pumpkin treats. That buzzy thing inside the flower took a bit of offense to my closer look so we had to move along quickly.
With more hot weather still in the forecast, we can’t help but be a bit excited by the countdown clock. Did you know there are just 59 days until autumn officially arrives? I know some of you groaned when you read that and others of you gave a collective sigh of relief.
Well, that’s about it for sharing photos of nature from around here. We hope you have a great weekend and take the time to see what nature readily provides us. Who knows, you may have more luck finding a windup toy laying on the sidewalk, just waiting for a playmate. Without the proverbial helicopter huMom hoovering close by to drag you away.
Lie, love, bark! 🐾
Thank you for your great work and useful information on your site. Lots of useful info for dog owners.
Looks like a wonderful adventure of bugs, flowers, colors and smells.
Absolutely! 😃
Adorable captures!
You sure know how to discover the interesting things that nature and its helpers have to show us.
We could do with a lessening of the hots too.75 is plenty enough for me:) I do enjoy the early fall, with nice warmth and good cool sleeping weather.
When I would visit Washington DC,(hubby comes from there), we often would see those cicada, too…no thanks!! BOL! I actually would rather see a nice garden snake than one of those big bugs, go figure!
We’re with you on bugs and temps. 75 is plenty enough for us too. 56 days until the official arrival of autumn can’t come fast enough.
Oh, that is a FABulous find Elsa! Too bad the peeps don’t share our loves of buggies and their delish crunchiness! BOL!!! Those are some beautiful blooms!!!! Ma has four of those Hibiscus, and they are bloomin’ like kerazy! She has to keeps them in ‘jail’ behind the doggie fences, cause I tend to try and eats the leaves, which Ma says is a no-no. whatevers.
Kisses,
Ruby ♥
You ma is very wise, Ruby. They’re so much better to see than eat. 🌸🌺
HURRAH!! Only 59 days till Autumm!!Wee are countin down THE dayss to Elsa an Miss Monika an Norman….
All THE flowerss are so beeuteefull speshelly THE Poppy pink oness! An Mushyroom village iss furry cute!
**purrss** BellaDharma
Thanks sweet kitty. Yes, autumn cannot arrive too soon for us. 🍁🍂
Very pretty flowers, but that crawly thing would have freaked me out too!! Yikes!
It was pretty freaky but I prefer cicadas to the snails that patrol that sidewalk!
Xena: We – well, our Dad – found a cicada that looked like that this week during our walk. He doesn’t think this is a year for cicada’s (once every 7 or 14 years) and they usually swarm, so we were all puzzled. Maybe these are the scouts! Maybe there will be an attack! Maybe it will be a plague!! Maybe…
Lucy: Xena, stop! Hi Elsa. I just wanted to say how beautiful I think your black, thick, curly hair is. Hope you can stay cool. (I’m enjoying the heat.) XOX Lucy and the hysterical Xena
We’d never found one let alone seen any in Colorado. Rest assured Xena…mom says they’re only noisy, not dangerous. Thanks, Lucy for the kind words. Mom is trying to convince me to get a real haircut but I will only let her trim me with scissors anymore. I’m hoping because it takes so long, she’ll eventually leave me alone, especially if she thinks she’ll trim my feet. 😉
Sounds like a plan, Elsa, and yes, I have calmed down. I don’t know what came over me. XOX Xena
No worries. We heard cicadas make people crazy.
That bug looks darn prehistoric.
It sure does. I had no idea cicadas were so big. Or so creepy!
They tried to put as mask on me-I flew out of it. Autumn? Baseball season just started.
Baseball without fans? That seems like going to prom with your brother.
Each of those pretty petunias is like its own little piece of art. So beautiful
Cicadas??? We are too fast for Mom – let us tell you, they are VERY crunchy:)
Woos – Lightning, Misty, and Timber
Yuck, just thinking about it creeps me out. 😉
You found lots of interesting nature to show us today but we especially like the pink petunias with the yellow center.
They are fairly striking (for petunias). We were lucky there was so many diverse things to check out in the city this past week.
Elsa,
You are a magnificent correspondent for all things nature. I’ve never seen a cicada that up close and personal . . wow!
Neither had we! It was so cool but a bit creepy, especially when it began to wiggle. Awk!
Yikes!
Yeah…tell me about it! We were barely awake. It was way too early for wiggly bugs! 🦟🐜
Oh no . .no . . no!
Exactly!!
