Friday, June 14, 2019

Dragonflies, bats, and flowers

One of the classroom assistants at the school gave me a tray of  rooted gardenia cuttings on the last day before summer break. They're very small yet, so they're still in the tray they came in, sitting in filtered sunlight on the back porch. This morning a single, perfect gardenia blossom had appeared. It smells like heaven.

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The Brandywine tomato plants also have a few tiny yellow flowers, but they seem disinclined to actually turn into fruit. I remembered why I always got so frustrated growing them in the past; even when the weather is tomato-growing perfect (as it's been here for the past week or two), and even when the plants themselves are huge and green and healthy, they're stingy with their flowers and slow to set fruit. I won't be growing them again, no matter how good they taste. It's just not worth it.

Last night as we sat out on the porch enjoying the pearly-pink sunset and the unseasonably cool, pleasant weather, I noticed bats flying in curlicues in the air above our driveway. When I stepped outside to get a better look, I discovered that there were only three bats, but several large dragonflies were joining in with them in their sunset sky dance. Despite being less than 100 yards from the creek, we've seen very, very few mosquitoes at this house. I suppose the bats and dragonflies have a feast of them every evening in the summertime.

And have you ever noticed that dragonflies are companionable little creatures? They always seem to hover close when you're outside. Just this morning I was sitting in the back yard soaking up a little sun, and a dragonfly landed on my big toe and stayed there for a minute or two. What friendly little animals! 

Ah, June.

14 comments:

  1. Sounds heavenly! I'm surprised a gardenia cutting blossomed -- seems like it would be too focused on growing into a plant to flower.

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  2. That gardenia flower looks beautiful.

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  3. Gardenias are perfect. That one is more perfect than perfect.
    Watching bats swoop at dusk is a wonder, isn't it?
    And yes, dragonflies are very friendly. One flew onto a hat I was wearing a few weeks ago and hung out there for a long time. They like to perch on my clothesline, too.

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  4. gardenias are pretty, but oh what their scent does to my allergies! ACHOO!

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  5. That gardenia is absolutely perfect. My ex-husband and my daughter planted a garden for a few summers during the years we lived in Maryland. We didn't get much from the garden except strawberries. They were wonderful.

    Love,
    Janie

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  6. The gardenia is beautiful. I have bats around here... sometimes they get in the house and scare the dogs. That's right, 180 lbs of dogs scared of little, teeny, bats.

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  7. I fear I would have run screaming into the house if a dragonfly landed on me.

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  8. Your gardenia is so pretty. How enjoyable it must have been watching the bats and dragonflies in the sky.

    My Dad used to call dragonflies snake doctors. When I was a little kid that fascinated me. When we were out on the Mississippi river boating and camping I was always hoping to see one "doctoring" a snake, and wondered if they helped turtles, too.

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  9. I totally disagree with you about Tomatoes. If I could only grow one thing in my vegetable plot it would be Tomatoes. The flavour of home grown, outdoor, sun-kissed, Toms is essential.

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    1. I was only referring to Brandywines....NOT all tomatoes!

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  10. This sounds lovely - I love bats, and admire dragonflies when I spot them near the lake or elsewhere. I've never had one hover close by for more than a moment, so maybe ours here are less keen on human company :-)
    The gardenia is beautiful, I can almost smell it!

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  11. I'm jealous of the gardenia! I tried to grow one but it didn't thrive.

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  12. I so enjoyed reading about your evening. I never seem to be able to grow Gardenias plus they make me sneeze, red eyes and ich. Yours are beautiful !
    Happy summer
    parsnip

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