It’s been a hot hot August and most of what has been done outside is watering the plants to keep them alive. We had some major rain earlier this week that also involved a 12.5 hour power outage, but I feel fortunate compared to many others in MI who have had outages that are still continuing.
I finally got out there today and mowed. It was sunny, not too blazing, and my straw hat kept my head cool and the twigs out of my hair when I mowed under the trees. When the locust tree was pruned, the tree company also trimmed off one of the major hanging limbs from one of the front willows and cut up and took away the giant limb that has been lying there for a few years. I was able to finally mow that area without fear of the hanging limb falling on me and cut away the tall grass, weeds — and poison ivy! — that has taken over out there.
The afternoon ended well, but that is only because God is merciful to me. I mow the front, side, back yards, the field right behind the house, and out around the ponds. I got tore up pretty bad with blackberry canes that had grown across the narrow path to get out by the ponds, as I hadn’t used this path in a few weeks and the other way out there has standing water in it. It hurt like hell but faded in a bit. That’s not where the mercy came in. I had mown around close to the back of the outbuilding on my way out to the ponds. On my way back I intended on mowing the rest of that area and ended up approaching that gigantic “wild rose” bush that I posted a picture of before that had the bird’s nest in the middle of it. My eyes were drawn to something “different” in the bush. I was within mere feet of it when it registered a basketball-sized, very active paper wasp nest!!!!!!! My heart about stopped. I quickly pulled up on the mower blade lever as it has to be up in order to go in reverse. I was rigid with fear as I got the mower in reverse and backed up as fast as it would go. The mercy part is that the nest and its busy inhabitants seemed oblivious to me. Thank you, Jesus! That said I will post the picture of the nest first. It was taken with my phone from a good distance away, but you can see it pretty well.
Arrowood berries (used https://identify.plantnet.org/) to identify them. Not sure if edible yet but there are a bunch. 
Eupatoire maculée — monarchs love it! 
One of the zillions of full canes of ripening blackberries. 
remember those bright orange flowers, butterfly weed? they now have fuzzy pods like smooth milkweed pods 
scarlet lobelia that grows every year near the pond 
delicious strawberries picked from the tub strawberry patch.
I’m adding one more pic because I can — a cute one of Dotty.
Tao Talk 
Wow, a lucky escape.
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YES! Especially since I’d gone under it earlier with the loud vibrating riding lawn mower. Twice blessed!
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Indeed. 💚
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Yikes! Those are probably bald-faced hornets. Be careful.
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Are they blue or black? It seemed like flashes of both in the sunlight and they didn’t look very big, but who knows. I will not be going anywhere near that nest again!
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Here’s a Wiki:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolichovespula_maculata
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The nest is round with multiple openings in it and from what I see about this one and other pics I looked at the opening is usually only at the bottom. I do see one feeding on goldenrod in the pic and there is a bunch of goldenrod right near where it is… They didn’t bite me and for that I thank them. I see they can also spit venom? Yipes is right!
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I had a home with apple and pear trees. Yellowjackets & bald-faced hornets loved the pears that fell to the ground. It wasn’t safe to come within 10 feet of the tree.
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We had some kind of nest in the pear tree one year, but it was way up high.
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Didn’t you have problems with a hive of them awhile back?
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Growing strawberries? Michigan must have a later season on those. Our strawberries are done by May, unless imported from another state.
Love the kitty!
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Vic I think there are 3 types of strawberries: early, late, and ever-bearing (this variety is Ever Sweet.) These are ever-bearing and go all season. They had a shaky start where I waited until they were half dead to plant, and with the “drought” they languished and 8 didn’t make it. They are just now super thriving and throwing out runners to fill in the empty spaces in the tub.
I’ll let Dotty know you think she’s cute. I’ve had her a couple of years and she’s finally starting to relax from her years of shelter life.
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Oooo…good info…*sound of note scribbling*
Dotty is adorable. She would probably get along with my Ollie. He is a big ol’ ginger Hemmingway baby! 🐱🐈
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I would definitely recommend that variety, Vic. Dotty is what you might call a scaredy cat, especially around other cats. Ollie sounds very cute and adorable but she would run from him, guaranteed. Have you posted any pics of Ollie?
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Several…
https://cosmic-observation.com/2021/05/20/potd-hoot/
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https://cosmic-observation.com/2021/01/31/blogging-break/
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Here’s more than just Ollie:
https://cosmic-observation.com/2019/02/20/national-love-your-pet-day/
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https://cosmic-observation.com/2019/02/09/shutterbug-saturday-completely-rotten/
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P.S. Getting back with you about the strawberries. It’s even more complicated than I thought. Check out this page:
https://strawberryplants.org/strawberry-varieties/
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Oh, my!
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Holy cow, Lisa, glad you’re fine – or should I say holy wasp?
The joy of home ownership – sometimes, I feel it’s way overrated, especially when the actual owner of your home is the friggin’ mortgage company!
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So far so good, thanks, Christian 🙂
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Yowza!
Lovely images 🙂
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🙂 Thank you!
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Berries look great – the wasp/hornet nest, not! I’m glad you were lucky with that. We had paper wasps building a nest on the garage door last week – was amazing how they built a good size one in a few hours, but likewise, I was lucky I walked by it (maybe 10-15 feet away) with only one flying near me which drew my attention to it…
Up in the area of Ontario where I’m from, strawberries normally are at best in early July, so like you say maybe a different variety of them. Blackberries though, sounds about right – end of summer treat.
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I was definitely lucky especially after mowing with that loud vibrating mower right under it. Coming directly at it and as my brain figured out what it was was a tense moment. Why I insisted on pulling the blade up and backing up is a mystery lol. Maybe if I would have stood up and started running they would have come after me. And then how would I get the mower away from the nest! It all worked out though, so…
About the berries, I just put this link on Vic’s comment also, but there are more varieties than I thought:
https://strawberryplants.org/strawberry-varieties/
The blackberries: I pick a few as I ride by with the mower but have never gone out to pick volumes. To me too many seeds in them. There are also red raspberries out there but less of them. Those are my favorites.
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So much color in your surroundings!
Strawberries with whipped cream–one of my favorite desserts on earth.
As for the wasps–I know that heart-stopping moment.
I was hiking with my cat, Mr. Smith, many years ago. Turned around and almost stepped on a rattle snake. Just froze. Then backed up just like you. Only difference: i wasn’t in our yard. I was across the street in a deserted hill, so I kinda brought it on myself, lol !!
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Oh my gosh, Stacey! So glad you got out of that safely and so did Mr. Smith (I love your cat’s name!)
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Those things are scary but…theey are kinda like artwork…when they are empty. They are very interesting too look at…again…only when they are empty lol.
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I like your approach to it. It does look like a work of art and marvelous engineering. It’s put together with their spit.
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You could shellac it and it would be kinda cool in the right setting….but I would be afraid they would come and visit it.
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