Cherry Tree, Last Light

 

©Robin Edmundson, 'Cherry Tree, Last Light', watercolor,  9 x 12 inches.  Framed, $300

This time of year, there a space in the trees on the south that the evening sun shines through and spotlights that one little tree.   Enchanting. 

Blooming Cherries!

After planting these several years ago, we have been impatiently waiting for them to bloom.   Last year we got three whole flowers on one of our three trees and none on the others.   Last fall I said, 'If they don't bloom in the spring, I'm pulling them out!'  Eric did some research and it turns out that cherries take several years to get settled.

This was the magic year.   Blooms covering all three trees - 2 sweet cherries and 1 sour.   Maybe pie this year?

Buds

Before the snow this week, the buds on the cherries had started to swell.   

Which means that spring will come.  

[Like it does every year.]

Even though I fear that this year it won't come. 

[Like I do every year.]

Tent Caterpillars Revisited

Remember the tent caterpillars I talked about a couple of weeks ago?   Kind of eww, kind of cool.


We've got rather a lot of them this year.  They've emerged from their tents and are eating everything in their path.    These guys are on a chokecherry tree. 

All that was left were a few blooms on the tips of the branches.  The caterpillars had eaten every leaf.   Look at the pic above again.   See what I mean?

Then they dropped to the ground where they gathered by the hundreds [at least] on the multiflora roses.   The roses are pests, too and heaven knows there's enough of them to share, but it's still kind of eww to see that many munching crunching caterpillars all over them.

You can hear the munching and crunching. [shudder]  At which point the eww factor far exceeds the cool factor. 

Tent Caterpillars

We get these every year at this time.  I think they're equally really cool and really gross.

I'd heard them called bagworms, but they're not actually bagworms. 

They're tent caterpillars, Malacosoma americana. They especially like our choke cherry trees - and there are tents in every one of them.  They grow up to be moths.  Here are a bunch of pics of the adult moth.

I think they're pretty with the sun shining through the tents.  At least until they get full of frass [poop].  Then it's just disgusting.