MPaola

jtruk, 11 hours ago to random

👁️👁️

What is the most effective way to fill in the "Please tell us how this processing impacts you" bit of this form?

A form: "Object to your Information Being Used for AI at Meta".

MPaola, 14 days ago to random

I don't think that sawfly, likely Allantus viennensis is resting in a comfortable position. In fact, it reminds me of bugs infected by zombie fungus, which I think should be rather referred to as an entomopathogenic fungus. I will keep monitoring. Fungi are having the time of their lives this season, just ask my apples... #biodiversity #insects #parasites #inthegarden

View from below of the bug
Having turned the leaf, I made a clearer photo. The head of the bug is rectangular with two yellow spots. The tegulae of the wing are also yellow and there is one yellow stripe where the waist should be, two mid abdomen and two around the tip

MPaola, 23 days ago to gardening

The enemy... and my herbs. All the borage seedlings that I put in the ground were eaten even though they were 10 cm. I had to pull out and pot up most of the Asters I planted in the autumn as new shoots cannot get past the gastropods. So I'm keeping my seedlings on the patio at home until we get a dry spell #gardening #plants #biodiversity

Fennel seedlings, green and bronze, in modules. They are at the first true leaf stage
Malva crispa, mallow seedlings in modules.The first true leaves are coming out, but the heart shaped seed leaves are still prominent. I love the meaty taste of mallow leaves
Parsley seedlings in modules. Three leaves already, but they would be gone in just night of gastropods' feasting

MPaola, 24 days ago to random

Little beauty on the left/on top is a wasp, in the Ancistrocerus genus, possibly A. nigricornis which lives around houses making mud nests. The other one, instead, appears to be Nomada flava, a cuckoo bee of mining bees. #biodiversity #inthegarden #ontheplot #insects

An insect reminiscent of a wasp but with brown upper body head and legs and a pointed yellow abdomen striped black, with wings folded over its body: a cuckoo bee

MPaola, 24 days ago to random

The plot is so alive today in the warm sunshine! I am seeing more and more of those slender tiny wasps, and what a treat the orange tip was! #biodiversity #ontheplot #midspring #insects

An orange tip butterfly enjoying a Geranium robertsianum on top of a pollarded willow
Cardinal beetle on Aucuba leaf
Click beetle on weed leaf

MPaola, 1 month ago to random Italian

Lovely post on the botany of some unusual flowers: mulberry and fig https://botanistinthekitchen.blog/2013/09/07/figs-and-mulberries-inside-and-out/ #botany #fruit

MPaola, 1 month ago to Plants

In my garden there are a handful of lilac shrubs (sering in Dutch) and they appear to be two species and one cultivar. The one in the first photo appears to be Syringa vulgaris, of which we have also a rather ugly mildew-susceptible double flower cultivar in a nice burgundy colour. Then we have Syringa meyeri, a smaller, rounded shrub with delightful little round leaves #plants #plantidentification

Syringa vulgaris cultivar, burgundy flower racemes
Syringa meyeri lilac flower buds, still unopened

MPaola, 1 month ago to Plants

Pollinators love them, in fact they are one of the earliest sources of food in the spring, they are as cheerful as little sunshines and delicious to eat (the whole plant in fact is edible: flowers, leaves, roots): dandelions #plants #weeds #foraging #pollinators

Dandelions thriving on my plot, where I pick the leaves as cooked greens.

MPaola, 1 month ago to Plants

My little garden with botanical aspirations hosts two species of flowering currant: Ribes sanguineum and R. aureum, which I just moved here from my plot. Both plants derive their botanical name from the colour of the flowers #plants #plantidentification

The pink flowers of R. sanguineum, my plant has actually salmon pink flowers with a darker margin rather than 'blood' pink ones, so it could be a cultivar

MPaola, 1 month ago to gardening

What to say, for al my skepticism, bees (and wasps) seem to like my bee hotel: one of the bamboo canes has been sealed off and there are at this moment two bees sheltering from the cold. I am assuming they like the fact it's a sunny spot and the horizontally laid canes remain dry inside, so I decided to offer them more real estate and cut a couple of largish canes. My garden certainly offers plenty of opportunities for pollinators to feed, and it's managed organically #biodiversty #gardening

Bee hotel with little drilled logs and stacked up pieces of bamboo canes, one of which is sealed off while the one above hosts a cowered bee. One of the drills in the logs appears to be occupied as well.
20-30 cm lengths of bamboo canes bundled up by size and strapped together hanging horizontally from the bee hotel and the plant trellis in front if it, where a porcelain berry plant is sending out shoots

RickiTarr, 1 month ago to random

Y'all this is the inside of a pinecone! I don't know what I expected, but not this.