We love the variety of nature you have in your area Elsa…from Pumpkins to cool crawlies, your corner of Blogville has it all!
Thanks, guys. It definitely was a mixed bag this week!
Wow, what a colorful and eventful walk you guys had! Watch out for those little buggies!
Yeah, I’d never seen one of those guys before and stared at it for several minutes. Till it moved that is, then I left skid marks trying to get away! 🤣
A pawtacular walkie! Thanks for letting us join.
With all those wooftastic sights there must be some Wagnificent stinks😉
Stay cool & stay healthy.
💜nose nudges💜
There sure was!
Wagnificent🐾💜🐾
The poppy mallow is just gorgeous…I would love to have that in the garden. Roll on the cooler weather for you.
We’ve got our paws crossed. Next week it may only be in the mid-to-high 80’sF. That vibrant poppy mallow is a favorite of ours. Have a pawsome weekend!
That bug- what a great shot! And I love the note: Plant Kindness, Harvest Love. Every garden needs that. Thanks for sharing your walk!
That sign needs to hang off every house’s front door! Have a great weekend.
Lovely walk Elsa. Thank you.
O, Elsa, that whopper looks like a fishie..a flying fishie…MOL…We love the quote and the garden of that neighbour looks like a fairy tale. We loved to see you today on tour, sweetie 😺Pawkisses for a Happy Weekend to all of you🐾😽💞
What a wonderful collection of blooms, Elsa. I especially love the mushroom “garden” – some people have great imagination, don’t they?
Don’t you find it hot to walk in such heat? Mom won’t even bring me out till late in the evening and only IF the temps are below 90… which, thank goodness, they were earlier this week. I just went out now, though and it’s a scorcher. Sigh. Guess I’ll be hanging out in the A/C again…
I can do nicely without temps in the 90s as well, Elsa; especially when the humidity numbers match the temps! The flowers you share every week are beautiful, but I’m especially fond of this week’s “crop”.
Hope you, Norman, and your Mom have a lovely Friday and weekend!!
Thanks! Here’s to lower temps and much lower humidity. Ear scritches for our favorite Ducky.
I like those “mushrooms”. We have some like those, too.
Have a great weekend, too, and stay healthy,
Pit
They were pretty cute and whimsical. Have a super weekend and try to stay cool.
Hi Elsa,
Lots of interesting plants, and you mentioned to be a cicada, that is something we don’t have here. Poppies and petunias bring always color to our yards. We have really cold here, 50F, and raining.
Hugs,
Kosmo
Oh Kosmo, do you know how quickly I’d trade weather with you? 50F sounds divine. We’ll be back in the 90’s again today. At least we don’t have humidity to accompany it. Cicadas are really interesting bugs. You can see more about them here: https://www.insectidentification.org/insect-description.asp?identification=Cicada
Have a great weekend.
Thank you for the link, we are interested in everything in the nature.
Enjoy your weekend.
They are quite fascinating bugs. Even if a bit creepy. 😄 They are so much bigger than the usual ones we see.
Hei Elsa, I found out that a cicada has a cute name in Finnish, it is kaskas, a pronounced like a in a word car, but short.
Mukavaa viikonvaihdetta!
Kiitos Kosmo. Kaikki parhaat!
How fun. I wish I could have joined you on your nature walk, Elsa.
Have a woof woof day and weekend. My best to your wonderful mom. ♥
Thanks, we’d love to have you come along on our walks, even if just digitally.
Plant kindness. Harvest love. Exactly what is needed in these troubling times. I love the precious first photo. ❤️🐾
Many thanks. Yeah, I think we can all use more of that message. Have a great weekend.
that bug is gorgeous. I’d never see it but for your close up Thanks! We should study the wings, see through but very strong relatively. Great way to make planes that would be light weight but strong.
poppy mallows… that’s what I’m seeing not morning glories! Elsa you are mahvelous
Thanks! Poppy mallow is a great xeriscape plant with pops of color and easy to grow. We love it.
oooh you found a lot of good things… we love the petunias… and is that big bug edible?
They are-at least some birds, small mammals and other insects seem to think so. So do dogs. 😇 They must be a crunchy treat.
The mushroom village is so pretty. The giant green monster would cause Mom to snap my leash and remind me that it will eat my face off if I get close. I think moms know best on that one…
Love and licks,
Cupcake
If your mom is anything like mine, she is probably over-protective. Everyone knows variety is the spice of life and who wouldn’t want a nice crunchy treat after a long walk?