Posted in Creatures

A short tale of Damsels and Dragons

Despite knowing that Gardner has many wetlands, ponds and waterways, because we don’t really see any of it from even the upper story of our home, you wouldn’t consider our home sited terribly near any of them.  Yet if you look at one map that shows various water features, there’s quite a bit in our portion of the Greater Gardner Area, especially wetlands to the south and west.

We're in that area marked
The light blue patterned bits demarcate wetlands.  We live near Greenwood Hill.

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Posted in Bookworming, Creatures

Encouraging beneficial insects

Looking at it always makes me think of box kites.
A common whitetail or long-tailed skimmer (Plathemis lydia) in our backyard, one of many dragonflies that oft visited us last year.

I forget when I found this book, but I have a copy of Good Bugs for Your Garden [Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 1995], written by Allison Mia Starcher.

It has lovely illustrations, and contains downright sensible and needed information for those who want to at least lower their reliance on chemical pesticides even if they are not willing to go full out organic with pest control.

It’s also a small, almost pocket sized book.  Easy to tuck into a backpack, tote or handbag.  Also one that won’t take up much space if you are the sort to keep reading materials in your bathroom.
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