Sunny Day!

I took a ride around our neighboring lake and see that the yucca are in bloom. Remember the snakey-looking spikes? Well they are pretty nice to see now.

The sweet pea tree is covered. I wonder how many more years it will live with its parasite flowers.

I don't know what these are but are delicate and 'kinda' pretty.

Back home the elderberry bushes are blooming with many already producing tiny berries. No photos, you know what they look like. I retired from making jellies and syrups with them, but did many batches in the past. THEN! I spotted the flowers of the thimbleberries! Now, if I'm persistent, I might be able to pluck some before the birds and beetles get them - if I can reach! They are a bit rare in this area.

Closer to home I see the mullein is doing fine. Soon there will be many yellow blossoms.

And the sunflower in my pipe pot has a blossom! 

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Along the Road....

I just thought I'd take short ride to see if I could find something extraordinary. Well no, I didn't, but here are the results anyway. The first color that caught my attention was some Joe-Pye Weed at the edge of the woods. We have a beautiful and large growth of it at the beachfront here, but these were pretty.

The bind weed is seen wrapping around all of the thimble berry bushes. These bushes are now bearing fruit but the Japanese beetles and the birds get them before I can - at least within my reach! There are many wild blackberries along these roads, but this year they are very small and not quite ripe. I saw some elderberries coming on as well.

The local farmer has planted sunflowers between the corn rows. There seems to be many as far as I could see, but they were looking for the sun (of course they were) when I passed by. The field corn is almost 8 feet tall! REALLY!

One seed with a wild streak got away and grew in a very different place on the edge of a lower road. The awful thunderstorm and gulley washer two days ago beat and battered it, but it stayed strong. Shaggy is pretty too!

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Good read link here:

Corn & Sunflower Friendship

Petals and Edibles

Quite a mixture of shapes and color in this small clump of roses.

The Wood Sorrel occurs throughout most of the world, except for the polar areas. It has been consumed by humans around the world. In Dr. James Duke's "Handbook of Edible Weeds," he notes that the Kiowa Indian tribe chewed wood sorrel to alleviate thirst on long trips, that the Potawatomi Indians cooked it with sugar to make a dessert, the Algonquin Indians considered it an aphrodisiac, the Cherokee ate wood sorrel to alleviate mouth sores and a sore throat, and the Iroquois ate wood sorrel to help with cramps, fever and nausea.

I haven't tasted them yet!

My red wild berries have turned into blackberries.

They are SWEET!! and JUICY!!

Close and Personal

Today it is berries and a small dragonfly. I am trying for some close up shots.

A Skimmer Dragonfly

notice iridescent wing glow

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