Maybe some shade from the overhanging trees. Maybe a breeze coming off the water. These are about all you can hope for in temperatures nearing 100 degrees with a dewpoint of 70 degrees, and even then you’d better do your hoping in the early morning because being outside at noon might lead you to question your own decision making abilities.
But you know, pickerel weed is blooming, and a pretty flower can always take your mind off your troubles if you give yourself to it and let it speak.
I think this is the best shot I’ve gotten of the tiny flowers, which always grow just out of reach a few feet off shore. Note that each flower has two yellow spots that direct insects to their reward. Three stamens show themselves and three more hide deeper in the flower. Hiding deeper still is the style, and all of it urges the insect to search ever deeper, leaving some of the pollen it carries behind.
Cattails are also blooming, only their flowers might not be quite as easy to understand as the pickerel weed blossoms. Cattail flowers start life with the female green flowers appearing near the top of a tall stalk and the fluffy yellowish green male pollen bearing flowers above them. Once fertilized the female parts turn from green to dark brown and the male flowers will fall off, leaving a stiff pointed spike above the familiar cigar shaped seed head. This plant was so important to Native Americans every single part of it was used. They harvested even its pollen to make bread with.
Water is life, and the closer you get to it the more varied the life you find. In this area you can usually find native silky dogwood shrubs near ponds and rivers. The berries go from green to white and then to blue, and for just a short time they look like blue and white Chinese porcelain. When they’re fully ripe the birds gobble them up quickly. Dogwood blossoms have four petals.
Dogwoods often have new growth that is reddish in color so it doesn’t sunburn.
Arrowwood viburnum blooms slightly ahead of silky dogwood and it is easily identified by its sharp toothed leaves and small five petal flowers. It is said to get its name from its very straight stems, which Native Americans used for arrow shafts. That is the traditional story but I recently read an article by someone who was determined to learn the truth of the story. Even after months of looking through books and other sources he could find no solid evidence of Native Americans ever using the shrub in that way. Of course if you had an arrow shaft that could be DNA tested that would be conclusive proof, but that would be destructive testing and I doubt a museum would allow it. But it the end, does it really matter? We humans are great at tying ourselves in knots thinking that everything matters, when in fact there is very little that absolutely does.
Elderberry bushes with their large flat flowerheads can be spotted from a long way off. Soon each flower will become a small black berry and the birds will feast.
The bindweeds are blooming in the tall grasses, shining out their pure whiteness against the greens. Bindweed leaves are longer than wide; quite narrow when compared to a heart shaped morning glory leaf. They can be seen in this photo; more of a spear tip shape.
I stopped at a pond one day and there must have been twenty or thirty ebony jewelwing damselflies flying all around. I’d guess I must have stumbled into a mass emergence, when all the naiads in the pond crawled onto pondside vegetation and molted. How they all know when it’s time to do so remains a mystery. They are larger than many other damselflies and quite easy to see.
These damselflies typically rest with their wings pressed together following the length of their body but this one kept opening and closing them. Years ago I saw one of these fly by when the light must have been just right, because it appeared more blue than anything else. I’ve never seen that again, but this one certainly had blue highlights in the bright sunlight. Or maybe they’re purple highlights.
Slaty skimmers have appeared. They’re very pretty dragonflies and common enough to be easily found as well. From what I’ve seen if they have a choice they prefer perching in places like this, rather than hanging from a grass stalk like spangled skimmers. This one sat here for quite a while. I think it was just too hot to fly that day.
Slaty skimmers can hang from grass if the situation calls for it, though. Males are pretty much all one color and have dark eyes. They’re easy going and inquisitive, and they’ll let you get close if you move slowly.
If you know how fidgety a cabbage white butterfly can be then you know how fidgety this one, which is called the common ringlet can be. “Could you please sit still for more than a second?” That was the silent question in my mind when this little creature surprised me by doing just that; long enough so I could get a shot of its eye. Getting a photo of a butterfly’s eye isn’t easy but it can be done. I’m glad I can show you what this one’s eye looks like.
Speaking of fidgety, here is a cabbage white now. They have green eyes and if you follow one long enough you can get a shot of them, too.
The opposite of fidgety is a great blue heron, and this one wanted me to believe that it was a limb coming off that fallen tree. Since it stayed as still as a statue for a while it almost had me convinced, but then it flew into a nearby stream and caught a fish so big it carried it away rather than swallowing it.
Meadowsweet has started blooming. It’s a common native shrub that often grows near water but not always. Anyone who has grown a spirea like the old fashioned bridal wreath spirea in their garden should recognize it as one of the spirea family; all those fuzzy stamens give it away. The flowers are usually white but I’ve seen pink ones as well.
