unfurlings continue

Here's what's been going on around here.

Red eft. Kevin took this picture. 

Ferns just starting to open.

We have a jack! We have a jack! This is basically at the foot of our driveway. It's the only one I've seen. 

Our lilacs are taking their time.

Another type of fern unfurling.

Down past the booming metropolis that is the village of Westminster West, I found a veritable boatload of sarsaparilla. Happiness!

And, back to the ferns.

Blah blah blah, words, pictures, words. I'll leave you with this:

I do not whine – kids whine

As the days get longer, my inner engine is ramping up its horsepower. Over the weekend, I had a short run on Saturday – 5.5 miles. I remembered something a gym teacher taught us about running when I was in first grade: that you get a lot of power from pumping your arms. So I gave it a try, and the next thing I knew, my pace picked up by 15 seconds per mile…and another 30 seconds per mile…and another 15 seconds per mile. Holy crap. I ended my run about there, afraid I would accidentally hit warp speed and either land on Jupiter, or develop instantaneous plantar fasciitis all over again.

On Sunday, I went to my third Tough Mudder class. Three rounds of 16 exercises, a minute apiece, thirty seconds rest between each one. On the bright side, I didn’t almost puke this time. On the other hand, how to choose my favorite moment from the morning? Would it be when I didn’t quite catch the 12-pound medicine ball I was attempting to throw fifteen feet in the air (hah! as if!) and nearly knocked my glasses off? Or was it when I let the 20 pound maul swing around and knock me in the shin? And who wears glasses to the gym? I.Am.A.Dork.

But I’m a dork who has officially registered for the Tough Mudder.

On Monday (yesterday), I scored a Little Black Dress to wear to our next chorus concert. (I am experiencing Wardrobe Issues.) That was the highlight of the day. It’s the ideal dress: you could squash it into a tiny ball in the bottom of your bag, take it out, give it a shake, put it on, and look great. Machine washable, indestructible, and shows off My Shoulders, which ought to be looking fairly decent any day now, given the aforementioned gym-based bludgeoning. The lowlight of Monday, on the other hand, was an overwhelming case of the blahs, which I am coming to associate with recovery from intense workouts.

On the Nature Report, today’s species of note is sarsaparilla (Aralia nudicaulis). Last year I couldn’t identify this correctly – I thought it was mutant wild ginseng. It’s in the same family, actually. This is the stuff you make root beer out of. “Just another weed, growing along the driveway…” would be an easy way to not even see this little bugger.

But look how sweet the leaves are, on their second day up from the ground! This is a few days ago.

They’ll go green soon enough.

Last year this all happened a good three or four weeks later on in the spring.

Here’s a Solomon’s Seal. Probably. Stay tuned.

On the turtle front, I’m a little confused. I found a dead baby turtle in the neighbor’s driveway the other day – just over an inch across. Not a snapper (no teeth on the edge of the shell), perhaps a wood turtle (as I’ve seen them in the area, though not so far this year.) Where’d he come from? How fast do turtles grow? Last year, a nest hatched out around the middle of June. Surely a turtle grows a bit in its first year – this one must have just hatched. Just a wee thing.

milkweed pods, strange black-eyed susans, spider eyes…

My dearest readers, have I really neglected you since Thursday? ‘Tis true. Where are my manners? What have I been doing? Ummmmmm….I’ve been enjoying life! I seem to be doing OK with the plantar fasciitis so far, via a ton of stretching/strengthening exercises and a teensy six mile run yesterday. And I’ve added to the blueberry stash: we’re up to 30 pounds of blueberries in the freezer. That was my original goal, but now I think we might…just…need…more.
Onwards to the flower report. The milkweed pods are growing by leaps and bounds.

Let’s review: just three days ago, this pod was the same size as my nail.
That one milkweed on our neighbor’s property is also taking off, pod-wise.

I was asked by a fellow blogger who does amazing macro shots of wildflowers whether I knew if that crazy tubular-petaled black-eyed susan is a cultivar, or a different species altogether. I have no idea, but here’s some more data to feed into the hopper:
Crazy tubular – this is over at my dad’s house:

Let’s compare this to a lone hybrid mutant out in back of the pole barn

Some of its petals are that tubular, and some are regular.
Another thing I’ve been noticing about black-eyed susans: they are commonly hosts to tiny white spiders, perhaps more than one kind. Some seem to have markings, while others are straight-up white:

Others seem yellow, or maybe it’s just because this one is lurking at the base of the yellow petals:

Yellow or white, check out her fierce little eyes!
Nothing says “back off!” quite like a thistle:



Goldenrod: distilled sunshine.

Congress of aliens? Or merely Queen Anne’s Lace?

Incipient Deliciousness: the first of the purple-flowering raspberries has ripened.

While others are still doing the “fertilize me, fertilize me!” dance.
An unexpected invasion of hostas on the hillside bordering the driveway. I guess they’re not content being confined right up next to the front of the house.

Somebody’s been eating the ripe berries of the wild sarsaparilla (Aralia nudicaulis, and previously erroneously identified as ginseng or as red baneberry.)



Speaking of blue berries, the blue cohosh leaves are beginning to fade, but the berries…

…are not yet blue.
Some lovely peach lilies along the side of the driveway are taking over from the long-gone siberian irises and spiderwort:

four new species, and burgeoning ripening all around.

