MARK YOUR
CALENDARS!
The Second Annual
LOUA APPs Festival
featuring
local Art, Native Plants, and Pawpaws
Hosted by the
There will be food, live music, and lots of fun!
Saturday, September 21, 2013
10:00am to 4:00pm
Directly across the street from Indianola Informal K-8 School
251 East Weber Road
Columbus, Ohio 43202
Posted in General Information
Well, it’s official. Summer is over. I know, I know, summer is supposed to last until September 21, 2013 (and my brother always contends that July 4th was the last day of summer). But as I wa
s walking from my car into our house, I saw it, that harbinger of fall, a tree that was changing color. Pete said it was probably stressed, but then I saw another one. Granted, both were maples, but there it was, atop of several branches, a hint of scarlet, a touch of yellow, a modicum of orange. The end of summer and the beginning of fall. Sort of…
Pete and I also saw our first monarch butterfly yesterday afternoon in our backyard. Pete was so happy that we finally had one show up after such a long time without seeing any. We’ve tried hard to put in plants that will attract birds and butterflies. It was strange; I hadn’t really noticed the lack of monarchs until someone mentioned that they hadn’t seen any this summer – which is now officially over. I remember about ten years ago, Pete and I went a little bit south of Columbus to visit a few Ohio prairie remnants. Usually, these remnants were associated with small cemeteries such as Smith Cemetery and Bigelow Cemetery. One of the cemeteries was literally out in the middle of endless fields of grains a small oasis of green. The plot of land, about 1/2 acre, had tombstones and some tall trees. There was a path that meandered around the edge of the remnant, and as I came closer, all I could see was monarchs. On the trees, on the ground, in the air. I could walk, very slowly, and hundreds of butterflies would gently lift up as I passed by. These must have been thousands of them.
Speaking of native plants, Pete and I went off to Lowe’s for some things needed for our various projects around the house. I always head to what I call the sad plants, those that have been reduced in price for many different reasons: pot-bound, leggy, or som
etime, for no reason that I can see except they have been sitting around for too long. I had bought a few plants for my front garden, and wanted to see if there was anything else good left. There wasn’t anything I saw, but I brought Pete over to see all of the native plants that were discounted: blazing star, nodding onion and blue flag irises. The containers extolled the benefits of natives plants, how they thrive in all the weather conditions that Ohio can throw their way. We have plenty of blazing star and nodding onion, but Pete was thrilled to bring home six iris plants for our water garden. He’s been working hard on rearranging the plants in a way that looks natural but good.
Until next time.
Posted in General Information
This last week has been all about the bugs. Or, as my entomologist husband would say, it’s been all about the insects. As he has told me many times in the past, true bugs have sucking mouth parts. That being said, saying that something’s been insecting me doesn’t quite sound the same.
First off, at work our office has moved into a new building. And since it was being remodeled beforehand, the windows were always open. Which allowed plenty of insects egress into the building, where they happily set up shop. We have fruit flies, flies, gnats, ants, and a few cockroaches (which I admit, I also saw in Bricker Hall.) They are thinking about doing something to get rid of the little pests – I had one fruit fly that just flew around my head all day. Not a piece of fruit to be seen. I named him Fred.
Then on Friday night, we put some plants in my front garden because it was supposed to rain on Saturday, and I thought that would be the perfect time to get them all into the ground. Pete and I were nearly eaten alive by Asian tigers. We sprayed with Off! but the little blood suckers just laughed at it, finding the one centimeter of skin that hadn’t been coated. Of course, with dirty hands, swatting at them wasn’t the best thing to do. I finally gave up and swatted away; I looked like I had rolled in the dirt when I got inside.
As I was relaxing upstairs Saturday afternoon, Seamus, our cat, came up to lay on my lap, something he usually doesn’t do. I noticed he had all of this white stuff on his head, and in looking at it to try and figure out what it was, I noticed the white stuff was moving. I screamed at Pete, “Seamus has something alive crawling all over him!!” Pete took a sample under his microscope and declared Seamus had mites. As did Ciara. Walking dandruff is what it’s called. Of course, no vet was open, and all the on-line treatments were prescription only. Then, in combing a sample of the fur from the other cats, I found a flea. Of course, that meant that everyone had fleas. We were told at PetPeople in Clintonville to try diamaceous earth. It’s a very fine silica powder that somehow cuts the exoskeleton of fleas, drying them out and eventually killing them. It’s very safe to use. We sprinkled some on each cat and around the places they liked to lay, after washing everything we could. It seems to have worked on the mites – Pete saw some under the microscope, but they were all dead.
