So I have been building my website (which by the way can be found at crittersbybritty.com) now you have to understand that I am by no means a computer expert, in fact it could be said that when it comes to computers I am like the dinosaur lumbering into the rainforest muttering to itself "damn computers". Or, if not that, I am like that wonderful cartoon there was when computers first rose to fame, Snoopy with an axe "compute this you b**tard" So it is with a great deal of snarling and gnashing of teeth I am building my website. Of course the biggest problem for me right now, other than the fact that I am basically computer illiterate is trying to choose the photographs that will go on there. I have, much to my disgrace, already "killed" a computer with my photographs, it now sits, sullen in a corner of my living room, its sole purpose to store my photographs and its only saving grace is that it looks a little more interesting than a shoe box. If you try to do anything else on it but look at photographs a nasty "low memory" icon greets you, despite the fact that I have stripped it of every single programe that microsoft has ever created in an attempt to free up more memory. In my defense it didn't have that large capacity memory to begin with so how was I to know that uploading a 52mb memory card on a daily basis would do it any harm? My new puter has a huge memory that I dare say even I couldn't fill up (but don't count on it, cause you know when it comes to taking photographs I am a little intemperate). So faced with all of these photographs which ones do I choose? Okay so there are the obvious ones, the really stellar, you cannot mistake that is a brilliant photograph shots that I have no doubt that I will post, then there are the next step down ones, the ones that I think are nice, but which other people have told me are brilliant, then there are the not quite so good shots but lets face it they are cute shots, which ya know, photographically are not so brilliant, then there are the silly shots, which might not be artistically pleasing are just fun to look at. It is hard work, I can tell you. I can tell you however, that the following two shots will definitely be on the website. First up, a shot I call "final approach" during the winter I am invaded by every type of finch you can imagine, the gold finches return for the winter, the house and purple finches are here in droves, so when the thistle feeders are full to capacity the platform feeder is ground zero and it becomes standing room only.



oh and for those who are interested in visiting my "under construction" website right now it is here crittersbybritty.com once I get the photo albums linked to the main page I should be set. And I would also post this shot, I call it "evil eye" a nice juxtaposition with the grackles trying to feed with the mourning doves... it almost seems like devils and angels

http://photobucket.com/albums/v641/MsNick40/EvilEye_filtered.jpg

Okay so I made that up, the real song title is "love is like a butterfly" but why hasn't anyone written a song about dragonflies? Kevin Costner made amovie about one, ( and a quite wonderful movie it was too, especially the ending, oh wow)... but I love my dragonflies... they are the joy of my heart. Gregarious, playful (you should see them playing with my dogs, it is hilarious), fearless and with more personality than an insect as small should be allowed to have. And, intelligence, whereas most people will tell you that insects have very small brains I think that they have not taken into account dragonflies. I think dragonflies have brains equivalent to their size, and are thoughtful and cognizant creatures. My interaction with my dragonflies grows on a daily basis, and I am beginning to think that we are becoming as one, ie like me and my pets, now if only they would stop eating my butterflies...

I have lots of reptiles and amphibians in my garden (what can I say mother nature loves me). As well as the Anoles and tree frogs I have various other frogs and toads as well as a great variety of snakes... now as we all know there are good snakes and bad snakes, but for the most part the snakes that I come across are of the good variety and it is only occasionally that I come across a copperhead (usually I am alerted to their presence by my cats who are very adept at finding these things). When it comes to snakes I have a faint English heart, so it has taken a great deal of living and learning for me to realize that every snake out there is not my enemy... some are actually my friends. As for the toads and frogs, well there is nothing to fear there, they are simply slug eating machines who are welcome every day of the week and twice on Sundays. I have a resident frog in my pond, who has been named Jeremy Fisher (a la Beatrix Potter) and who, every evening returns to the pond from his slug eating forays in the flower beds with three well timed leaps and a plop. It is a joy to watch. First up, a newcomer to my garden (and my pond) a juvenile brown water snake, while he is a "good snake" per se, he is not welcome in the pond because I do not want him eating my tadpoles and dragonfly niaids....

the next one is not suitable for small children and those of a nervous disposition... toad porn..... and finally after toad pawn, you get toad spawn... isn't it wonderful how mother nature works...

