my life in a cabinet of curiosities
I OFTEN FEEL LIKE I LIVE IN A CABINET of curiosities; you know, those Renaissance-era rooms full of oddities (a vintage image follows), many of them nature-inspired, that in time evolved into an actual piece of furniture filled with the most fascinating mix of stuff? That’s my life here these days. Curious.
OK, so maybe it isn’t exactly like the vintage image from Wikipedia. But there’s a female wasp with a “tail” several inches long drilling holes into trees to lay eggs; puffed-up frogboys fighting each afternoon at 2, rain or shine, as you saw last week; snakes galore posing on every surface; a cat who collects weasel tails and sticks his tongue out at me when I object (and oh, the endless rain…). So this week I offer up a slideshow of Margaret’s Cabinet of Curiosities.
Happy holiday weekend to all, and may your summer, and all your days, be filled with curiosities, too.
(Click the first thumbnail to start the show, then toggle form slide to slide by using the arrows alongside each caption. Enjoy!)
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- As the world got bigger and explorers set out to, well, explore, curiosity grew alongside it, apparently, and observing and collecting took on a wider scope. I sometimes feel like I live in one of those Renaissance-era rooms full of oddities, many of them nature-inspired, as in this Wikipedia image.
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- I sit around a lot and reflect…usually from my favorite chair beside the dining-room table, with my camera in hand. This time I guess the behavior reflects on *me*.
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- Beside me there are always houseplant oddities, like Bowiea volubilis, an onion-like contraption that sends up ferny vines half the year or so. It has been with me more than 15 years.
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- I’m always carrying things in from the garden in my pockets, like these tiny windfall apples from the ground. The trees thinned themselves recently. Note for scale: the dish they’re in is a mere teacup saucer.
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- I try not to bring crawling and flying things inside, but this female wasp was almost irresistible. That long contraption on her back end is her 3-inch-long, threadlike ovipositor, with which she drills into trees and deposits eggs. I imagine she is Megarhyssa atrata, after trying to key her out; whomever she is, she is welcome here.
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- I would have more gladly welcomed this Cooper’s Hawk under better circumstances; in spring, he or she pursued a songbird into the woods along my garden’s edge and apparently hit a tree. Cooper’s Hawks break a lot of bones, apparently, with their wild chasing style in and out of the woods after prey, but the injury here was immediately fatal.
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- Like I said, I don’t invite flying and crawling things inside, and especially not snakes (though they manage at times). This year they are everywhere, and I am using the camera to try to overcome my unnatural fear of them (yes, true, I shriek and run and fear them terribly, though I’d never hurt any of the species here). They’re in the garden sleeping when it gets too hot…
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- …and on the walls when the temperature is just right.
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- Everywhere. And you know what they like to eat? Among other things:
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- Uh-oh, no, say it isn’t so: not my FROGS. (This one was taking a quick Jacuzzi when observed.)
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- Yup, snakes eat frogs, and garter snakes (among other species) swim, so they love the frogponds. Bad combo, but that’s nature. Everybody’s gotta eat.
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- I feel a lot like this guy many days: not sure which foot to poot forward. One of last year’s green frog tadpoles is among the latest to still have not just his new legs, but also his old tail (shot July 1).
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- Soon he’ll just be one of the gang, who pile up in threes and fours and hang out all day as if they don’t know the dangers.
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- The top dog among green frogs this year is this indignant-looking individual.
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- He is inclined to fight daily rounds of fisticuffs with male Number 2.
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- Jack the cat’s daily rounds include running up the stairs (where he is not allowed except for this ritual) directly to a graduation photo of my father, which sits on the floor of my den, leaning against the wall. Jack runs up to the image, leans his paws against the glass, and starts paddling. Don’t ask; his idea. He has always done this, with this photo (which as a result I cannot move to hang).
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- As you know, Jack has a drug problem. Kiwi is his thing; used to be Nepeta, but we got rid of them.
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- I forgive all this bizarre behavior (even though I am *not* a cat person) because of his amazing pink paws. They smell like popcorn. True.
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- And he has a trophy room, er, chair, for his prize weasel tails. If I make any unkind remarks, look what he does in reply: out comes the tongue.
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- The collection from June 2008 stands at 6 tails.
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- I am also fascinated by how many things here are shaped like hearts (not including intentional or manmade things). Like this hole in a tree above my shade garden.
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- And this outcrop of moss by the frogpool (yes, I added some heart-shaped stones to the shot).
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- And the way the traction grit runs down my very steep front walk to the very last stone in storms…where it always collects in a heart-shape.
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- But the other day even I was surprised at the latest antics. This frog had already climbed up more than 3 feet from the pond surface to reach the wall where the Buddha stands. Pondering his next step…
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- …and then perhaps reconsidering the whole idea…
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- But no, after all, I am going for it!
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- And there he sat for more than an hour.
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- Perhaps he left because of heavy commuter traffic? Hard to find any peace with so many chipmunks around; I hear you, frogboy. I hear you.
Welcome, Deborah, and namaste in return. Funny, isn’t it, how much is going on when we are usually too busy to look, or see? See you soon, and thanks.
Look at the serene look on Buddas face. Perchance “frogboy” has told him a secret. Or just a comical quip!
