Jagged Yellow Petal Flowers

 Jagged petal yellow flowers blooming in Lexington, Kentucky (May 2012).

Yellow Flowers Blooming in Lexington Kentucky

 Not sure about the name of this flower but I found it blooming in Lexington, Kentucky (May 2012).

Rose Blooming in Lexington Kentucky

 Rose blooming in Lexington Kentucky (May 2012).

Model Airplanes on Display

The Jeffersontown Historical Museum has an impressive display of model aircraft on display until 2012.  The models are the life's work of Floyd Wilder.  He served in the U.S. Navy and then worked for AT&T. This first picture is of a flying wing of model he created himself.  See next image for description.

This next picture is of one of the model display cases.

Historic plane models are on display as well such as the Bell X-1 (first plane to break the sound barrier).  In addition, models of the X-15 and NASA Space Shuttle can be seen.

Maybe one of the fastest airplanes ever to fly, the SR-71 Blackbird model is shown in the image below.

These next two images are just a small sampling of military aircraft models.  Probably the majority of models are of World War II aircraft made the United States, Great Britain, Japan, Germany, and Russia. In addition, a number of World War I aircraft and jet age models can be seen.

Here is a post-war Japanese defense force jet protecting Japan from monsters like Godzilla!

Plaque educating visitors about the model assembler, Floyd Wilder.

Learn more about the museum located in the Jeffersontown, Kentucky library building at their web page: http://www.jeffersontownky.com/Museum%20Historic.html

Robber Fly in Kentucky

While tending to the watermelon plants in Hodgenville, Kentucky, I came across a robber fly (maybe Atomosia puella).  It had taken a grasshopper that was larger than itself and was having trouble flying.  I was able to take these pictures.

One can see more information about these at the University of Kentucky Entomology web site: http://www.uky.edu/Ag/CritterFiles/casefile/insects/flies/robber/robber.htm

This web site shows a number of robber fly pictures which helped determine the species of this insect: http://www.pbase.com/tmurray74/robber_flies_asilidae

Unfortunately, the watermelon crop is one of the worst I have seen in many growing seasons.

Flowers in a Lexington, Kentucky Garden

Cranes Flying South

Picture taken at Taylorsville Lake, Kentucky of formations of geese sand cranes flying south for the winter.  Using Photoshop count tool, I determined there were 89 geese cranes flying (see image below).

UPDATE: I originally identified these as geese but thanks to Kenny he informed me they were probably sand cranes.

Clement Museum Fluorites

Fluorite specimens seen at the Ben E. Clement Mineral Museum display at the KYANA Geological Society 2010 Show in Louisville, Kentucky.

Calcite Crystals

Calcite specimen was at the Ben E. Clement Mineral Museum display at the KYANA Geological Society 2010 Show in Louisville, Kentucky.  It might be mixed in with some purple fluorite.

Fluorite

Fluorite specimens that were at the Ben E. Clement Mineral Museum display at the KYANA Geological Society 2010 Show in Louisville, Kentucky.

A picture of a piece of fluorite found during a mineral dig at The Ben E. Clement Mineral Museum.  The piece in everyday light is rather plain but expose it to ultraviolet (UV) light (395 nm).  UV light makes part of the mineral glow a whitish-yellow.

Hot Air Balloons

Balloons over Jeffersontown, Kentucky during the Gaslight Festival of 2010.

Hummingbird

Hummingbird in Hodgenville, Kentucky flying near feeder.

Long Live the Seeded Watermelon!

Newspaper articles are appearing lamenting the loss of seeded watermelons.  First, it was The New York Times and now The Washington Post with an August 31, 2010 article entitled "Watermelons: What happened to the seeds?" by Jane Black (is that a real name?). The comments on the article are interesting to read. I agree with some of the comments that there are good seedless melons.  I have grown some but they were difficult to grow an d the seeds were expensive.  This argument that seeds are a choking hazard is bizarre.

Well, the seeded watermelon is alive and well growing in gardens in Indiana and Kentucky.  Maybe on a smaller scale but they are being grown.  This season I grew mostly Charleston Gray but also Crimson Sweet and maybe some sort of Jubliee striped melon.  The great thing about seeded melons for the gardener is they provide you the seeds for future seasons to grow more melons.

Crop production for my small gardens probably will reach 450 pounds gross weight harvested.  The melon in these pictures weighs a little over 40 pounds.  After cutting this watermelon up and placing it containers in the refrigerator, I washed the table off.  Small pieces of watermelon still remained with all the seeds and soon butterflies appeared to eat the watermelon sugar left on the table.  So neat!

2010 Watermelon Harvest

The watermelon harvest has begun with these first 16 watermelons picked.  The light green melons on the right side of the photo are Charleston Gray watermelons.  The ones on the left are a little harder to identify.  The striped spherical watermelon is Crimson Sweet.  The other four striped melons might be some sort of Jubilee watermelon.  I have a jar of saved watermelon seeds that I usually plant one hill of.  It is sort of my mystery melon to grow.

These watermelons were grown in Hodgenville, Kentucky and were harvested August 21, 2010.  I estimate the gross weight at 390 pounds [177 kg] (the largest striped melon is 37 pounds while the largest 3 light green melons weigh 40-41 pounds a piece).  Not sure what makes produce organic but no pesticides, herbicides or fertilizers were used to grow this crop.  The weeds were pretty bad this year probably because I did not use a tiller on the garden this year and the black plastic is getting old.

The pumpkin plants produced one small pumpkin but the plants appear to be dying (too much heat?) and the cantaloupe plants did not produce this year.

Growing watermelons is an enjoyable hobby for me that I have now been active in for at least 7 years.  So I felt like sort of farming dinosaur after reading the New York Times article "Watermelons Get Small" by Kim Severson on August 17, 2010.  It talks about trends in watermelon farming in Hope, Arkansas. The movement to grow icebox size seedless melons has caught on in the United States with the article stating that 2 out every 10 melons grown have seeds.  Of that seeded variety, a small percentage are heirloom like I grow.  The Arkansas old time melons mentioned are Jubilee, Black Diamond, Rattlesnake, and Charleston Gray.  The newer seeded hybrid being grown is called Super Sweet 710.

The largest striped melon has been cut and its fruit placed in plastic containers to be refrigerated.  The seeds have been saved and the juice collected to make watermelon lemonade.  Sweet!

Eastern Hercules Beetle

Pictures of a male Eastern Hercules beetle (Dynastes tityus) found in Larue County, Kentucky on July 31, 2010.  It was found dead on the black plastic of the garden in between two watermelon plants.  Possible it flipped over on its back at night and then died of exposure from the very hot days we have been having.  I am guessing the surface temperature of the black plastic gets to 120 degrees F during the day.

According to the University of Kentucky entomology web site, this is the largest beetle found in Kentucky.  It belongs to the scarab beetle family (Scarabaeidae).  It is also called Rhinoceros Beetle, Rhino Beetle, Unicorn Beetle, and Horned Beetle.  It is not a pest but eats decaying plants at night.  The protruding horns are only on the males and used to fight other males.  I wonder if the scratches on the front of this beetle are from some of those fights.

This beetle measures 50 mm (tip of horn to back of rear shell) and 23 mm at widest shell point.  I read the largest one reported found was 85 mm in length.

Fern Fossil Imprints

Fern fossil imprints from the Pennsylvanian Period found in eastern Kentucky.

Kentucky Snails

Blooming Flowers in Winter

I brought this potted plant in a few months back after the cold weather seemed to be killing it. After about 6 weeks in the sunroom, it started to bloom again.