For someone who delights so much in spending time outside, I’m something of an agoraphobe. Whenever I come home from a trip, even as one as brief as a couple of days, it takes a crowbar to get me out of the house. I like to stay close to home after I’ve traveled because I’m waiting for my soul to catch up. (My soul dawdles and does not make good time.) Nonetheless, I ventured forth three times today. First was my run. That was interrupted by a 5:30 am lightning storm. Let’s try that one again tomorrow!
Then I went blueberry picking for the second time, and came home with 13 pounds, bringing the current season’s haul to 18 pounds. (Twelve more to go and I’ll call it good.)
And THEN…THEN…I went to check up on my friends. Because of the recent heat wave, travelling, and other excuses, I hadn’t actually checked up on these guys for ten – whole – days – which is like a lifetime for some of these species.
The purple-flowered raspberries are still flowering, although not as many of them. I’ve covered raspberry flower development before, but every so often, I happen across another half-stage that I feel compelled to capture:

does this not look appetizing? no? Well, right next door to that one, we have…

This one. That looks more like food, right? None of these have ripened all the way to tasting, unlike the nearby black raspberries.
The first Queen Anne’s Lace plant to jump up along the edge of the driveway is also the first to collapse in a bird’s nest of mystery. The rest are still opening up or are hanging out at the flat disk stage:



The sarsaparilla [Editor's Note: previously incorrectly identified as wild ginseng - this is probably actually wild sarsaparilla - Aralia nudicaulis] at the base of our driveway has taken advantage of the heat wave to ripen:

The tall anemone, commonly known as thimbleberry, has largely gotten to this stage of tall – up to an inch and a bit – flowerheads:

I had fun trying to get a good shot of a little red bug on one of these:

Probably not a good enough shot to submit to bugguide, so we’ll just leave it at “little red bug” for now.
New Species #1: Helleborine (Epipactis helloborine)
I first spotted this ten days ago, but the flowers hadn’t opened up yet…

…so I couldn’t ID it. I was surprised to see that it’s an irregular flower:

This is the orchid family, of all things. And as usual for shots taken in this shady spot in the driveway, my apologies for slight blurriness…
New Species #2: flat-topped aster (Aster umbellatus)
Sneaky question: how many petals does this have?

Answer: five. The petals are the little yellow things…

The white things are rays, not petals.

Here’s one that’s just opening. This reminds me of the black-eyed susan I was so enamored of the other day, whose rays were similarly tubular as they opened up>
New Species #3: Enchanter’s Nightshade
…and prizewinner for the coolest name.

Another trick question: how many petals, this time?

I thought “four” at first – when I looked at it with just my eyeballs. It’s really two.
The seeds of this plant are another candidate for something Charlie the Wonder Cat gets covered in each summer.

Actually, come to think of it, my curiosity about just what that boy rolls around in is one of the inspirations behind this whole project of mine to document each and every naturally-occurring plant on or near our property…
New species #4: Eastern Joe-Pye Weed (Eupatorium dubium)
On July 7th, when this plant was still flagged with a question mark, this is where things stood:

and today…

Local cats take the bronze in synchronized napping

Did I tell you about my run on Sunday? My impressive speed training – the last official long speed session before the next half marathon? No? Could it be because that run was a complete FAIL? It was, my friends. It was a total wash. I lasted just over two miles and barely cracked an 11:30 pace. My legs had nothing in them, not a thing. I’m not sure why, but I think that a complete lack of adequate sleep the previous two nights probably had something to do with it. Not to mention the recent hot sticky weather.
This morning, I was torn: do what I was supposed to do on Sunday? Or do what I am supposed to do today? My next long run will be the longest I’ve ever gone – 17 miles – so I decided to split it up the middle and do a straight six miles. At 7 am it was already 80 degrees and massively humid.
Basically, I need gills. My brain melts at anything above 80 degrees. I don’t think I’ll be setting any PR’s in this upcoming race if it’s going to be anything like this. No worries, though: I’m pretty sure all that sweat is good for me. And I have to say, I’m in great shape, from a cardiovascular point of view. I sprinted up the driveway to get the ringing phone this evening, and while I didn’t get it in time to get the call, I wasn’t the least winded from the effort. So, it’s all good.
The cats share my opinion about the weather. Here they are, practicing their synchronized napping.

Maggie has snagged the indoor spot and Charlie is in his accustomed Guarding the Barbecue position.

Almost, say the day lilies.


A great blue heron, across the meadow/pond, about 200 yards away. Those are our phone/cable lines – no way to crop them out. I saw this angel coming in for a landing. I’ve seen herons lift off – singly, and in pairs – from the pond, but I’d never seen one land in a tree before. A minute or two later it took off and landed again in a taller tree at the south end of the pond. Bliss. Blue herons are meant to represent the gift and challenge of self-reflection, according to a book I consult when I happen across a wild creature and wish to divine the synchronistic Meaning of It All.
Ah, I said. More navel gazing is in my future. Excellent!
The biggest of the Queen Anne’s Lace flowers near the lilac bush opened up into a completely flat disk by mid-afternoon today, but by the time my brain had cooled off sufficiently to venture forth, camera in hand, it had drooped over – looking much the way I looked all day:


I went wandering past the wood pile…


…and found a stash of black eyed susans.

Doesn’t it look like it’s wearing a fancy hat? Perhaps Persian lamb wool?


Apparently, that whole center will develop – this one isn’t as far along.


Hm. This will be fun to watch unfold.


Photogenic little buggers, don’t you think?

I found a new-to-me flower today as well: Sundrops.

When I get a closer look at it, I’ll nail it down a little better. I was being savaged by mosquitos at this point and feeling a bit mutinous.

In other, deeply exciting news, I discovered yesterday that at the other end of our property, we have a whole ‘nuther stash of what-I-think-is-ginseng [Editor's Note: this is probably actually wild sarsaparilla - Aralia nudicaulis.]. But through a trick of the light, or other mysterious conditions, its berries are already ripening.

The Usual Location	The Recently Discovered Location.

And rats, according to the interwebs, I went to all this trouble to ascertain that this is most likely ginseng (Panax quinquefolius) but NOOOOOO, apparently they have red berries. Do those look red to you? ARGH!