Margaret, I have no problem with the moody self portrait, the pictures of the frogs, Buddah, hearts, houseplant, and bowl of fruit. Even the mounted tails are fine. BUT having snakes by the house is YUCKY!!!!!!!! I am glad I live in the BURBS, not way out in the woods. I would rather put up with voles, moles, mice, chipmunks and squirrels, than things that SLITHER around. Both of my Grandmothers had country homes, and NEITHER would let snakes live CLOSE to the house. To me, a dry stacked stone wall, in the country, says SNAKE BAIT!
@Charlotte: I just cannot imagine what would motivate the frog to climb all the way up there. Curiosity? A scent? The slugs stuck to Buddha’s face? Fascinating.
@Fred: I know, I am bothered by them, too…but…
Snakes (and frogs), both of whom are very susceptible to ecological hazards of many kinds, are the sign of a healthy ecosystem and a long food chain that’s somehow miraculously intact…so I am happy they are here. Means that I am doing something right by not using chemicals and by providing habitat.
That said, I do irrationally fear the snakes as mentioned, but I am working on it. In a year like this, the fact that they eat slugs (among other things) is a blessing.
The fact that I have so many frogs and toads, and that I make water available, means I will have snakes, walls or not. Snakes (none of whom eat plants, interestingly…all snakes are carnivores) love to live where there is good food, including insects, worms, frogs, smaller snakes, salamanders, small mammals, etc. Sounds like my garden!
When I lived in NYC not long ago, in the Bronx, I had snakes, too (though no walls). They weren’t as liable to show themselves as here, where it is quieter, but they were there (I would regularly find skins and sometimes see adults).
Just one big long food chain, and I am fascinated at how it all works, slightly scary and sometimes gruesome as it is.
Beautiful! there is so much to “see” in the garden if one looks, like you have shown us with your beautiful pictures.
Thank you!
Hey! I have those wasps, too! I wasn’t quite sure what they were until you mentioned the behavior that I have witnessed for the past two summers. It’s especially cool to watch the newly emerging offspring sunning themselves prior to their maiden flights. I often wondered whether they were beneficial insects or bad boys to be destroyed, but now I see they are pretty much benign. Thanks for the treasure trove of information you always provide.
Look at your cat’s paw, at the pad, to see a bear face! Cool, huh?
Welcome, KinKStar. Hilarious! Thanks for seeing even more curiosities in my curiosities. Hope to see you soon again, and happy Fourth.
Amazing photos!
Thats why we love frogs so, because they do the best stuff!!!
Margaret…Three snake stories…My Grandmother, who lived by the canal had a climbing rose, that grew up onto a trellis. She was at it’s base one day weeding it. For some reason, while on her hands and knees, she looked up, and saw that a snake was UP on a branch (cane), OVER her head. That freaked her out, and that rose was trimmed back REALLY far… Story two..My Mother lives in the center of a city, and had a neighbor that only cut the grass in front of his house. The back yard was a JUNGLE of weed, and volunteer trees. Young boys from the neighborhood would find snakes, and bring them home, and their Mothers would tell them to get rid of them. The kids would throw them into my Mother’s neighbors yard. In that wood land setting they would have a place to live. I was outside one day, helping her replant the iris plants, As I was digging up the iris plants, I must have disturbed a bunch of young snakes, they started slithering out from, (around the iris ryzones), all along the foundation of her house…. That was it for them! Luckily for US, the man’s daughters own the house now, and have bulldozed the back yard, where there now is a PERFECT lawn, and NO snakes live any more. Story three… I know this SOCIALITE lady up in Saratoga, that has a house in Kentucky. She was at her Old Kentucky Home, one day, outdoors, looking at the house. The house had large vines that grew up on in. She happened to notice a movement, up by the second floor of the house in the vines. It was a snake. She stood there, and saw that the snake went into an air conditioner, in one of the second floor bed rooms. She went into the house, ran upstairs, turned on the air conditiones, and that was it for the snake. The next day work men came , and took ALL of the vines off of the house.
Nice show! We have kestrels here, and fortunately haven’t witnessed any calamities. Some exciting midair pigeon attacks when they’re on the nest, though. The female is fearless.
Maybe Jack’s trying to demonstrate his usefulness around the house. I had a black and white cat who had to subdue anything that seemed out of place or, failing that, draw my attention to it. I don’t think “curious” really does them justice — they’re vigilant.
I remember being about seven and finding a garter snake out by the black raspberries in my grandmother’s garden. She clearly didn’t have a fondness, but was determined that they had a place in the garden and that it be respected. I miss that garden, I miss her and finding a snake in my garden takes me right back to that moment so many years ago.
Loved your shots Marg~but I don’t want the snakes getting your frogs :>(!! I know, its part of it but doesn’t mean I must like it, ha! Going to see what you and your Sis have been up to now, later! Maggie2day :)
Welcome, Margaret Rothauge. Nice to see you here. I know, but the food chain is the foundation of all life, so I have to try not to object to whom eats what here. Hard to watch, but I am getting more philosophical as I age. See you soon again.
What a fun mosaic of photos. The frog caught my attention and I’m glad I clicked to see more. I’m always on the lookout for photographic inspiration so this was a nice browse.
Enjoy the day.
Just puttering around your website looking for winter aconite and cats. I had to comment b/c my sister and I used to swear that our childhood dog’s feet smelled like popcorn and my mom said we were crazy. I must show her this!
Welcome, Sarahsuemagoo. They do smell like popcorn (dogs’ even more than cats’ paws I think). They do! Hilarious, right? Nice to “meet” you and do stop in again soon.