Today, I noticed that our burr oak’s leaves were looking a bit yellow and the red 
oak’s leaves were turning brown. Turning over the leaves, I noticed lots (and I mean lots) of eggs and insects. Pete says they are lace bugs (you, know, the ones with the sucking mouth parts). Well, they certainly were sucking out the sap from those leaves. The red oak had more eggs that Pete couldn’t identify. Dang bugs – or insects! Or whatever.
Finally, has any noticed the lack of butterflies around, especially monarchs? Pete and I haven’t seen anyth
ing but a few black swallowtails, one tiger swallowtail, and one mourning cloak. We haven’t seen one monarch anywhere in Central Ohio. I’ve heard that the conditions for monarchs this year weren’t very good – storms and drought – as well as loss of habitat in Mexico. The only thing I’ve seen butterfly-wise are the cabbage whites, introduced from Europe.
We’ve got our new LOUA membership forms up – if you’d like to become a member, click here!
Until next time!
Posted in Birds and Butterflies, Insects
Tagged butterflies, cats, insects, walking dandruff
I’m sorry for the paucity of posts the last few weeks, at least on my part. Pete and I found out a few weeks ago that his Aunt Rose was dying from cancer. That sort of took the wind out of our sails. We rushed to Connecticut to say goodbye, but Rose died a few hours before we landed. We wish we could have held her hand one more time, but it wasn’t to be. It was good to be surrounded by family and friends – when we weren’t crying we were laughing. Somehow, that made losing Rose a little easier to take.
After the calling hours, Pete and I were heading back to his sister’s. Off on the horizon was a beautiful thunderhead all illuminated by the sun, shining in glorious peach, sil
ver and pink. Pete said that it was Rose passing. I’ve found myself thinking these past few days about life and how it goes on, and what’s important is the legacy that one leaves behind. Rose left behind a lot of laughter and a selflessness that I’ve never seen in anyone else. She was always willing to do anything she could. That was what she left behind: wonderful memories. Of course, I wondered what I would leave behind – and thought of this Arboretum and all of the beautiful trees we’ve planted. Fifty years from now, the trees will have grown so much, providing shade and beauty to the neighborhood.
What do you think about this weather? All the rain that we got was so good for the trees we put in the ground this spring. I felt like I was living in Seattle! But I’ve always loved rainy weather, so I was very happy. I wasn’t so happy about the weeds, which loved all the water, too, especially what I call sour grass. It looks like clover with three leaves and yellow flower
s. It’s everywhere! I feel like I pull one plant and 25 more show up. And now it’s too hot to do much outside at all! I’ve been watering a few things here and there, but most plants are hanging in there pretty well. The native plants in the back yard are as vibrant and stunning as I’ve ever seen. But those plants tend to go with the flow as far as dealing with whatever weather Ohio send their way.
Until next time!
Posted in General Information
For about ten years, Pete has been getting National Geographic Magazine. I look forward to it each month, mostly for the pictures, which are always so remarkable. But one story in this month’s issue caught my eye. It was about how songbirds are being destroyed in the Mediterranean. Here’s a link to the story, but be warned, the short video with the story was, at least, for me, very difficult to watch.
In a nutshell, song birds are being killed by the thousands. Some are being killed for food, but most are just hunted for sport or poached. Many are shot, others are caught with traps that look like mouse traps, while some get stuck on sticks covered with sap. The birds are varied: golden orioles, Ortolan bunting, chiffchaff, garhaneys, Europena robins, turtledoves, blackcaps, wheatears, warblers and raptors.
Even those that kill these birds are noticing that their numbers are declining to the point where they comment, “There are no birds around.” I can’t imagine a world that doesn’t include the sound of birds singing.
Until next time.
Posted in Birds and Butterflies
Last weekend, Pete and I took a trip to Clear Creek Metro Park. It’s south of Lancaster, so about an hour away. What a beautiful park! I felt like I was heading back to Connecticut with all the hills and rocky outcrops. But I think that no mere words can describe as well as photos. Enjoy!
Hemlocks
Native Yarrow
Mountain Laurel
Maidenhair Fern
This park used to be part of The Ohio State University. It was so lovely. On the way back, we stopped in Lancaster to eat, picking a restaurant from the Internet: Mediterranean on 33. Our waitress was so sweet, and the food was good. I had flaming cheese, something I last had in Chicago about 20 years ago. It was as delicious as I remembered!
Until next time!
