Clarification: When I mentioned that after finishing the next Mrs. Plansky novel last week the revision would take 3 or 4 days, I didn’t meant to leave the impression I don’t revise. I do! But it’s mainly chapter by chapter. At the end I’m mostly making sure that the flow of the story snaps right into place with the logic underneath (if any!).
My Technique (So-Called)
6 Comments on “My Technique (So-Called)”
Good day to all.
Greetings!
Your so-called technique seems to be working just fine, Spence. :^)
Good day to all!
I imagine each author has their own technique. Whatever works and it seems to be working great.
It’s Midsummer. (Not to be confused with Midsommer where the murders take place.)
If this is any indication our summer is going to be long and hot. Today we have a high of 84 with a “real feel” of 94 so no work outside for me. At least not until the temperatures drop and the front yard is in shade. The front yard is coming along nicely. All of the mini roses are planted along the north side of the pathway, opposite the south planter which is blooming up a storm. Yesterday I saw a poppy so a seed must have gotten mixed in with others. I am getting daily visits from pollinators like bees and butterflies. I’ve seen four different butterflies but except for the Monarch I’m not exactly sure which they are. There is a small white one (not a moth a butterfly), a bright yellow one the might be a female Dogface and a brown one with white edges that might be a Mourning Cloak. Along with the bees, which I think are European Honey I saw one Bumblebee just shoot past and there are Mud Daubers, which are not only pollinators but they eat spiders including Black Widows so they can stay. I don’t mind their little mud houses in the eaves. They aren’t aggressive and they don’t do any harm.The one iris that bloomed is spent but the yellow calla just keeps going to town. I had one bloom for the longest time, now I have two new ones. The mini roses have also gotten over their transplanting snit and are sending up a lot of new grown.
I only have sweet potatoes in the garden right now and I just buried them a bit. I have no idea when I harvest. They are for the dog’s food but I am about to start planting stuff for MY food.
It is also National Pralines day, of which I wish I had some but I don’t even have the ingredients.
Wose, I agree 100%!
ML, I didn’t know mud daubers were good guys! From now on, I will let them be! Also, I have an excellent recipe for pralines, but will resist making them because, as you mentioned, it is hot today, and, I don’t need the sugar high and calories.
Hot and I’m not going to the store for pecans and chocolate, which will melt before I get home. But I would be interested in an excellent proven recipe for Pralines a I don’t have one and they sound delicious for around Thanksgiving or Christmas.
Other than annoyance I haven’t found any negatives to Mud Daubers. Yeah, they build their little mud nests way up in my eaves but you can’t see them from the street and I rarely look up. I don’t see the mud causing harm to the house. I usually poke them and then power wash them down in the winter when they are empty. Birds build mud nests in the eaves too (but not mine) and I don’t see people exterminating birds.
“Mud daubers are solitary insects and like most wasps, they are predators. They sting their prey with paralyzing venom. The venom does not kill, but paralyzes and preserves the prey so it can be transported and stored in the nest cell as food for the larva. Although the black widow spider is the preferred food, the mud dauber also will dine on flies, crickets and leaf hoppers, with some flower nectar and pollen for dessert.”
Which means they are also pollinators.
I know for a fact we have Black Widow spiders in San Diego, I’ve seen a few in the decades I’ve had my house but thankfully never been bitten. I also wear gloves and am cautious around their preferred habitats.
Bad news. I got a close up photo and they’re not Mud Daubers, they are Yellow Jackets. The mud nests in the eaves don’t look like Yellow Jackets as they nest in the ground. I don’t know if there is a nest at all as they seem to be coming for the water in the bee bath. One at a time. Saw a few today but they are pretty solitary and ignore me and the dogs. Hoping they are nesting somewhere else as I’ve worked so hard to build an organic yard for the pollinators I don’t want to call an exterminator to poison my yard to kill the Yellow Jackets.
They don’t pollinate much but they do eat and kill spiders and a few other insects so doing nothing for now except to take down the Hummingbird Feeder. There are no Hummingbirds using it and it has sugar water in it which is a Yellow Jacket attractor, even though they can’t get in it.