Delphinium is a Flower within Flower - Gardening and Hobby 70

Tuesday, July 8, 2025
The Delphinium is a unique Flower in term of its blooming seasons which depends on its varieties or hybrids. 


Fig - The gorgeous flower.

Many people call Delphinium "the flowers within flowers" as you might see at above photo (purples with white flowers in the center).

Just for your information, our areas have 3 well known different types of Delphinium, and their blooming seasons are following:
1) Tall flower 
- blooming time around Summer

2) Diamond blue flower
- blooming is around Fall to Spring

3) Improving flower, by cutting spike of flower
- blooming between Summer and Fall

Finally, how about Delphinium flowers in your areas?

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Caroline Wren was Using the Flower Petal to Scoop Poop - Critter 99

Tuesday, July 1, 2025
We saw wrens, either House Wren or Caroline Wren come and nesting at our yards almost every year. 


Image - Caroline Wren to Scoop Poop.

Some posting about Wrens are following:

We had a nest next to our front window, and one day we observed interesting of baby birds' behaviors:
- turn their backside to the nest opening.
- then pooped there (smart bird!).

Mama bird doing the parent work that is "changing diapers." She is removing poop or the fecal sac to keep the nest clean.

As we understand the bird was using the flower petal to scoop poop. Amazing.

Have you ever observed this kind of behavior?

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The Mosquito Control Plane Flying over Our City

Tuesday, June 17, 2025
We saw Low flying plane over our city a couple day ago. We believe it was a 1976 Britten-Norman BN-2A-21.


Image - The low flying plane

The plane is mosquito control plane, now flying over to bomb insects. Actually, it is rare to see plane at daytime.

The local administrations use the plane when they have a budget for it during heavy mosquito seasons.  

I thought they just used aerial spraying from a truck. However, spraying from a plane is concerning for many people, it can access places that trucks can't go, and then can cause:
- dead to on many bugs such as lightning bugs in our back yard.
- impact on caterpillar and monarch eggs
- harmful to pets and etc.

What do you think?

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Colorful of Snapdragons - Gardening and Hobby 69

Monday, June 9, 2025
 The photo was from Spring, then we enter very hot Summer with temperature reaches around 97* F (36* C). 


Image of Snapdragon flowers

Some said the Snapdragons with scientific name Antirrhinum majus could bloom until Fall, I don't know.

The flowers have many colors, our favorite includes:
- yellow
- pink
- orange
- red 
- and white

Few people grow the Snapdragons from seeds. It could take months until flowers blooming. We never did it.

Do you know about Snapdragons?

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The Red Bellied Woodpecker - Critter 98

Wednesday, June 4, 2025
We believe; we have not seen any Red Bellied Woodpeckers at our yards for long time. Purely by chance, we saw one recently. 


Image - Red Bellied Woodpecker

Luckily, we could take one "good" photo, before the bird flying away. Actually, this bird should be "common" in our areas.

They may appear on the feeders. We don't know why they disappeared a while from our backyard.

The Red Bellied Woodpecker used to stop on our very old fig tree and then make a hole for a full life.

Actually, a half dead fig tree, and the other half has leaves. We are waiting to see if it produces figs.

Finally, do you have experience with the Red Bellied Woodpecker?

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The Orchid Blooming in the Room - Gardening and Hobby 68

Saturday, May 24, 2025
Many beautiful orchids come from tropical regions; however, they live in the forest with "calm" temperatures. 


Fig 01 - Blooming of the tropical orchid

Our area is hot and humid during summer; hence, it seems fit for tropical flowers include orchids to grow well. 

Phalaenopsis is one of popular orchids in our neighborhoods, it is because the orchid has some distinct characters such as:
- long lasting blooming 
- easy to care.
- colorful
- good as an indoor plant.


Fig 02 - Second blooming

Do you know about tropical orchids?

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The Three Babies of the Bird - Critter 97

Friday, May 16, 2025


Fig 01 - The 3 babies of bird

Now, 3 of 5 eggs are hatching. Unfortunately, one egg was moved out nest by mama birds, another was rotten. We don't know why.

Some of you guess the bird species Here are the guessed:
- A House Finch
- A House Sparrow
- A Wren 
- A mourning Dove 
- and a Robin   


Fig 02 - Five eggs

Based on a below picture (Fig 03), even though the photo is not clear enough, we believe the species is "a Robin."



Fig 03 - Mama Birds nearby eggs

What do you think about bird species?

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