Natural Science Museum Photo Contest 2011

Happy December, y'all! It finally got cold here and killed the remainder of the summer veggie garden. There isn't much gardening to do this time of year, other than raking some leaves into the beds and piling some in the compost bins. I have lettuce and carrots going, but it usually rains enough that I just leave them alone until harvest time.

You may remember that last winter I entered the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science's photo contest, which takes photos in several categories taken on the museum grounds. Here is my post from last year. I ended up entering 2-3 photos based on your recommendations, and won 1st prize in the landscape division for the b&w photo of the cypress swamp.

Here are some photos I took at the museum back in late June that I am considering sending in this year. Please let me know your candid thoughts!

This is a photo of the skeleton of some leaves after bag worms (I don't know the scientific name) stripped the branch of everything green. I had it printed on glossy paper and it's not as crisp as it needs to be to win, but still kind of a cool concept. It was just too hard to focus with my non-DSLR, I think.

Above and below are two b&w photos of the creepy bag worms at work! I love how you can see the spines of the worms on the outside of the "bags." I had these printed on matte paper and they printed pretty true to what you see here. Do you like either, and if so, which one more?

Thanks for your input. Have a great rest of the weekend!

End of July Garden Updates

The forecast calls for it to be in the 100's here the next three days - just in time for the weekend, my only free time to work in the garden (very funny, Mother Nature). My garden has been suffering this year. I'm not sure if it's from the heat or what. Things that always bloom haven't (bearded iris, tiger lily), and my veggie garden has been ridiculously hit or miss (lots of green beans early, lots of cherry tomatoes and cowpeas later, a very few eggplant and larger tomatoes now, bell peppers just getting started, no cucumbers in sight, and some utter failures: corn, pole beans, butter beans, winter squash).

One weird thing about pregnancy is that your tastes change, so some things I planted in the garden the spring don't appeal to me now, namely eggplant.

This is the second year I've grown these asian eggplants from seed. The basil and black krim tomatoes were grown from seed, too (the red tomatoes are from a friend). Trying to figure out what to do with these eggplants that sounded remotely appetizing right now was a challenge, but then I found this recipe. I basically followed it except that before frying the eggplant pieces, I breaded them in flour with salt and pepper mixed in (and skipped the step about drying the eggplant pieces after rinsing them). It was so good!

The tiny fish pond is the only area of the yard that looks lush. I was thrilled to find this helvola dwarf water lily blooming! Word to the wise, even a dwarf lily will send out an incredible number of lily pads. I'm glad I didn't just get a small lily, because this is all our ~100 gallon pond can handle.

These naked ladies took a couple of years to bloom, but they were worth the wait. They are a shimmery pale pink and so pretty.

I love how they come up literally overnight on these long stems.

The heat has not put a damper on the critters. Check out this neat/creepy sphinx moth that was hanging out in our carport last weekend. It was huge! It reminded me of the stealth bomber.

Have a great weekend and stay cool!

Critters

It's nearly 100 degrees this weekend, and dry as a bone, so not much gardening is taking place. I did get to spend a few minutes watering and breathing in the fresh air this evening. Watering one of the apple trees we planted for Earth Day, I found this incredibly creepy bug. Ew! Please don't tell me I should kill it because I really don't want to touch it!

I also spotted this robin hunting for worms. Where was it headed?

Cuuuute! Sleepy baby robins!

A little more awake now:

Isn't the sticks, straw and mud nest impressive?

And finally, the butterfly bush just started blooming, so I'm on the lookout for butterflies!

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!