In an organic garden one is always going to have bugs, whether they be good bugs or bad bugs. However, if you get the right levels of karma then the good bugs will eat the bad bugs but will leave enough bad bugs so that the remaining good bugs have something to eat. Am I making any sense here? Okay so let us being by listing the good bugs, perhaps that will help me 'splain myself lucy. Good bugs are the predators of bad bugs (no wait that seems entirely too simplistic Britty elaborate).... okay, here are the good bugs, Preying Mantis, Ladybugs, Dragonflies, Spiders, of course butterflies and bees (or any type of pollinator) are also good bugs but they do not prey on bad bugs so they are left out of the equation here. Bad bugs include aphids, crickets, grasshoppers, roll-ups (or potato bugs, or wood louse depending on where you come from in the world), Japanese beetles, leaf roller caterpillars, and potato beetles. In a perfect world the "good bugs" will do a stellar job of eating "the bad bugs" therefore minimizing damage to your plants. However, and this is a delicate balance here, you do not want the "good bugs" to eat ALL of the "bad bugs" because if there is a sudden shortage of food your "good bugs" will desert your garden and the "bad bugs" will have free reign and your plants will be toast. Am I making ANY sense here at all? Okay so the key word here is "balance" you have to have a very delicate balance of good bugs and bad bugs in your garden to keep things in order. Needless to say the only way to have such a delicate balance is to completely ban the use of any insecticides, no matter how much you think they are going good what you are doing is not only killing the bad bugs but you are killing the good bugs which pray on the bad bugs. Let me ask you this, how the hell do you think the world got along, farming and food production wise prior to the invention of insecticides, did people starve? Nope, did people not eat vegetables for centuries? Nope. The sad part is that farmers now rely so heavily on insecticides that their crops are only pollinated by wandering bands of bee farmers who bring their hives to the farms to pollinate the crops, in their effort to eradicate bad bugs the farmers have eradicated all the good bugs and now the only way their crops get pollinated (and therefore produce fruit) is through the bee wanderers. Is that not sad? Anyhoo where was I before I went off on my "no pesticide" rant? Oh yes, first up one of my favourite good bugs, the preying mantis, if ever there was a cool insect then this is it... she sits, motionless in the plants, waiting for something edible to come into view, and if you happen upon her she will look at you with curiosity and follow your every move... she is a wonder to watch...

here's one of my garden spiders with a meal, ticked me off to no end as you can imagine because a good bug is not supposed to eat a good bug, I have tried to have a stern talk with them but it does no good...

I welcome tree frogs in my garden, they are a delight to behold and are not only beautiful but are a joy to listen to. However, my tree frogs have been the cause of much contention between my husband and I due to the tree frogs desire to sing.

You have to understand that my husband is a musician and anything singing is important to him. I was woken one Saturday morning at 5am. (I am one of those people who firmly believe that there is only one 5 o’clock in the day and that is the one when I get off work.) “Listen” he says. “mmmmmmffss” I reply (at 5 a.m. you are more likely to find me comatose than you are to find me coherent). “Listen” he says again “the frogs are singing”. Now this would not surprise me because a) the frogs are always singing and b) he is always complaining about it. However this morning it was different. “mmmmm very nice” I respond. “No LISTEN” he says..... I open my eyes, a hurculean task if ever there was one at 5 a.m. “LISTEN” he says again obviously getting agitated at my complete lack of interest that the frogs were singing at 5 a.m. “Did you hear that?” he says. I lift myself up on my elbows and look at him bleary eyed. He is sat bolt upright in bed listening intently. “That was a perfect chord, they are singing in harmony”. I look at him and it goes through my brain that perhaps during the night aliens abducted my dear old man and replaced him with this but I then think better of it because, lets face it, the alien would obviously make a lot more sense. “What?” I said, my sense of incredulity growing by the second. “They are singing in perfect harmony, if you listen, see there it was again, a perfect chord, its amazing.” I glare at him, well as best as you can glare at someone in complete darkness pierced only by a little moonlight coming through the blinds. “You woke me up at 5 a.m. to tell me that the tree frogs are singing in harmony?” “That’s nothing” he said “I’ve been awake since 4 a.m. listening to them.” I have gone over this in my mind many times since it happened and I have yet to find reason in it other than the obvious of course, which I should have known along time ago before I married one, musicians are insane.