Posted in General Information
I was talking to my mom last night, our usual Sunday night conversation. We’ve been talking on Sunday nights since I left for college in the 1980s – I couldn’t make long distance phone calls from my dorm room, so we had to set a time when I would be in the room, and she could call. We picked Sunday nights and have been talking nearly every Sunday night since.
Anyway, we were talking about this and that when Mom told me that she had been asked about LOUA. Now my mom lives in Louisville, Ohio, about two hours north of Columbus, close to Akron, so I was a bit puzzled as to why someone would be asking her about our Arboretum. Apparently, my mom was wearing her LOUA t-shirt (given only to those who are members of LOUA!) when she went off to buy her strawberries in town. Some man saw the shirt and asked my mom what and where was LOUA. I must admit, I was a little worried about what Mom would be able to tell anyone about LOUA. But I should have never doubted her. She told him where LOUA was located (Clintonville) and that we were planting trees native to Franklin county. And if that wasn’t enough, Mom also informed the man that LOUA was removing invasive plants. Anyway, this guy was pretty impressed with what we were doing, adding that we should plant maple trees for syrup. Thankfully, Pete says sugar maples are okay in the ravine!
So word of our little Arboretum is spreading by word of mouth! And if you’d like to become a member and get a cool t-shirt like my mom’s (and be asked about LOUA wherever you go), click here.
Finch Update
Well, the first three house finch eggs didn’t make it. I checked on them after not seeing Mama Finch around the nest in the morning. Two eggs were cracked in the nest and the third was still intact. Pete thinks that the sparrows got to the nest. I am just so sad.
On a higher note, the blue-winged warbler is still around, which Pete believes is a sign that the bird is nesting. Not that I would recognize one, but I’ll keep an eye out for baby warblers!
Until next time!
Posted in General Information
Well, Pete and I, along with my mom, just came back from Saginaw, Michigan and a visit with my brother, sister-in-law and their new dog, Winston. Other than gaining 20 pounds from all the food my brother cooked for us, we had a great time.
We travel up 23 North through Toledo. The trip up was rainy but very interesting. It’s a lot more flat there because the glacier came down and leveled the land. I have an app on my iPhone that shows the weather radar, so I could track the rain. The cells were very spotty, and we could see a thunderstorm a mile or two away where rain was just pouring down while we were dry…for the moment.
We took up some peonies and roses from our garden for MaryJo. She was so surprised that we had flowers because hers aren’t even close to opening. I always forget what a difference four hours can make! Pete says he likes going up north because it’s like he gets Spring all over again. The red buds were just ending, and the roses were barely pushing out of the ground.
We came back to find many of our flowers past. And the finches, who I had thought gave up on their nest, busy creating something that looked like an eagle could nest in it. One of the twigs was about the diameter of a pencil. How those little birds got it wedged into the Boston fern, I’ll never know. I’m not sure if they are finished with the nest as I don’t see too much activity around it although Mama and Papa Finch are always on the telephone line outside, singing. I don’t care that they aren’t native – they are one of my favorite birds! (Update – there are three blue eggs in the nest. Fingers crossed they make it.)
Also, we worked this morning on tree care. With the higher temperatures and lack of soaking rains, our trees are in need of some TCL. If you see a newly planted tree nearby, please keep an eye on it. Let us know if LOUA needs to step in to assure a healthy tree that survives!
Until next time!
Posted in General Information
Calling all friends of LOUA! We planted 106 trees this spring, and we need to make sure they stay healthy! This Saturday (6.1.13), we’ll be:
We need your help! Meet at the LOUA kiosk (across from Indianola Informal) at 10 a.m. Bring gloves and a shovel, if you have them.
See you then!
Posted in General Information
I know I’ve blogged about this in the past, but please, if you have a cat that you let outside, please take precautions to help keep our birds safe. Each year, cats kill an amazingly high number of birds and other animals. It breaks my heart because I love cats and I love birds, but they don’t mix. Pete and I have worked so hard to make our yard a place that invites birds in; to have our space become not safe for birds is so difficult for us.
We have a wounded robin in our next door neighbor’s yard. That’s bad enough, but it’s a nesting robin, and we haven’t seen any evidence of activity near the nest from the other parent. So it appears that if the one bird dies, the babies are in jeopardy, too. Our neighbor and Pete will take the bird to the Ohio Wildlife Center tomorrow morning as soon as they open, hoping that it will make it through the night. So often, the injuries to birds attacked by cats are internal with nothing to be done.
You can read this post if you are looking for ways to protect the birds.
Until next time.
Posted in General Information
Lower Olentangy Urban Arboretum 