MPaola, 2 months ago to random

Good morning. The Solanaceae are coming out one after the other. Toms first, then peppers and aubergines have just started. Indoors in a very warm light room when the sun is out

KokopelliBFree, 2 months ago to photography German

#3GoodThings

1. Found more strength, again.
2. Pleasant #KBFWalk - stopped by an old tree-friend.
3. Stayed creative.

Bonus: Ate well, for a change.

Yours?

#KBFPhotography #MobilePhonePhotography #Photography
#KBFWotY #Spring #March
#UrbanNature #BloomScrolling

@3goodthings

Close-up of an umbel of pink Japanese cherry flowers.
Close-up of orange-pink flowering quince blossoms.
Close-up of a dark-red flowering quince blossom.

MPaola, 2 months ago to random

Very pretty epicormic buds on this Amelanchier pruning stump that's trying to grow back

MPaola, 3 months ago to random

Having just read about tree felling, I was reminded of the incident of two weeks ago. So I'm sharing with you this final image of the "improvement" that our gemeente, keen to make the neighbourhood greener, has carried out, sending men with chainsaws.
I guess I should be happy they left the shrubs!
But all the healthy native alder trees have gone, you can see the stumps. 360 degree view of the road! Please tell me why...

MPaola, 3 months ago to random

I'll just be sitting here in the sun for a little while, having been overcome by a wave of demoralisation.

violetmadder, 4 months ago to random

Random #PlantID question!

Sorry for the bad pic, this was at the back of a frog #terrarium with blurry glass and this was the best shot I could get. It has a creeping habit, the leaves are about an inch long, and the flowers are more purple than this blue the camera saw.

Last night I discovered a new reptile shop in town I'd never seen before, the owner has an awesome multi-shelf aquarium build inside with 3D printed plant holders and all sorts of goodies. I'm going to beg her for a cutting of this lovely thing whatever it is!

Search engines are so terrible now I'm not having much luck finding anything useful.

MPaola, 4 months ago to random

I find labels tricky to get right in the garden. My UK tagging strips written in pencil have lasted intact for years but the equivalent here faded to illegible under the relentless rain of the last few months (extremely frustrating because I won't be able to identify all plants from records after the move). In the garden I am now trialling slate + outdoor marker, but I still have to look for something more practical for the fruit. Has anyone out ther found the perfect labelling solution?

MPaola, 6 months ago to random Dutch

Is it a Dutch thing to enter somebody's house unannounced & uninvited? 'Cause my neighbour just shoved me aside & came in. This is particularly baffling, because at Dutch language classes we were taught, with great emphasis, that the Dutch make appointments in advance even with family, but I have never had so many people, including repair technicians, ring the bell expecting to come in without an appointment as in NL. Not in UK, not even in Italy! This coming in univited is a first, though.

MPaola, 7 months ago to random

As if on a summer night in the Med, we had supper outside in the balmy weather last night, 2nd Oct, in the Netherlands (after enjoying a mid-afternoon icecream in the usually really rather chilly 'terras' of our old place) #ClimateDiary

donkeyherder, 9 months ago to gardening

@gardening
I’m equal parts delighted and terrified by my #cucumbers. Two days ago I got 15, and forgot to pickle them, and today I got 28 more. Do I even have that many jars? I’m eating them as fast as I can but I’m losing the war. I’ve ordered some food safe plastic 2 gallon buckets to help.
I’m growing two varieties, “Mideast peace” and “Addis pickle,” and Mideast is far and away my favorite. I’m only going to grow it next year.
https://www.adaptiveseeds.com/product/vegetables/cucumbers/cucumber-mideast-peace-organic/