To Paint or To Eat? Squash Blossom Dilemma and More Nature Shots

A visit to the Freight Station Farmer's Market http://www.localharvest.org/freight-station-farmers-market-M13674 in Winchester, VA following the "Chef-for-a-Day" experience I enjoyed with my daughters at One Block West Restaurant http://www.oneblockwest.com/ presented me with the experimental locavore versus excitable colorist dilemma: to eat or to paint?

At "Chef-for-a Day" 

we dipped goat cheese rounds in beaten egg, and then in Panko crumbs to ready them for frying. Our favorite vendor at Freight Station suggested I try using squash blossoms to stuff with the goat cheese. But when I got the blossoms home, I decided they had to be memorialized in a painting first. Started the drawing yesterday, so if I get the painting finished today, I may still be able to fry 'em up. So, can I write my food off as a tax deduction if it serves as model before being digested?

Meanwhile, we have our very own NOVA show of animals and insects ever unfolding.

After returning from the farmers' market, the dogs jumped out of the car, heading full speed toward an oncoming vehicle, only to veer off after a herd of nearby deer that the vehicle had stopped to let pass. Fortunately (for the venison, oops, deer), the dogs gave only minor chase and came back home winded, but elated to find the driver of the vehicle that had slowed for the deer just happened to have a few dog treats to hand out. That's the way we roll in horse and hound country, where every shop has a dish of dog treats for man's best friend.

Then, as I rushed outside to beat the storm and see whether any tomatoes worth picking were left on the vines, I found this beautiful mantis, our new best friend, hunting down stinkbugs. (Note the big belly, we provide lots of sustenance for these guys.)

A few vines down from our Mantis, I found a tomato hornworm coated with rice! Had to look this one up: the rice are small brachonid wasp eggs. When they hatch, the larvae will feed on the hornworm, which is good news for our tomatoes, but bad news for my tuberose/ white-lined sphinx moth studies. The voracious Manduca Quinquemaculata  (Tomato Hornworm) becomes the Five Spotted Hawk Moth, and the other Tomato Hornworm (Hyles Lineata...yes, I had to look these up and won't remember the Latin names if anyone ever asks, but it just feels right to use them here)  becomes the White-Lined Sphinx Moth pictured below.

Then, those Tomato Worms that survive the parasites and other predatory threats have to face these wasps (pictured below) hardly getting a chance to linger at the nectar of the tuberose.

Well, that about does it for this episode. Back to the squash blossoms.