05/10/2023 neighborhood athlete

04/14/2023 maybe possibly hopefully a Spiranthes rosette!!

The below three pictures are of leaves I found on the east side of a grass clump in the backyard prairie. It feels less fleshy than the invasive introduced dayflowers and most of those also have a reddish stem. I have flagged it and we’ll wait and see if it disappears (probably a Spiranthes!!) or keeps growing into a dayflower. As a reminder, I seeded them from a pod from my parents’ house last winter.

09/02/2022 Y A Y

As the sign says, it’s our one rain lily! I planted it this spring from the NPSOT plant sale. Norman got 1.4″ rain yesterday.
The rain lily was beautiful, and now home for a spider building its web from the lily flower to the ground.

08/06/2022 POPCORN

Glass gem popcorn in all its glorious colors!
One cob down, two to go.
Paula just used her hands to remove the kernels.
The kernels are such a beautiful mix of colors!
Three ears of popcorn made 147 g of dried kernels. We let the ears dry on the stalk and then have been keeping them in the hot dry shade on the porch.
About half of the kernels Paula tried did pop. According to this extension service article we found, this means they’re probably still too moist. More should pop and be fluffier too once they dry more. However, we’re still quite pleased!