Bush of life..and death

A few years ago I planted I tiny, 4 inch tall Butterfly Bush in our front yard next to the light pole. 3 years later the thing is enormous, easily towering over 12 ft tall. As the name implies, butterflies love this thing.

This past weekend at any given time there were a few dozen butterflies hovering around it. I'm not really into butterflies but it is neat to see so many in one place. Anyway, today, I come home from work and notice there isn't a single butterfly around the bush. I figured it was about to storm or something since the butterflies seem to be tuned into that sort of thing and disappear before it starts raining.

I go inside and while I'm standing in the kitchen, something outside catches my eye through the front window. A butterfly appeared to fall off the bush and then proceed to flail around in the grass. Confused by this behavior I walked out into the yard to take a closer look. What I saw was shocking to me.

Some sort of wasp was attacking the butterfly. I watched as this wasp used it's scissor like jaws to cut one of the butterflies wings off. Then...after the wing was gone and the butterfly could no longer flail around the wasp used his jaws to decapitate the butterfly. You could actually hear this thing crunching through the butterfly. Albeit slightly disturbing, it was very interesting. I had quite a view being only inches away from the action. The wasp didn't seem to care. The entire time my wife, appalled by what she was seeing was asking me to save the butterfly. I dare not to interfere with natures way. Some must die so others can live.

As the wasp flew away, I got a good look at the severed head of the butterfly. It appeared to be bursting with pollen which made me think this is what the wasp was seeking. When the wasp was out of the picture I picked up the remains of the butterfly and positioned them so I could take a picture. While taking pictures they wasp returned to the same spot looking for the remains. When the wasp didn't find the remains he returned to the bush looking for his next victim. No butterflies were to be found.

The life and death struggles that happen right under your nose and mostly go unnoticed can be amazing. The picture above shows the remains of the butterfly and the picture below is of the culprit as he returned to clean up the scene.

Lazy days of summer..

I sure wish that was the case for me. I've been working my butt off trying to get numerous projects done around the house. Namely, having a shed built, finishing off the other half of the basement and staining some of the nearly 900 square feet of decking we have. Unfortuantely, I don't have too much riding to report. I spent Saturday morning in the basement working and running out to Lowes looking for a toilet. That evening I was supposed to meet up with Jeff at the Watershed but he ended up having to work late so I hit Salamander by myself for a nice 9 miler. This was also the shakedown ride for the recently converted IF. A Surly tensioner running in the push-up position kept everything tight. Sure it's a little ugly but it works so I don't see myself changing it out anytime soon. My favorite thing about a SS is how quiet they are. None of that annoying chain slap on rough downhills.

Sunday was the Linganore Winery Reggae Festival in Mt Airy, MD. I had these grandios plans for a bunch of us to ride to the fest but that didn't work out. Not all was lost of the biking front....I did head out with Tom and Danielle for quick road ride around northern Frederick/Walkersville in the morning. I think we came in around 18 miles or so. At the fest, I ran into Alex and Scott who ended up riding there after all. The festival when way too quick, it felt like we were leaving not too long after we arrived. Regardless, a good time was had by all. As long as my schedule permits, I'll be at the TBE Wednesday road ride this week.

Recently converted IFy



Resting place for the new shed




Basement construction



The girls having fun at the Reggae Fest



No riding photos...sorry :(

Scorcher

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Originally uploaded by the_kegs

Having a bunch of home improvement projects in process and knowing that it was going to be hot as hell, I decided to get my butt out of bed fairly early on Saturday morning and hit the roads on my fixie for a cruise downtown with some picture taking along the way. The sky was perfectly clear and sun was shining bright so I figured it would be the perfect time for me to try out the new polarizing filter I bought for the camera. Even though I was sweat soaked within minutes I still had a great time speeding around the fairly vacant downtown streets. Somehow I managed to make 4 hours out of the trip. This included a visit to the newly opened Five Guys on Carrol Creek. The ride did end with a bit of a downer. For the second time in 2 weeks I managed to have an encounter with someones discarded gum. It's not fun cleaning someone else's spit soaked gum off of your frame, spokes and tires. The bicycle sculpture pictured above is located across the street from the Blue Elephant art gallery on West 5th Street. The sculptor even came out and adjusted the sculptures for me while I was snapping pics.

It's all fun and games until someone get dismembered

Stumbled across these 2 videos on youtube and figured I'd post them up. Smart people without much common sense if you ask me. Cracked me up when the guy on the recumbent said security guards frequently chase him off....something about libablity.

Blog Updates

Recently I've heard some complaints regarding the frequency of updates to my blog. Fact of the matter is that my place of work has decided to block blogger which prevents me from posting or commenting while at work. The unfortunate thing is...I spend most of my time at work and when not at work, I'm trying to do things other than sit on the computer. I'm working on a solution which will probably consist of me switching to an unblocked blogging site. Until then, I suggest the you mellow out by listening to some Journey or something.... ;)