re-disapparations, upside-down orgies, and stoner moths

Remember the mysterious disappearing Asiatic dayflower from the other day – in which a) we had two flowers and then b) suddenly we did not, and c) I concluded that the flower had been sequestered away into a little leaf pouch?

I take it all back.

Here’s one of those leaf pouches, and it’s spitting out a new flower. Which leaves open the question, what happened to the two flowers from the other day? I’m so confused…

Ahhhhh, this, I get.

Let’s play the focus game with a day lily.

petals?

or stamens?

petals?

or stamens?

how about neither?

Don’t they look like little Venetian Renaissance slippers? In which case, this truly IS an orgy – everyone’s upside-down with their feet in the air. They haven’t even bothered to kick off their shoes.

I’m not the only one obsessed with flower innards. This is a primrose moth getting stoned in a common evening primrose. Scandalous.

gap-toothed innocence, gratuitous purple, and an orgy

I’ve been pretty busy lately, and I haven’t gone as far afoot as I might like, but geez, there’s still plenty going on within sight of the house. There’s the brown-eyed susan update, for one:

june 16

Two days later. Someone’s been chomping on a petal. This shot reminds me of a six-year old who’s just lost her two front teeth, but gives you just as big a grin as ever.

One day later and our six-year old is a lanky adolescent.

Little sis, the next one up, gazes up with envy at her glamorous sister.

Plenty more where that came from.

Spiderwort buds are really…I don’t know…

…decadent, I think. So floppy! Although the one on the right looks ambitious.

And then they do this:

gaaahhhh.

it’s hard not to develop a passing interest in bugs when you stare into flowers’ naughty bits.

since that’s what the bugs are interested in, too. this here is probably some type of syrphid fly.

An orgy of god-knows-who all is getting down inside the newest, still-coming-up leaves of a milkweed plant:

“who are you lookin’ at?”

 

nearby, this guy shows off his derriere.

…and a leafhopper causes general amazement. Those colors! Who knew? The nice people at bugguide,net, apparently, who ID’d this for me.

I saw some queen anne’s lace for the first time today:

spiky bracts = a definitive characteristic.

I’ll leave you with a mystery.

who’s this? first person with the right answer gets points!

little miss cranky

What a gorgeous weekend we just had here in beautiful southern Vermont, and gosh golly ma’am, what a CRAPPY MOOD I’VE BEEN IN. I’m having trouble adjusting to the season changing. I’m already half in February in my mind, when there is nothing and I mean nothing, blooming, and it’s so cold I can’t dawdle outside the way I like to and even if I could, the camera doesn’t work well in the cold either. And I haven’t run even so much as five miles at a pop in weeks, and I miss my endorphins and I’m MEAN.
Mind you, it’s not even the fall equinox yet, but I didn’t let that get in the way of my perfectly miserable mood.
Instead, I went to a friend’s birthday party yesterday. That’s right, I left the house, while in a foul mood. I hung out with our mutual friend, and the two of us groused about how crabby we were, and then I bonded with my hostess friend for a bit, and she confessed she was grumpy too – something about All These People Coming Over. So that lifted my mood considerably, I had a fine old time, and watched these other people I didn’t know fire potatoes off into the woods with a potato rocket. It’s some PVC pipe and it involves lighting hairspray on fire. Brilliant.
I burned off some of the bad ass attitude with housework, and with a (for me) furiously fast 4.5 miler today. And yesterday I worked out on the treadmill AND went for an aggressively paced 4 mile walk. Plus, I forced myself outside as well, to prove to myself that things are still growing.To wit:

wild rose hips. See that spooge? Remember it from here? It’s all the dried up stamens and stuff. Nice!


thank god for hawkweed.


yellow foxtail. Try and eat my seeds and I’ll STAB YOU.


aster flowers having a perm.


cattails are starting to lose their minds.


morning glory starting to pack it in for the day.


“stick out your tongue”, aka butter-and-egg.


riots of queen anne’s lace, above and below.



more yellow foxtail, above and below.

onwards and upwards.

ode to jewelweed; turtleheads and soapwort; spirea…a good haul.

I’ve posted a lot about jewelweed (Impatiens capensis) lately. Why? Why not? It’s ORANGE, it’s got a goofy structure, it’s an antidote to poison ivy, and wait ‘til you see what happens when it goes to seed. (Hint: its other name is “touch-me-not”).

Open up and say “ahh”.


Stick out your tongue.  This one is sadly blurry, but it shows how the side lower lips are stashed inside and just starting to emerge.



Trapeze artists. What are the chances of this happening?


All the way in, pal.
There are other flowers in the world besides jewelweed…let’s have a look at ‘em.

As berries ripen, leaves fade. False solomon’s seal (Smilicina racemosa).


Golden alexander (Zizia aurea) seeds ripening.


Some kind of aster.

new species, new species!

The aptly-named turtlehead! (Chelone glabra)

cute, huh?
I finally caught the moment where Queen Anne’s Lace seeds are forming.

The styles are still attached. I’m going with whimsical berets.

How I wish I hadn’t procrastinated. These are all done and gone, and I’m still not sure what they were.


Mother nature loves her five-petaled yellow flowers – this one’s a fringed loosestrife (Lysimachia ciliata).
new species! new species!

Bouncing bet, aka soapwort (Saponaria officinalis)
Finally, some meadowsweet (Spirea latifolia)

Yes, those are spider legs behind it. Feeling brave?

Hiya!