Musings

Summer wiles

Dandelions aren’t the only species that uses the wind to disperse orbs of floatable seeds.

Here’s what the yellow goatsbeard looks like when it’s still in the quiescent blooming stage.

One day

Today.

Yesterday.

In one hot and humid twenty-four hour period, the bud became a fully opened bloom. Insects note the progress.

Just that fast

Ya leave for two nights and the critters and varmints and infestations set in. Aphids are sucking the juices out of (a minority, I admit) the lupines. Arrgh; it’s tough to be a human molding the world. [Hello, Anthropocene.]

Ate too much Chinese food

Saw lots of green growing plants outside the car windows today, row crops to forests, with several kettle moraines for good measure. Here’s a yucca from the garden we ended up in.

Minority cultivar (?)

Here’s another garden escapee that is surviving in the tall (unmowed) grass: bachelor’s button (BB). Our specimens all look like this, which is like only a minority of the photos that Goo summons up to a search for BB. Perhaps it fell out of favor in the gardening community?

Apologies for the repeats

I’m still enjoying the lupine lusciousness in the orchard…and I’m “sharing” it with you.

Small plants

I’ve undertaken a program of frustrating milkweeds that are near the cottage; don’t fuss—plenty to feed the monarchs are untouched in the field. This operation means I’ve been walking in close patterns searching out offenders…and coming across other species mixed into the grass…like this campion.

Meanwhile, in the basil ringfort, despite the chill temps, the basil leaves are getting larger…although they’re still at the two-leaf phase.

Out the window

Let’s stick to a hyper-local news cycle: we got more rain, and it lasted a while, but it was so light I wouldn’t call it a soaking rain. That surprised me; on the other hand: what do I know.

Not my field…oops, my field

I know of Impressionist paintings. This looks like an Impressionist photo…same vibe anyway.

Pink/red

The lupines are just so lovely. I like this bicolor specimen, and I’m not a huge fan of pink. It’s okay, even lovely, but not usually a favorite. Perhaps its the pairing with magenta that sparks this for me….

The BBC published this map showing wildfire data from NASA and “firms” data from the first eight days of June. There’re far more fires than I gleaned from news reports…they’re all over…well not ALL, but many scattered places.