While here, at home, the trees are bare, a couple of miles away the world is normal. It’s odd the way the gypsy moth invasion has affected the area.
We are the worst hit. South Uxbridge, Douglas, North Smithfield — we all have bare oaks and maples. The gardens look ragged and nothing is blooming. Not a day lily to be seen, nor a rose on any bush.
In trying to find a positive side to this experience, the best anyone has come up with was my son who pointed out we won’t have a lot of leaves to rake up this fall.
Definitely will be an easy cleanup of autumn leaves but it isn’t likely to be an epic autumn, either. At least not at home. But down the road a couple of miles …
The trees are full and green around the pond. The swans are nesting peacefully.
It was good to find the world had not ended everywhere … just at our house!
Some of the pictures are Garry’s, the others are mine. Both of us wished we had brought either another camera or a long lens. The swans were there, but too far off to capture with the equipment we’d brought. Still, for all that, it was good to see green and growing trees.
Tiny buds are appearing on our trees. If the caterpillars don’t get them, we’ll have leaves again. I hope.
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Categories: #Photography, Blackstone Valley, Nature
ALMOST YOUNGER 
MY BRIEF CAREER AS AN ANIMAL CONTROL OFFICER 
IT WILL BE A COLD NIGHT 
GLOWING GRACKLES 
SERENDIPITY - SEEKING INTELLIGENT LIFE ON EARTH 
I think you need an infusion of squirrels before next year…. they would not tolerate being eaten out of house and home by some pesky little caterpillar.
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And squirrels EAT those caterpillars. Apparently, they consider it snack food deluxe. I’m sure we have squirrels, but they hardly ever come down to the ground, probably because of the dogs barking … and the coyotes … and the fishers … and the raccoons … and the bobcats … Okay, I can see their point, come to think of it. All they have to worry about up in the trees are the hawks and eagles …
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One of the good things about summer is the rustle of the green leaves. As your son says, it means less work cleaning up. But then again as you say, you won’t have the glorious colours of autumn. Sometimes nature just sucks.
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And my fuchsias are getting way too much sun. I was trying to figure out why watering them once a day isn’t enough this year … and then I realized, there’s no shade on the deck this year. Suddenly, there’s a LOT of sun, which is untypical. Normally, it’s quite dark in the house and around it from the canopy of the oaks. This year, no canopy.
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This too will pass. Unfortunately, a sad beginning to the summer. However, maybe some things will revive before the season’s end.
Leslie
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There are buds on the trees. The question is, will they get to grow … or be eaten by caterpillars. Film at 11.
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Let us hope so.
Leslie
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Such a melancholy read, Marilyn. I hope the summer is kind to you.
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I didn’t mean it to be melancholy, but it has definitely been a downer of a summer. The buds on all the trees are good to see … but I don’t know if they will survive. It’s hard to tell how many caterpillars are still up there in the naked trees. We sprayed around the house, so most of them in the immediate vicinity are dead … but not all by any means.
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I meant that in a good way. It was sad to see/read this, but by the end I felt a bit hopeful. Going through this whole experience, though….good gosh..!
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It’s particular horrible for me because my nightmare creature crawls and has many legs.
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Things can get only better!
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That’s the assumption under which I am operating.
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The dinosaurs also died out and they are still debating why. Perhaps the same will happen to the Gypsy moth children when they have no leaves left and begin to eat each other. It would be nice. Perhaps they will move on next year and it will be someone else’s problem. Who know why these things happen in nature. It would be a good idea to find out why this invasion occurred, perhaps an answer might be found.
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It could happen. It HAS happened, here in 1981 and in many other places. They eat everything, then die of starvation before breeding. Probably why we still have trees. Usually, they move on from year to year, hence their name … “Gypsy” moths. But not always and when they don’t, it’s Armagedden for the trees. They also develop viruses that are a kind of Gypsy moth/caterpillar plague. I see no evidence of it, though. If that had happened, it would be raining caterpillars and it isn’t.
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So sorry that this has happened, Marilyn. It must be completely disorientating, and dismal, and a whole raft of other negatives. Puzzling too, to be so localized. Too many strange outbreaks of everything.
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It’s depressing. I admit it. It’s hard to be bright and bubbly in the face of such a godawful mess. Gypsy moths have strange patterns and have always done. Why here and not Whitinsville, just a few miles away? Could be because over there, they spray for mosquitoes but Uxbridge doesn’t believe in spending the money.
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I don’t know whether I’d rather have your gypsy moths or our brush fire! The saddest picture was of a bear walking alone across a burned out field! And the fire continues on towards Santa Barbara!
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If I believed in a sentient deity, I’d think he/she/it was pissed off at us. There’s an awful lot of catastrophe going around. Fires out west, floods all over the middle of the country. We’ve got our very own plague, but there are variations on this up and down the eastern seaboard … and it hasn’t rained here in a while. I was so hoping we can NOT have another drought year.
I’ve got a friend in Arizona. They’re on fire too. It’s awful.
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