Invader

I wasn't going to blip this, but then I thought it would be a good subject even though its a nasty invasive species here in the US.  This is a Spotted Langernfly, Lycorma delicatula.  It is a plant hopper native to China that has now spread to Japan, S. Korea and parts of the US.  It first appeared in 2014 in Pennsylvania and last year started showing up in larger numbers here in New Jersey.  Unfortunately, they are prodigious eaters and their host plants include grapes, stone fruits and Malus species in addition to the Ailanthus trees (also non-native to the US).  This year has been particularly horrible for local farmers who've had to try to kill literally thousands of the beasts to avoid losing crops.  And they are not easy to kill without using toxic chemicals (that also kill everything else).  If you try to step on one, just as your foot is a fraction of an inch away, the bloody things jump.  They are also capable of flight, although it is a weak flight.  It's kind of unfortunate that they are so harmful to our flora because they are a spectacularly beautiful insect.  When the wings open, it reveals a deep scarlet inner wing - stunning. Anyway, here's my record of this insect for this year.

I dropped Jax off at daycare where he spent the morning playing with another dog about his size (they posted a video on their FB page and Jax and the other dog were having a blast chasing each other all over).  From there, I went out to drop my kayak in the lake.  It was windier than I had hoped which meant the water was rough.  And that was really too bad because literally a hundred feet in front of me, a bald eagle dropped down, grabbed a fish from the water and then flew to a nearby stretch of shore to eat the fish.  I did manage to get quite a few pictures but I'm honestly not very happy with any of them.  There was no way to avoid blur because the kayak was bobbing around even though I nosed it into the lily pads.  I'll put a couple of Extra, but if you look at them large you'll see how soft they are. Knowing that I wasn't going to get good shots, I spent most of the time just enjoying being there, 100 feet from a magnificent bird of prey while he ate a fish, had a drink of water and even had a brief splash.  25 minutes of serenity.

I finished cleaning the inside of the RV this afternoon and Hubs is going to wash the outside either tonight or tomorrow.  We are taking it in for service on Thursday and hopefully get a For Sale sign on it by the weekend.  

Hubs and I went out for lunch today to a local farm that serves all farm-to-table.  It was delicious.  Hubs had a burger with local beef and I had fries and a chicken empanada.  My appetite hasn't been good the last few days but for some reason the fries really appealed.  I don't usually eat stuff like that, but what the hell.

I'm looking at dark with raspberries today.

xo
Debbi