It’s hard for me to comprehend an insect so small it can live between the lower and upper surfaces of a leaf. That’s what leaf miners do and though I’ve never seen one I know they’re there. Here they were mining wild sarsaparilla leaves.
Okay, here it is. You know you’ve been waiting for it. All together now: Chewing on a piece of grass, walking down the road… Sorry, I got carried away after listening to Ventura Highway by the band America. It’s the same every year when Timothy grass flowers because Timothy has always been the grass I’ve chewed while walking down the road. This year was a little different though; I found a video on You tube by someone who loved the song enough to fly to California and play it on the car radio as he drove Ventura Highway. In the sunshine. I have to say after watching it that it was not what I had imagined. It looked like any other American highway and the video was pretty boring, actually. But the song was a huge hit and it will never be boring, so I hope everyone has the urge and the time to go and hear it. If you were here in the 70s you know that the three acoustic guitars (one 12 string) and the amazing vocal harmonies are a beautiful way to start any day.
I stumbled into a miniature wild flower garden where black eyed Susans had taken center stage. I thought June was too early for black eyed Susans but I think that every year, so what do I know?
There are actually two types of flowers on a black eyed Susan. The “petals” are sterile ray flowers and in the center there are disk flowers, which are seen as small yellow dots in this photo. The disk flowers are fertile and have a tiny pistil and five stamens, but they’re too small to show here. They start to bloom at the bottom of the central cone and spiral their way to the top. Next time you see another ho-hum black eyed Susan use a 10X loupe or macro lens and take a good close look. It will never be ho-hum again.
Last year a late May freeze killed off all the catalpa tree flower and leaf buds in this area and for the first time in my life I think, I didn’t get to see its beautiful flowers. These flowers are big; you can stick your finger in that opening and have room to spare. This year they’re doing well and I’m seeing them everywhere once again. An 80 foot high tree full of orchid like flowers is really something to see. Each flower will turn into a long, thin seedpod that looks like a giant string bean. That’s why my friends and I called them string bean trees in Grammar school.
The Northern catalpa is beautiful but it’s a a messy tree so it is better planted at the edge of the yard. First, the spent flowers rain down like snow in late June. Then in the fall the huge heart shaped leaves fall, and then in spring the long seed pods fall, meaning you can spend a lot of time raking this tree’s leavings if you plant one near your driveway or patio.
None of the people I worked for as a gardener grew scabiosa and every time I see one I wonder why. It’s a pretty little flower that might be three inches across on a good day. It is also called the pincushion flower.
This was one of the first peonies that I paid attention to. It’s a beautiful thing with flowers almost as big as a cantaloupe.
A long time ago a lady I worked for gave me a piece of what she called her “lemon lily” and I’ve had it ever since, taking it with me whenever we moved. The early bloom time and the heavenly fragrance that smells of citrus and spices make this daylily special; truly a step above others. If I’m right it is a very old species (Hemerocallis lilioasphodelus) brought to America in colonial days and originally from China and Europe. I believe the last time I checked it was still being sold.
Once again, here are the flowers of tall meadow rue opened just in time for the 4th of July. They always remind me of fireworks and they also remind me to not just live life but to celebrate it, and to love it as well.
There are some people who don’t even know enough to fall in love with the water.
~Patricia Reilly Giff
Thanks for stopping in. I hope everyone has a safe and happy 4th.
Another post with a lovely variety of subjects. Thank you. You did very well to get some tiny eyes in focus.
You’re welcome. I don’t try butterfly eyes often but every now and then I like to see if I can do it.
Lots of interesting bits of nature here, Allen. Too hot and tired to say more.
Thank Ginny. That heat can really take it out of you and I know you’ve had it even worse than we have. Stay cool!
So terrific and refreshing, just like every time. And just as suggested, we are now listening to Ventura Highway. You get all the senses today! Thanks for all you do. You are deeply appreciated.
You’re welcome Beth. I’m glad you’re listening to Ventura Highway. I realized while watching the video that I spoke of that it isn’t the highway that’s special; it’s the song, so now I don’t have to go to California.
A lovely summery meander!
Thanks Eliza!
Just wanted to say that every week, you make my life a little better, richer and more beautiful. Thanks so much. Looking forward to next Saturday morning.
You’re welcome. I’m glad you’re getting something out of this blog. This is supposed to be a peaceful place; a place of rest, and I think people can sense that.
The opening shot in this post so perfectly captures the Hazy, Hot, Humid summer weather of this past week. I love the Pickeral weed photos as well!
Thank you. I’m glad that heat is gone. For now, anyway.