Nearly ready for company

Here is a collage illustrating the Fully Decorated Batcave. Please notice the seeming absence of the futon couch: it is in bed-mode, and that purple bit in the lower middle of the picture is Kevin’s blanket-covered knee. He has just settled in for a nap. He’s doing well, all things considered. We’ve been sleeping down here the past couple of nights, the better to avoid stairs.

Yeah, so hanging everything on the walls was part of my domestic adventure today. I also burned off random cranky energy by straightening up part of the basement. I brought up some of Kevin’s furniture from coastal Kenya:

By this point, it was late in the afternoon: time for the mail run. But first, let’s check up on the flowers. I’d pointed out – in an earlier post – that there were lots of these heart-shaped leaves in the flowers in the mystery woodland. There are two things that immediately jump to mind as having two stems with leaves shaped like this – violets…and ginger.

I was pretty sure these weren’t violets, because we have those all over the lawn, and these guys were just…bigger, and glossier, and somehow different. Wild ginger, on the other hand, has this odd little fuzzy flower close to the ground, so I poked around looking for said flowers and…yep! It’s ginger! W-O-W!

OK, you probably can’t even see the flower down there – I’ll crop it:

See that little pod-thingy at the base of the two stems? That’s the flower. I don’t know if this is on its way open, or on its way closed. I’ve seen pictures of these that look more like little jester’s hats, with three pointy bits emerging.

 Here’s some randomness for you: a seemingly unweathered splotch on one of the firepit rocks. Yes, that’s my shoe. I’m bending over and the camera’s upside down.

Back to nature.

 

Ferns. Boy, what I don’t know about ferns could fill volumes. Yes, a bunch of these leaves are brown and nubbly – I believe they are all about reproduction.

 

Across the street from our mailbox, in front of the elementary school, is a patch of lily-of-the-valley.

And, back in our driveway, a Solomon’s Seal with its dangly flowers.

I have to say, wandering around visiting individual flowers to see how they’re coming along is such a blast. On my run yesterday, I saw another baneberry – w-a-a-a-g-g-h-h-h!!! – and I’ve realized that the flowers of the one along our driveway have NOT opened yet. Flowers are handy little things, because they don’t appear to wander around on you or hide. There’s a chance you can learn something because hey: they’re there. You can figure out, over time, OK, that’s what that looks like when it’s just opening up…that’s what that looks like when it’s closing up and going to seed…

Let’s contrast this feature of plants, with the heart-stoppingly lovely – and alas, unphotographed – mystery of an ENORMOUS redheaded woodpecker that made its way out of sight down the drive on my way to the mailbox. Wouldja just sit still for a minute and let me admire you? No. I will not.