Aphis Nerii, Oleander Aphid

While I normally take great joy in announcing a new find, I am not exactly thrilled with having discovered an infestation of Oleander Aphids (Aphis nerii) on one of my milkweed plants. The field guide says, "Its bright colors advertise the fact that this species is chemically defended, thanks to chemicals borrowed from their host plants." What, you couldn't have guessed from the black spines (cornicles) sticking up from their backs? The bright orange colour and black legs/cornicles differentiate this species from another less orange aphid, A. gossypii. Although the ants were doing their damndest to get the infestation under control, I took soap spray to the infected pods and leaves. This particular aphid is an introduced species.

Eggplants

The variety is called "Millionaire," and I had no idea what to expect of it other than its being purple-skinned. I now know that it is harvestable at "fingerling" size (or perhaps larger), and that it fries up to be tender and flavourful. The round one was the exception to that statement. It was the first one to form, and where it got the idea that it was supposed to be round is anyone's guess. It was tough as an old boot, and I didn't bother cooking it. The "fingers" were split into quarters lengthwise, and were fried in butter with a little salt, pepper and a dash of chili powder until they just began to crisp a little at the edges. Small though they are, they were much better than any store-bought eggplant I've ever cooked, and the best part is that the plant is bearing heavily. I'll have another batch tomorrow.

Farewell-to-Spring Seeds

I've been keeping an eye on the Farewell-to-Spring plants at the Nisqually-Mashel roundabout in the hopes of gathering some seed for the Barren Wasteland, and last week, they looked like they were ready. I always have some kind of container in the car for botanical opportunities (and usually a shovel and a pair of snips for more ambitious projects), so I hopped out with test tube in hand and began picking pods. Then it occurred to me that since the pods were already dehiscing, it would be easy to simply shake them out into the tube. As I was collecting, a truck pulled up and a woman stepped out, obviously with the same general idea. I wonder how many other people intend to contribute to the spread of native Clarkia outside its range? It's really a very lovely plant, pink or not.

Trying Dyeing

I've been dying to try this, and now I'm trying to dye this! For the last ten days or so, I have been spinning some very fine wool with the thought of solar-dyeing it with onion skins after turning it into a three-ply yarn. The farther I got into the project, the less willing I was becoming to sink it in a dye bath and risk ruining it. Then it occurred to me that I probably had a short skein of white Corriedale somewhere in my stash, and sure enough, I found just what I wanted: 32 grams, 38 yards. I've been saving onion skins for a couple of years (yes, really), so I weighed out an equivalent amount and put them in the "dye jar." I added tepid water to both jars, submerged my skein of wool in the other one, and set them out in the yard on a foil-lined cookie sheet. Once the wool has had an hour or two to hydrate, I'll transfer it to the dye jar. I have not mordanted this skein, but mordanting with alum can give a more vivid (but less permanent) colour. Wool is sensitive to temperature changes, so it's important to let both jars warm up at the same time. Every day for the next 7-14 days, I will slosh the wool gently in the dye bath until it reaches the colour saturation I want (or until no more dye transfers to it). Other colours can be achieved with solar dyeing using various natural materials like black-eyed susan petals, delphinium flowers, marigolds, etc. Some dye sources need for the wool to be mordanted, but the ones I listed do not. Using non-mordanted methods is a good way to break into dyeing.

Four Out of Three

This is the first time I have entered anything in the Pierce County Fair (a much smaller fair than the grand Washington State Fair), and I'm pleased to announce that I took four ribbons from three submissions: three "first place," and one of my skeins of handspun also received an "outstanding textile arts" award. Hey, four out of three ain't bad! These will stay on exhibit through Sunday. Next week, I'll be taking five different pieces down to the Puyallup Fair, and those will be on display from September 4-27.

Yelm Weeds

I don't get out a lot these days, mainly because of gas prices, but when I do, I try to pack as much into my "out" time as possible. In this case, I had business in Yelm yesterday, so threw my bicycle in the car with the intention of riding the extension of the Yelm Prairie Line Trail and picking up a few geocaches on the way. It was a lovely morning for it: cool at last, even a little sprinkly for a second or two at a time, and the ride didn't take as long as I'd expected (yes, I found all the caches I'd put on my list). With time still left to kill, I decided to go for a walk in a little "pocket park" which has occasionally yielded up some interesting botanical finds. I hadn't walked fifty feet before I spotted these two plants. The leaves of the top one suggested "geranium" to me (wrong!), so I took photos of it, figuring it to be a weed. Likewise, the pink one was undoubtedly a weed as well, but it was new to me, so pictures were in order. When I got home, I put both in my photo files captioned "Identify" and then went to work with the field guides. As it turned out, the "geranium" was a Malva (mallow): Malva neglecta, aka Dwarf Mallow. The pink one was a little more difficult to narrow down to Erodium cicutarium, Common Stork's-bill or Red-stem Filaree. I should have known. Many years ago, I identified it as such in a different location. I added the photos to the Burke Herbarium's image collection, bringing my total photos to 246 covering 138 different taxa. Turned out to be a pretty good day!

Pick a Peck

I won't be pickling them, but I will have a peck of peppers to pick! My previous attempts to grow them from seed were complete failures, so this year I bought plants: two sweet and two jalapeños, The tag for the sweets blew away in a windstorm, so I can't tell you what variety these are, but the one in my hand is the second to reach maturity. The walls are rather thinner than I would have preferred, but they are tender and flavourful. The jalapeños, on the other hand, are just starting to form, and promise to be at least as abundant. Zucchini #5 is almost big enough to pick.