Category: Nature

General observations, generally during dog walks

I said ‘planting,’ not ‘planning’

We’re installing some new fencing. At the neighbor’s suggestion, we’re making an ‘alley’ through which machines and cattle can pass to the back of the property without disturbing our yard or garden. The other side of the property is too steep (from the road) and sometimes too wet.

The alley lies, of course, presactly where I planted fruit trees. Those that survive summer will now need to be transplanted in fall – meaning May. To the other side of the property.

Let’s just skip that bit of bone-headed non-planning and admire the wire work.

Fruit we will never eat

The fig tree by the barn has lots of figs on it. The neighbor told me that from his three fig trees, last summer he ate three figs.

The parrots got the rest.

Apparently the introduction of tall non-native trees to Uruguay allowed birds to nest safely above the range of comadrejas (possums). So now the birds are free to ravage crops. Pigeons are equally a problem. Actually, the real problem is that both birds are dumb; were they crows, you could hang a dead one near your crop and the others wouldn’t return.

A friend hunts them, partly as a favor to a farmer he knows. Nail one or two, and there’s barely time to reload before the rest return to the exact same spot.

Itsy Bitsy Spider

Apologies for the blurry photo. Even though it didn’t move once, for some reason I didn’t feel like leaving my hand on the wall longer than necessary, next to this little visitor to our country house.

Like the large frog that appeared inside a couple weeks ago, I saw no reason to evict it. It’s welcome to use the space while we’re not there.

Unless, of course, it decides to lay eggs and produce a thousand more Itsy Bitsies….

We don’t often see tarantulas in this part of the country, but have seen some that make this look like a baby.

Starting the year with wildlife preservation

tadpoles
The cloying heat yesterday broke into a downpour, turning our road into a river. This morning, heading back from the deserted beach, I noticed that one stream had formed a puddle in the road, full of tadpoles, most less than a meter from a ditch full of water, but with no way to get to it before car tires crushed them or they died in the sun as the rest of the water drained.

Surprisingly difficult to catch them with a cut-off plastic bottle, but I managed to get 50 or 60 – most of them – into the ditch, where they at least have the chance to grow into frogs.

And eat mosquitoes.

Monsters in the yard

Our friend Gundy sent photos of a monster caterpillar in their yard. I had some incredibly camouflaged tomato hornworms a few years ago in my first garden here. I actually pointed to them from less than a meter away, and people couldn’t see them!

But this – wow.

Giant caterpillar, coastal Uruguay

Giant caterpillar, coastal Uruguay

She also sent a couple links about caterpillars:

Fotos de orugas (just learned a new Spanish word if you were paying attention 😉

Why you might not want to pick up that cute fuzzy caterpillar

Mushrooms

Mushrooms growing in a field in Uruguay

Awaiting the alambrador (fence guy), I pile old sheet metal on top of logs and other crap to try to convince the big dumb bovines not to enter the area where my garden will soon be, and eat the volunteer squash plants growing there.

Spot a couple of large, odd mushrooms. I know very little about mushrooms; certainly haven’t seen this type before.

Tosca

Tosca:

  • an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini
  • the same magically transposed to film in a stirring and wonderfully performed production featuring Angela Gheorghiu and Roberto Alagna asthe star-crossed lovers
  • a downtempo-chillout-electronic-trip-hop lounge duo
  • a fine Italian dining experience in the heart of Washington, D.C.
  • an awesome old school café in San Francisco’s Chinatown
  • a manufacturer of travel goods in Australia
  • a street in Singapore, and …

… dirt. Actually a type of crumbly rock (my scant knowledge of geology fails me), a mountain of which appeared last week on the rambla, probably for the repair of the collapsing stretch nearby, and destined to devolve into clouds of dust, tooth-rattling washboards, and suspension-testing potholes (pozos).

Tosca, the "dirt" for roads, Uruguay

I found this spot a little more inspiring a couple years ago, with a funky car and graceful pines.

Car, tree, ocean — Uruguay

They’ve gone, victim of a storm, as have the railings to the then-new boardwalk. And I haven’t seen that car in a long time either, come to think of it.