01/16/2024 walk to OU duck pond

It’s 22 degrees F and sunny and with very light north wind now, so we walked over to the OU duck pond to see what was happening. All the geese and ducks were at the north end at a patch of open, flowing water on the creek. We also saw two Belted Kingfishers tangling in the air – squabbling? Courting?

A woman in a long blue quilted coat looks into an iced over pond at some big slider turtles.
Paula spotted one big slider turtle under the very thick ice!
Three turtles (two close together near shore and one farther out) under cracked ice that’s at least half a foot deep b
Can you find all three? They were all moving under the ice, which looked at least 4-6” thick.
A big iron sewer or water cover with the tidy graffiti described in the caption as well as a small geometric pattern of partial squares at right angles.  Briar the dog sniffs the concrete under the lid.
“think, look, listen”… smell?
Paula holds a purplish leaf of the spring beauty. It’s very narrow and long, with dry tan bits of bermudagrass around it.
Paula remembered where she saw Spring Beauties blooming last year and after a few minutes of searching we found several leaves! No buds yet.
Briar’s fluffy tail near a geodetic survey marker in low bermudagrass and small forbs.
We also noticed this geodetic reference survey marker for the first time. Dog for scale.

07/28/2023 surprise yellow flowers

I had assumed these tall plants were Gaura longifolia but they turned out to be Oenethera rhombipetala, four-point primrose! I did put seed out last winter. There are multiple plants! They are supposed to be self incompatible so hopefully they can reseed. (A few years ago I had just one plant come up and it didn’t reseed for that reason. This is from
new seeds.). I think they must bloom sometime after midnight but before 5am (my range of dog taking out times) because seed pods keep forming yet I only see spent flowers.

05/12/2022 dramatic surprise

I realized today that these funny friends near the dining room window were blooming.
It turns out they are a native Solomon’s seal (Polygonatum biflorum)!!! Thanks to Abby for confirming the identification.
Apparently they do grow in the wild in Cleveland county, so these could be volunteers or they could be planted. Apparently the native species (as well as some non native species in the same genus) used to be more popular as a shade plant. The Chef mentioned seeing them in older people’s gardens in his home town in northeastern Oklahoma. The linked website also says one of the non native species has a strong odor to the flower, and these had no particular smell for either of us.
There is also a clump of them near the compost bin, shaded by the house most of the day.
They do have fun leaves, and have never spread far, so I had never bothered to pull them up before. (Having never seen them in the wild before, I had assumed these leaves were something non native.)
Sure glad I didn’t!!