Musings

There’s a classic joke about two (or is it three? I’m so bad with jokes) blind men groping different parts of an elephant, and discussing what the creature must be. They have very different ideas because they are feeling such different parts. Trunk versus tail, that kind of thing.

Well, here’s the difference between the fronds and the stems of this fennel. I bought one fennel plant perhaps five years ago. It’s now got a dozen offspring, and they are lovely. I guess we could eat them, but I have yet to be inclined to. I guess the fronds and stems look related because there’s frondness in both.

Posted at 9:13 PM | Comments Off on Green family

I know of one bed of this plant (although my identification skills are abysmal) in our neighborhood, and I don’t remember this plant from elsewhere [really, why would I?]. My magic identification app suggests this is Houttuynia cordata, which is native to greater Southeast Asia. The app indicates the Chinese name translates as “fishy-smelling herb” and the Japanese name literally translates as “poison blocking plant.” These are far more…entertaining…than “the plant that spreads rapidly and keeps a slope from eroding,” which might be a colloquial name chosen by observers of this bed.

Posted at 8:11 PM | Comments Off on Not my type

Fertilized peony. Gestating peony?

Posted at 7:01 PM | Comments Off on After the petals

Ants swarming like it’s a peony, no?

Voting day some states. Here early voting began on Monday, so our airwaves (if that still works) are jammed with Seriously Annoying candidate ads, and Even More Annoying ads contributed by outside organizations.

Posted at 7:07 PM | 1 Comment »

More backyard labor this morning. No privet to attack. Other species, names unknown to me, attacked. This, however, is the decorative, woody perennial Liriodendron tulipifera.

Posted at 9:09 PM | 1 Comment »

I vanquished another privet today, or perhaps the joke’s on me, as it left several lateral roots behind that could spring up above the ground again very soon. The bed’s a mess, and needs more cleansing, but: progress. Neither of us has a plan for what to do with it. Very shady. Light-wise.

Posted at 7:23 PM | Comments Off on Flora, continued

I had my way with a privet today. By “had my way,” I mean I uprooted it and sent it off to the compost. Took a half hour with a mattock—thump thump, wrench, strain. [This fading peony is much nicer.]

Posted at 8:05 PM | Comments Off on Whew

I spent some time this afternoon finding tell settlements. It’s very rewarding. Many mounds like this: standing above the landscape, and possibly with archaeological trenching. Hard to miss.

Others were plenty tricky to find. Hah!

This peony: hard to miss. And a target for bees.

Posted at 7:50 PM | Comments Off on I’m telling

I just went out and took this. Perhaps 3/4 open.

And this was the other day, all tightly wrapped in on itself. In sunshine.

While the upper photo was taken before technical sunset, it’s no longer visible here, blocked by houses and trees. The city, you know.

Posted at 8:02 PM | Comments Off on Emergent

About five hours of rain overnight, sometimes rather hard, brought down these petals, creating a localized carpet. I also found some branchlets of mistletoe (it’s brittle).

Fringetree in full bloom. The petals do hang down, but the rain has made them more vertical than normal.

Another floor is underway on the BeltLine apartment project. Also note that the tops of the high rises are obscured by a cloud layer.

Apologies for the simplistic reporting and wordage; not sure why I’m more lethargic than normal.

Posted at 6:09 PM | Comments Off on Horizontals