The first surprise I happened upon was this lovely little gourd or melon growing at the base of the Bur Oak sapling. I had added some mostly (I thought) finished compost to the base of this tree back in the spring, only to have a bunch of mystery vine seedlings pop up about a week later. I thinned the seedlings down to two, which turned out to be two different species entirely, but I still haven't figured out what they are. One died during the long, hot July-August stretch. This one, clearly, survived and is thriving. It has tendrils and branches lumbering in several directions, but only one fruit developed to this point. There's another fruit that's still pretty tiny right now. Guessing from the food scraps that fed the compost, this could be honeydew, muskmelon, zucchini or summer squash.
Surprise #2:
Monarch caterpillars on the tropical milkweed made me smile. I invited the kids to come witness this backyard nature show, and my keen-eyed girls found one caterpillar going into chrysalis on the neighboring Spanish Dagger Yucca, then another already in chrysalis on the other side.
Here's the one curling up to go into chrysalis yesterday evening...
...and here's the same one in chrysalis, photo taken this morning. Backyard science is the best! Of course, we will eagerly watch these amazing creatures in transition. The Yucca makes for an excellent rain shelter, it seems.
Surprise #3:
Oxblood lilies are always a welcome harbinger of fall. The first one is a bit pinker than it is red, but the one next to it in the ground, and in the photo below, is the true red color. Hooray!
