Don's Blog Splat! 4-13-2020

I don't know if you have ever felt like this. It is the outline of a huge bird that tried to come directly into our kitchen the other day in full flight. The measured wing span was about 14 inches. There was no body on the ground so it was probably all right if somewhat dazed.

Flower for the Day Happy Easter - The Gnome Garden in the Midst of the Pandemic 4-12-2020

Its Easter Sunday in the Heartland. Despite the dangers of the Pandemic the gnomes

demanded that they be allowed outside after the dark of winter.

In the foreground, Big Boy has become the head of the family despite joining less than a year ago.

On the other side of the walkway the garden phlox are lighting the area with their flaming color.

Surprisingly they have appeared on the table inside.

 

Flower for the Day Periwinkle 4-10-2020

Beds of dwarf periwinkle (creeping myrtle) surround my house on two sides. It is Vinca minor and is my favorite ground cover. The vines are tender and stay green all winter. They don't  twine and they don't climb trees. They are soft to walk on. They have beautiful emerald colored flowers. Once established their shade smothers most weeds. They started to bloom more  than a month ago but in the last week with warmth and sunlight they have exploded with growth - flowers and a bushy height. 

It creeps around with perseverance but I have found it easy to control by pulling it up by its roots.

And by the front door I  have some that are purple-burgundy. These are called Atropurpurea.

Waiting For Spring Haiku

Sullen lead tendrils  embrace emeralds brought by  periwinkle skies....

© Gerard Keogh Jr.  

Flower for the Day Tulip 4-8-2020

The tulips have been up for weeks. I am not a tulip lover but I put a bunch I last fall. The  squirrels and the deer have decimated this crop but many still came up.

I think the inside of the tulip is more interesting the the outside.

But perhaps the most fun is their use as a cut flower.

The blossoms gradually open as the days pass.

Flower for the Day Henbit 4-6-2020

Henbit (Lamium amplexicaule) is another meadow miniature. It is also called henbit deadnettle and greater 

henbit. My favorite common name for it is giraffe head. The specific name refers to the amplexicaul leaves - that is, leaves grasping the stem. The stem is square and hollow as in other members of the mint family.The leaves are 2-3 cm in diameter, opposite and rounded with a lobed margin.

The flowers are pink to purple, 1.5–2 cm long and are formed in a terminal spike.

 

The leaves, stem, and flowers of the plant are edible and are said to have a slightly sweet and peppery flavor, similar to celery. Henbit can be eaten raw or cooked. I have not tried it yet but in this time of quarantine it is nice to have a full meadow of it nearby.

Don's Blog A Walk in the Woods 4-5-2020

When we moved here in 1976 there was meadow behind us which seemed to stretch forever. At the west side of the meadow was a stream bed that was usually dry but could turn into a torrent of water when it rained. As the years passed the west part of the meadow grew into woods with some dense undergrowth and many tall trees. Many years ago I began creating a system of trails. As the weather has warmed the woods have come alive.

The stream bed is based on Missouri bed rock.

In many areas the water remains. 

There is a small spring coming out of the center in one area.

I have come to appreciate how labor intensive it is to keep a trail system open.The woods are in a constant state of living and dying. I am expert with my lopper. Its good that I have some friends with chainsaws to help free the trails of larger downed trees.

One is never alone in the woods. As well as squirrels we have deer, raccoon, possum, fox, and coyotes.

At the end of my walk as I looked up at the remaining meadow this robin was in a tree above me.

 He has just begun to attack his own reflection in my bedroom window in search of love.

Flower for the Day Easter Lily and "A Poem About Hope"

Our Easter Lily bloomed just in time for Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday. I brought the bulb out of the darkness in late February. It is always a beauty with two blooms. The poem was sent to me by a friend.

"A Poem on Hope" by Wendell Berry

It is hard to have hope. It is harder as you grow old,

For hope must not depend on feeling good
And there is the dream of loneliness at absolute midnight.
You also have withdrawn belief in the present reality
Of the future, which surely will surprise us,
…And hope is harder when it cannot come by prediction
Any more than by wishing. But stop dithering.
The young ask the old to hope. What will you tell them?
Tell them at least what you say to yourself.

