Since having the pond I have developed a whole new appreciation for the dragonfly. Not just the flying adults, but the nymphs that spend their time in the water, skillfully and nimbly stalking and catching any small creature that may come their way. Their transformation to the adult dragonfly is nothing short of amazing too. It seems that the same incredible agility and skill that the dragonfly has in the air is mirrored in their maneuverability in the water.

Yet the nymph could not look more differently than the adult. It’s actually kind of ugly – brown and big and all ‘creepy crawly’. If I had caught it crawling up my leg earlier I’d probably have screamed…… But now I am in awe.

One late evening I was out on the lookout for any nocturnal activity in the pond and found these amazing dragonfly nymphs hunting their prey. And let me tell you, that the way they move is truly incredible. First, they move deceptively fast and are incredibly limber and athletic in the water. Not at all what I would have expected from a fat insect. They skulk and creep around rocks and crevices in a fast almost catlike manner, stalking their prey. And when they are ready to pounce on their intended target, the actually raise their tail end up  before launching forward in one swift move to grab and eat their prey in a matter of seconds. I never would have thought to compare and insect to a cat, but that is exactly what they reminded me of. Small tadpoles and fish just have no chance against these incredible hunters.

That same evening as I was watching the nymph finish off another unsuspecting tadpole, I saw another one crawl out of the water and search for a suitable spot to ‘hatch’. (I had my camera ready but apologize for the out of focus pics.)

I was amazed at what I saw next. In a matter of minutes it settled on a vertical rock face and it’s body started to pulse and expand and contract. Suddenly the top part of the thorax burst open as the new dragonfly pushed itself out of the old skin.

It seemed to take an awful amount of energy to pull and push its way out of the old skin, but once it was finally out it started to pump up its body and wings. The wings started out looking like little green stalks, but quickly expanded and got longer and wider by the second. It’s thorax lengthened too.

I stayed with the dragon fly until I got so tired I had to go inside and get some sleep. The next morning I saw it still sitting there on its exoskeleton with its wings completely open. As it saw me move closer, it took off for its first ever flight. I wonder how it must have felt to take to the sky for the very first time, after a lifetime of crawling and swimming in water. Seeing a whole new world. I call this the coolest shape-shifting I have ever witnessed.

I took the exoskeleton inside to get a better look. Here is the exoskeleton from the top. On the top back part you can clearly see the hole where the adult emerged from. Click on the image to enlarge.

In the below picture you can see the folded up ‘wings” or the body parts that eventually will expand to be the wings once the adult emerges.And if you look closely at the ends of the legs, especially the last 2 pair, you can see that they have sharp hooks on them. This is especially helpful when attaching to a rock or plant stalk when getting ready to emerge. It will need to stay firmly attached so that it does not fall down, or even back into the water in the middle of its transformation. There is an incredible amount of motion that goes on when the adult emerges. It is also at its most vulnerable at this stage. It’s exoskeleton is very soft and its wings have not expanded and hardened yet. It takes the rest of the night – several hours in fact to harden and in the morning, when the sun finally comes up, off they fly on their first ever flight. Wow.

We’ve been blessed with two significant rains in the last 2 weeks and my gardens have responded beautifully. We’ve received over 4 and half inches this month! Yippee!

The plants out front have all perked up, sent out flowers and stopped wilting. The super heat (upper 90’s) has backed off and it is in the high eighties now, which has helped most of the plants recover. Some plants such as the Winecup did not make it through the summer though. I am not sure what killed it – over watering, or the heat. I thought it might come back now that it is cooler, but there is no sign of it.

The back garden is looking so much more lush now too. And it looks really cool with the pond in the background.

Even the water lilies are appreciating the warm humid days:

I find it humorous that what we consider fall-like cool temperatures in Texas – aka temps in the high eighties – is considered sweltering, hot summer weather up in New England. I am simply amused by the fact that I am so relieved that the hot weather is gone and we have  “cool” upper eighties to look forward to. 🙂 I guess it’s all relative.

Also amusing is the fact that I used to dread the fall in New England because it meant the long, cold, snowy winter was just around the corner. Here I relish the shorter, cooler days and the stunning display of color the plants are all giving. It’s as if life is just picking up here while in New England everything is slowing down to sleep.

The soft-leaf yucca is making a surprising and stunning display of bloomage!

  Even the surrounding fields are all green again – Aaaah – looks so good.

I have learned over the last almost 2 years I have lived and gardened here, that the perennials (even though they were all chosen for the exceptional drought tolerance ) appreciate a good soaking by sprinkler every 2 weeks. Even though I hand watered all the plants whenever they seemed to be close to wilting, a sprinkler soaking in the late evenings did so much more for them. It would cut down on the need to hand water considerably and they would not wilt in the late afternoon sun. It seems that when hand watering just the plant and not the surrounding earth, the water just is leached away by the dry dirt around the plant roots and little water actually stays in the root zone of the target plant.

So in September, wanting to make good use of all that wonderful rainwater in our 5000 gallon storage tanks we bought a 12 volt solar pump and hooked it up to the tanks and have started watering every 2 weeks. I also use the pump to water in the wildflower seedlings I have sprinkled in the area where the huge mound of dirt from the pond excavation used to be.  (So glad that huge mountain is gone!)

Pond in early September with mound of excavation dirt.

Dirt is gone, now it’s time to plant those new perennials!

 It’s amazing what a difference 2 months make to a pond.

AHHH – No more mountain of DIRT!

The lazy, hazy, hot days of summer; when all you wanna do is hang out in a hammock (aka water lily bloom) and wait for a snack to fly by….

The leopard frog gang, aka the ‘croak pack’…waiting for dusk to get their party on. Can you see all three? It seems they’re just waiting in the shadows for the chicks to come strolling by. That or dinner….

And this lily pad was just blowing bubbles for some silly summer fun…

And on a side note, when Oscar our resident squirrel hangs out at the Bee Bar, they don’t seem to mind in the least. How very tolerant of them. 🙂  The bees are certainly not as friendly about sharing their watering hole with everyone though, and jealously protect it since they use the water to cool the hive. When the birds come splashing in, you’ll see some major buzzing and harassing, until the birds finally leave in a cloud of angry bees. I guess Oscar’s just a charming guy. It probably works in his favor that all the worker bees are female and he’s the only dude in the bar. Gotta love them odds.