Category: Field trip

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10/15/2023 thistle rosettes in the wild

A fingertip sized baby thistle!
Bigger thistle baby!
Another thistle rosette
They apparently overwinter this way
This rosette I’m not sure if it’s texanum or undulatum. I haven’t seen any undulatum seeds up yet in my pots.
This is the same individual as to the left, showing the white closely hairy underside of the thistle leaves.
These five thistle rosettes are probably mostly or all texanum, based on that only my texanum seeds have germinated into similar size rosettes. These are all at my parents’ house, where I got the seeds. Yay!
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07/16/2023 birthday girl

A black and red coated German Shepherd Dog wearing a hunter orange safety vest lays in the grass in a green prairie valley with lots of yellow flowered compass plant stalks around her. The sky is filled with low dark gray clouds and some small trees ring the valley.
Briar the dog had her sixth birthday today. We took a walk at Lexington WMA! The low clouds and a breeze kept us cooler than usual for July.
Briar the red and black coated fluffy German Shepherd dog is wearing a hunter orange safety vest and sitting next to a seed-covered stalk of Arnoglossum. She is sitting in grass that’s almost her height and very green with various native forbs around her, including yellow compass plant. Her tongue is hanging out and she looks happily at the photographer.
Occasionally I asked Briar to sit so she wouldn’t scare a bug we were looking at.
Briar the fluffy German Shepherd Dog lays full length in a very orange mud puddle in exposed red Sandy loam. Her ears are alert and she glances back towards the photographer. Prairie grass surrounds the puddle and oaks are in the background.
Even with the cooler than typical July weather, Briar still enjoyed laying in her favorite mud puddle. Cool is mid 80s in July!
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07/10/2023 bouquet before and after

The Chef had a professional lunch at colleagues’ house yesterday and requested something to take since they didn’t need any additional food brought. I snipped an assortment of garden flowers and herbs and put them in a jar.
The Chef did his arrangement magic and trimmed the various stems to a pleasing length. Rudbeckia, an orange zinnia, and a tall smartweed are at the top. Mealy blue sage and Salvia greggii hug the middle. Three winecups and a pink zinnia edge the rim of the jar over a peachy orange raffia bow.
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05/27/2023 front yard

The rainbow garden is almost there.
The winecups have gotten MASSIVE. I have never seen such mammoth winecup leaves in the wild.
A typical winecup with regular sized leaves. We saw this one today on our afternoon walk, at Saxon Park.
A view panning over to see the Salvia greggii and coreopsis too. All the white flowers in the raised beds are cilantro. If you’ve been looking at our iNaturalist feed, the cilantro flowers are hopping with insect activity.
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05/13/2023 what’s happening at Saxon Park

Maybe a Pediomelium sp blooming? There’s a lot right now! Very cute! Edit: Abby has kindly identified this as Psoralidium tenuiflorum.
Sensitive briars have adorable puffy pink flowers!
Baptisia australis blooming- few weeks ago it was all B. bracteata and this weekend we only saw the blue!
Only a quarter mile in and Briar demanded to lay on the wet earth in the shade.
A rough leaf dogwood starting to bloom.
Three views of a very pale showy evening primrose!
Ooh a dark center in a sun drop primrose—maybe that other less common species??
Nope it’s a flower beetle nestled deeply in the lemon yellow primrose flower!
The trail sides are covered with rabbits tobacco!
Another requested rest break by Briar dog.
Up the hill, Gaillardia suavis and Echinacea angustifolia (I assume) are blooming, starting to bloom, and finishing at various places!
We met a three-toed box turtle going on the path too. Briar has not met many turtles.
We saw a three toed box turtle! It was very intriguing but concerning to briar. She was cautious but also wagged.
Three views of the only wild Solomon’s seal patch I have seen. We saw them at this site last year.
Groundplum milkvetch (Astragalus crassicarpus) is has gone to seed. Some look a bit squished from the trail being mowed.