Because we have not made our lives to fit
Our places, the forests are ruined, the fields eroded,
The streams polluted, the mountains overturned. Hope
Then to belong to your place by your own knowledge
Of what it is that no other place is, and by
Your caring for it as you care for no other place, this
Place that you belong to though it is not yours,
For it was from the beginning and will be to the end

Belong to your place by knowledge of the others who are
Your neighbors in it: the old man, sick and poor,
Who comes like a heron to fish in the creek,
And the fish in the creek, and the heron who manlike
Fishes for the fish in the creek, and the birds who sing
In the trees in the silence of the fisherman
And the heron, and the trees that keep the land
They stand upon as we too must keep it, or die.

This knowledge cannot be taken from you by power
Or by wealth. It will stop your ears to the powerful
when they ask for your faith, and to the wealthy
when they ask for your land and your work.
Answer with knowledge of the others who are here
And how to be here with them. By this knowledge
Make the sense you need to make. By it stand
In the dignity of good sense, whatever may follow.
Speak to your fellow humans as your place
Has taught you to speak, as it has spoken to you.
Speak its dialect as your old compatriots spoke it
Before they had heard a radio. Speak
Publicly what cannot be taught or learned in public.

Listen privately, silently to the voices that rise up
From the pages of books and from your own heart.
Be still and listen to the voices that belong
To the streambanks and the trees and the open fields.
There are songs and sayings that belong to this place,
By which it speaks for itself and no other.

Found your hope, then, on the ground under your feet.
Your hope of Heaven, let it rest on the ground
Underfoot. Be it lighted by the light that falls
Freely upon it after the darkness of the nights
And the darkness of our ignorance and madness.
Let it be lighted also by the light that is within you,
Which is the light of imagination. By it you see
The likeness of people in other places to yourself
In your place. It lights invariably the need for care
Toward other people, other creatures, in other places
As you would ask them for care toward your place and you.

No place at last is better than the world. The world
Is no better than its places. Its places at last
Are no better than their people while their people
Continue in them. When the people make
Dark the light within them, the world darkens.

Wendell Berry

A possibility: now read it aloud

Flower for the Day Spring Beauty 4-3-2020

Spring Beauty (Claytonia virginica) is a true sign spring. It is a woods miniature only slightly larger than the meadow flowers I have been showing. It is also called eastern spring beauty, grass flower  and fairy spud. It is a trailing plant coming from a tuberous root. 

The flowers are .7 to .4 cm across with five pale pink petals. I love the ribs on the petals.

The flowers bloom for three days. The five stamens on each flower are active for only one day. It all seems to work out as this perennial appears early in the spring as a constant.

Flower for the Day Buttercup 4-2-2020

All of these meadow miniatures were found the same day - its their time. This is a creeping buttercup (Ranunculae) fully formed but only a cm across. It is much smaller than the buttercups we see in the Rockies in August. 

There are over 2,000 species in the Ranunculi family. It is described as a window back in time.None of todays

species were around 100 million years ago, but the Buttercups have retained the most ancestral characteristics over time. The Buttercups are considered very "simple" because the floral parts-the petals, sepals, stamens and pistils-are all of an indefinite number and separate from one another. Also, the stamens and pistils are spirally inserted in a cone-like receptacle, although it is often very small to see. More advanced plant families have reduced, more specific numbers of floral parts, and the parts are often fused together. The flowers are  considered "simple" because all the parts are independently attached.  The most common pattern of the family is the apparent lack of a pattern. Buttercups can have either regular or irregular flowers with anywhere from 3 to 15 sepals, often colored like petals, and 0 to 23 actual petals.

Some common plants in the buttercup family include columbine, anemone, Pasque flower, marsh marigold, and

delphinium.

Flower for the Day Viola 4-1-2020

Here are two more meadow miniatures.  They are viola which is a genus in the violet family Violaceae. There are more than 600 species in this genus, the largest in the family. Viola and violet are usually reserved for the small-flowered wild perennials. 

These are Viola bicolor which are also called American field pansy or wild pansy. They measure about 2 cm across.

This is the perfect time of year to see these miniature wildflowers. 
You have to look close in the meadow grasses.