July 24, 2011--mulberry leaves and dead wasps

Yesterday we got 2 inches of rain in Ashland, and the rain brought down all sorts of things, including these wonderful mulberry leaves. I picked them up with the intention of pressing and drying them, but before I got to that, I decided to put them in a windowsill arrangement. How to make them stand up in a vase though? I looked around for some wooden skewers to spear them and couldn't find any, so I went to debris pile and rescued some bamboo twigs I'd pruned off of stakes I was making last week. Worked even better than the skewers would have because they were really thin and organic-looking. I actually sort of took a stitch in each leaf with the bamboo twig (slipped it in then out again) to make each leaf stand up. The windowsill, you might notice, is full of wasps. Started to clear them away then decided to leave them in photo, as they, too, are a time marker. Wasps, dead and alive, are everywhere right now!

I particularly like the mottling in the mulberry leaves--brown and bright green. Don't know which insect or disease causes it.