Critters around the property

It's been pretty stormy around here for most of the week. But we needed the rain, and the thunderstorms haven't killed the telephone, satellite TV, or Internet, so all is well. Today it's basically cloudy and windy outside. Out the back of the house we have a bunch of "junk" bushes, that multiply like weeds. They bloom prolifically in the spring and have red berries on them in the fall which both birds and deer alike love. I have cut them down and they've grown back twice as fast. So, I have given up on that tactic. Pulling them out would mean that the sandbank in the back would most likely collapse and with it possibly the house. In other words, we are kind of stuck with them unless I want to do major repairs which cost mucho dollars which I am not inclined to do either; that means, the bushes stay.

I was looking out today and guess what I saw flitting about, masses of them: Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterflies. This is the first year I have seen them in the four years we have lived here. What a pleasure to look at, thanks to my "junk" bushes. Maybe they are not such junk after all.

The bottom photo shows the color much better than the first one.

And now to the second subject on critters: tent caterpillars. This side of Michigan has been run over with tent caterpillars this spring. Nasty little things. We've been handpicking them off the gooseberry bushes and the wild rose bushes, twice a day. Even the chickens won't eat them. But I found something in the sand that interested me. I get kind of entranced by weird things, like the tracks those pesty caterpillars leave. They reminded me of railroad tracks. So here is a picture of what I found:

See, I told you we had a sandpit in the back of the house. I know probably no one else but me finds this interesting. So bear with me.

Knitting content in a couple of days.

"Knit On!"