A Giant Comes to Visit

August 5, 2025

Yesterday (Monday, August 4), Bruce and I moved three cartloads of Bama Dirt into the new long garden bed. This finished covering the wood in the new bed.

Bruce was zipping around the yard on the mower, cutting the grass at high speed. Last time he mowed, he tried something different out front. He was racing against the rain and thought he’d give mowing faster a shot. To his surprise, the grass looked just as good after the speedy cut as it did when he took his time.

I watered my bucket garden while Bruce was mowing. Some of the peppers were looking droopy.

Bruce joined me as I inspected the garden. I found another tomato hornworm and an armyworm on the tomatoes. It is frustrating to see the little green cherry tomatoes half eaten. My battle with squash bugs continues.

While we were in the garden, an Eastern Giant Swallowtail fluttered by and over to the cucumbers. I was very excited to see this large, beautiful butterfly!

Eastern Giant Swallowtails are the largest butterflies in North America. While somewhat common where citrus trees grow, they are rare elsewhere. From Wikipedia, “A common species in eastern North America, occurring as far as Costa Rica in the south and southern Canada in the north; but the insect is a wanderer, which is found only now and then in the northern districts. In the United States it does not extend westward beyond the Mississippi plain, except in the Southern States. Its true home is the region adjoining the Gulf of Mexico. It also occurs in Cuba.”

I took a picture of this Yellow-striped Armyworm moth.

I was able to getpictures of a couple of other butterflies.

I noticed this very large wasp (2 inches long) and had to look it up. Meet the Eastern Cicada Killer. The name sums up the wasp!

I went inside to cool off. Once I cooled off, I worked on my lion cubs drawing. The second cub is finished.

Nox came and sat in my office while I drew. When I was done drawing for the day, Nox followed me into the kitchen then dinning room as I sat down to drink some basil infused water.

I had a strange sleep walking episode last night. I barely woke up to go to the bathroom. I got out of bed, started walking around it, when I fell back asleep. I stopped at my dresser and tried to open the drawers. I made enough racket to wake up Bruce, who woke me up by asking what I was doing. I had no idea what I was doing and continued to the bathroom. Very strange!

This morning (Tuesday August 5), we just got word my father-in-law successfully came through his shoulder surgery. The surgeon said it went well and my father-in-law will be moved to a room in about two hours.