Musings

I mean this two ways…

Here’s a sign from our woods trek yesterday. The way we went there was no bridge out. Mystery signage….

We found this lovely sign today. I don’t remember ever seeing one like this. It is very correct. We speculated that it was to inform fisherfolk and canoeists/kayakers who didn’t know much about the out-of-doors, although the fact that it was situated for people on the road suggests our hypothesis is bunk.

It was windy last night and all day. This morning it rained, but the sun came out by mid-afternoon. The waves are a sign of the windiness, roight?

Posted at 8:17 PM | Comments Off on Signs

Since we drove up the Woods Machine, we felt compelled to play hooky from chores and head for the creeks, ponds, lakes, rivers, and forests of the northland. In this lake we found a fine downed log with a half-dozen turtles aboard, their shells blue-black and shiny in the sun.

In the woods we found many of these. I had to look them up: bluebead lily. I have seen the blue fruits/seeds later in the summer, but never associated a flower with them. It’s about time!

We saw several of these showy orchids, pink lady’s slippers. We also saw a single group of small white lady’s slippers. I don’t remember seeing them before. Did we miss more?

I have no recollection of seeing or looking up these distinctive flowers. We saw just one cluster. If I have identified it correctly, it is in the milkwort family (rural folk thought consuming them would up milk production—in humans and cattle), and is Polygala paucifolia, commonly called fringed polygala or gaywings. Neither term is familiar. My guide notes that its bloom “resembles a tiny airplane without a tail;” not sure I would have made that observation….

Posted at 7:19 PM | Comments Off on Learning curve

This fern offers a high level of symmetry and many repeated patterns. So green; so fine—and flanking the entry walkway…I can see the daily growth….

This brilliant red hibiscus is from the neighbor’s garden (thank you!), and offers symmetry through the pair of lily-of-the-valley stems (mostly, not entirely).

The plant world offers both symmetry and asymmetry. And colors—look at that lovely green and the lavish (fulsome?), lively crimson….

Posted at 9:42 PM | Comments Off on Botanical (a)symmetry

Right out my back door: forget-me-nots (knots? haha) and a trillium. Plus bracken ferns (not in photo). Lovely.

And in the orchard: a strolling sandhill crane (brown object in photo center).

Just out the neighbors’ back door: giant apple petals scattered on the lilies-of-the-valley.

Short version: whatta special place, here where the road ends at the lake.

Posted at 9:39 PM | Comments Off on What a neighborhood!

I’ve been seeing lilies for days, and this is one of the most dramatic—bicolor with maroon and yellow. Do not make this the basis of your wardrobe….

Now, orange doesn’t really go with the above, but heck, it’s dramatic, too, so here ya are.

Posted at 7:40 PM | 2 Comments »

Today, I found a few bees…one hiding in this yellow bloom…

…and one strolling about on this pink fleur.

Posted at 9:43 PM | Comments Off on Little bee, big bee

I just want to note that “leaves of three” sometimes is kudzu (say: kooood-zoooo), which causes no dermatological upset (that I am aware of).

Speaking (writing?) of leaves, this is my invented spinach lasagne with bison meat-sauce, and cheese. Made a small container of a non-spinach version for the Vitamin-K-sensitive among us.

Posted at 6:59 PM | Comments Off on Leaf-counting games

Plants sometimes offer us a chance to see a same-time time-lapse. Here are the petals just emerging from the flower-center.

And, here on the next plant, the petals have grown out already!

This musing brought to you by a stroll to the library.

Posted at 7:27 PM | Comments Off on Time in petals

I don’t remember seeing sweet peas in ATL before…so exciting. But most of the plant had moved beyond blooms and was festooned with pods.

This is some kind of yucca, I’m guessing a landscaping variant. The whole spike was in bloom, but not photogenic, so you just get a side branch.

The rain really had passed by the time I got going, and the plants looked so fresh and the air smelled fine, but the gardenia notes had temporarily disappeared.

Posted at 6:15 PM | Comments Off on Rain-flowers

Superbly nice spring day, very cool, especially after temps up to the 80s earlier this week. That got Mr. Window-man fired up (I think the coolness was the trigger), and he opened windows here and there, and a nice breeze wafted through the house…bringing the lovely scent of the front-garden gardenias throughout all rooms.

Posted at 6:21 PM | Comments Off on We are lucky