Red Flowers

Blooms Alive on the Street

Yucca Flowers in Louisville

Look at this Lily Plus Some More Flowers

This yellow lily is really stunning.

Also some more yellow flowers found along the street.

Fossils from Hodgenville

Here are some fossils from Hodgenville, Kentucky famous for being the birthplace of United States president Abraham Lincoln.

These fossils for the most part are of bryzoan fenestella. It looks like a net pattern on the rock. There are also a few brachiopod imprints as well.

These creatures existed in the Mississippian (known in the United States) or elsewhere as early Carboniferous during the Paleozoic era. Timeline wise it was about 320-360 million years ago.

The rocks are reddish with white chalk like material and some rocks have a black almost burnt section to them. After consulting with a long time member of KYANA (Kentuckiana Geological Society), he told me that probably the red was iron, white silicon, and the black magnesium.







This is not a fossil but I thought it looked pretty neat so I took its picture.

Flowers in the Neighborhood

The neighborhood is a bloom in flowers. Here are a few I saw on my bike ride.

Flowers At My Parents

More Flowers from the Sidewalk Garden

Here are some more flowers after a rain shower. The purple balloon flower is back with its pentagon looking pod. The ballon flower is also known as the Chinese Bellflower or Platycodon grandiflorus.

The neat pentagon shaped flower pod that has a balloon look to it.

Here is a pink hydrangea which I think signifies the soil is base (pH over 7) while blue ones have pH before 6 with acidic soil.

These yellow flowers belong to the common mullein (Verbascum thapsus). The stalks can get 7 feet tall and the leaves grow out radially that feel felt like.
Another picture of a balloon flower.

Flowers from Sidewalk Garden

Here are some of the flowers that are blooming right now in the flower garden. The rarest is the Calla Lily which gets really big and some how survives our winters. These pictures were taken after a rain storm.



This is a plant that might be some sort of weed but came up and seems to be about the only thing that will grow in our front flower bed. It has soft velvet like leaves sort of tobacco looking. The bloom stalk is maybe 3 feet high though with these little yellow flowers.

Here is the Easter Lily that does not bloom at Easter. It has another friend that has about six bloom pods that should be blooming any day now.

Predation of Cicadas

After seeing so many cicadas appear over the last few weeks I was wondering if they had any predators since they only show up every 17 years or so. At first I did not see any evidence of anything attacking them but ants removing their dead bodies.

This week now that they have pretty much disappeared I have seen a small number of instances of them being eaten by other creatures.

Here is the only picture I caught of it happening in the act. A black jumping spider has captured one. I assumed it was alive when it was caught since it eyes are still red. The cicadas eyes turn dark once they are dead.



From a distance, I saw a red cardinal bird pecking at cicada. Later when I got my camera and investigated I found it was not completely dead but most of its abdomen was gone.


Here is an example of ants removing the pieces of cicada. Every so often I would see that the ants were taking apart a live cicada but only rarely.


The oddest encounter was a chipmunk that ran up to the porch and then picked up a dead cicada and started to eat parts of it or at least take it apart. I guess chipmunks can be carnivores.


Here is another cicada that the same cardinal mentioned earlier decided to eat part of.


Last, this cicada became victim to the air conditioner compressor.

Growing Concord Grapes

The grapes are plentiful this year but we will see if it stays that way by harvest time.

The cherry harvest was good so far with enough for 4 pies.

Large Crinoid Pieces

Here are some more items I found on my watermelon planting trip.

These are some large discs almost the size of an American quarter.

Still Finding Trilobites

Here is another trilobite tail I found with an picture of something I am not sure about.

Fossil Hunting After Watermelon Planting

Last Friday, I finally got my watermelons planted in a field in Hodgenville, Kentucky. It is really late but our growing season has been messed up due to cooler weather in April and May.

On my way back to Louisville, I stopped off at Joe Prather highway and looked for fossils.

I found 4 trilobite tails embedded in a some rocks. So I keep my trend alive at find trilobite pieces on my last 6 outings. I thought this trip would end it since the area is not known for trilobites.

Here is a small shell I found but have not identified yet. It might be some type of Athyris brachiopod but I am not sure Devonian fossils are in this area. It would seem to be maybe from the Mississippian Period (Lower Carboniferous) so maybe it is a Beecheria brachiopod.

Here is a pea sized blastoid head which I was surprised to find. It might be a Pentremites from the Mississippian time period.

Another surprising thing about it is that is black in color.

Ripe Cherries

The small cherry tree now has ripe cherries of which the birds are now taking special interest. These cherries are not sweet like the Bing cherries you find in the grocery store, they are more tart.

As a child I remember my mother making cherry pies, cobbler, strudel, and preserves.

The preserves were the best.