Nature | July

 I forgot to update you on our tadpoles last month. They took much longer to grow legs than I had expected. All of June they were growing. I first noticed back legs July 1st. After that they grew fast. They have all hopped out of the water and gone on their froggie way. It was a new experience for us to watch them grow from egg through all the stages to frog.

This weird little spiral of eggs (I think) was floating in the surface of the tadpole pool. You can see the dead fly for a size comparison.

I was amazed and flabbergasted by this bug that I saw one day on our house siding. I ran like I was on an emergency mission to go get my phone camera. This is a Wasp Mantidfly. I had never heard of it before or ever seen anything like it. It has arms like a Praying Mantis and a body like a wasp. But it isn't a wasp and it can't sting. 

I foraged and tried Woode Ear Mushrooms for the first time. I dried them first as recommended and then cooked them in a soup. I found the crunch and chewiness quite pleasant. I will keep an eye out for more Wood Ear Mushrooms.

This Sphinx Month gave me a nice shot. I kept my fingers in the frame for scale.

We visited a historic village and I was drawn to the period garden. I saw tobacco and cotton plants up close for the first time. The cotton really captivated my interest. At first I thought it was okra based on the structure. Once I saw the flowers I was even more convinced that I was looking at a plant closely related to okra. The flowers look like any mallow family flower.(Think Hibiscus, Rose of Sharon, Marsh Mallow, Okra,....) I had never imagined that cotton flowers would be so showy.

The funny thing about the tobacco is that I never would have guessed that it was a nightshade based on what it looks like. I saw no resemblance to the other night shades that I am familiar with; tomatoes, potatoes, black nightshade, horse nettle, ground cherries, and peppers.

This iridescent beetle crossed my path. It made me think of fancy hats in the old days that were decorated with pretty beetle shells like this. It made me wonder how they found so many of these iridescent beetles back then because I hardly ever see such beetles. Certainly there were people that studied them and figured out how to farm them for hats and stuff for profit back at the time. 

My favorite picture this month is this moth that I found on the window one morning. The lighting is good. The focus is good. The reflection on the glass adds some nice colors. And, best of all, the subject. This moth is captivating. It looks like bird poop, but weirdly in the most attractive way. And, it is holding out one of it's front legs like some kind of diva pose.

The smoke from the wild fires up in Canada and Minnesota have given us some hazy days. I liked the strangeness of the sunrises and sunsets during this time.

These next two pictures make me feel summer-in-the-midwest, especially the corn field. It leaves me with a nostalgic feeling for the fleeting youthful summers.

My son caught this lizard at a park. Unfortunately, he accidentally pulled the tail off while he was trying to catch it. Thankfully, lizards grow their tails back. It was very interesting to see the place where the tail broke. It looked like a connection joint for a lego or something similar, like it was perfectly meant to snap in that place.

I don't know what kind of flower this is, but I see it on my morning walks and I enjoy its beauty.

Do you have a favorite picture from this month? I have to say my favorite picture is the diva moth with second place being the driving by the cornfield and third place being the tadpole graduation.

I am ready for whatever August brings!

Pineapple Weed Vs. Black Medic

 May and June are the best time of year to gather Pineapple Weed buds. Pineapple Weed has petal-less flowers that make really calming tea, in fact Pineapple Weed is closely related to Camomile. Pineapple Weed loves poor quality soil like driveways and empty lots. I love the smell of the buds. I like to squeeze a bud between my fingers and sniff the fruity aroma. It smells kinda like....... pineapple!

 Another yellow bud that is about the same size that grows in the same places is Black Medic aka Yellow Trefoil.

Can you see the difference? Above is Black Medic. Below is Pineapple Weed.

And here they are growing side by side:

Black Medic is a legume and has clover type leaves.

Pineapple Weed has feathery leaves.

The buds of Pineapple Weed mature into seeds. The seeds fall off of the flower head leaving cone shaped spires.

And hopefully they fall on some poor quality soil and grow a bunch more Pineapple Weed next year!

Nanking Cherry | Wild Edible

 

I have learned a new wild edible. This is the Nanking Cherry. They are succulent tart little cherries grown on a shrub.

Do you remember this flower that bloomed in March that I saw during my morning walks but didn't know what kind of flowers is was?

Now on my morning walks I see these cherries. I was able to look up the shrub now that it has leaves and berries and make a sure identification.

Nanking Cherries are a drought resistant shrub. I need to get a bunch of these planted in my yard. I think they would make a great hedge. The cherries are tart, delicious, and prolific. All along each branch there are cherries up and down. They would make good pies and jam I think. The trouble would be getting the pits out. They have a miniature cherry pit in each fruit. 

 For further reading check out this page:

https://www.foragecolorado.com/post/nanking-cherry-prunus-tomentosa-foraging-identification

Nature This Week

 

Can you smell the lovely Lilac perfume through your screen? 

A baby bunny burrow. They were so new!

A rat snake. Everyone wanted a turn holding it.

We found some morels! My first time mushroom hunting since being married. 

These oak flowers, catkins, were so pretty in the afternoon sun. Much like earrings dangling, all eye catching in the sunlight.

April showers..............

Bring May flowers. ☺️

Fields of Purple

 

There are a few types of purple flowers that show up in early spring and cover the fields with their vivid hue. I can sometimes confuse two of these ground covers: Henbit and Purple Dead Nettle.

  The flowers in the pictures here are Henbit.

Purple Dead Nettle is another purple plant that will cover fields at this time of year. The top foliage is actually where a majority of the purple display comes from. The flowers are also purple but they don't stand out quite as much. 

I don't have any pictures of Purple Dead Nettle that I personally took. I found the picture below on Pixabay.

I found a very helpful web page on Identify that Plant .com that has good pictures and explanations on how to identify these purple plants. Please check it out if these topics interest you! They have a lot of good pictures and even talk about a third plant that can be mistaken for these two: Creeping Charlie. 

A New Wild Edible For Me!

This is called Autumn Olive. I learned this wild edible from a the website: North East Superfoods. Here is link to the Autumn Olive article on North East Superfoods .com. I recommend that you read their article. They have good pictures and explain how to distinguish Autumn Olive from the poisonous Honeysuckle (pictured below). Once you know what to look for it is hard to confuse the two. They are quite different.

Autumn Olive have one pit. (Like tiny plums.)

Honeysuckle have multiple seeds per berry.

Autumn Olive are speckled.

Honeysuckle have no speckles.

Autumn Olive have red flesh 

Honeysuckle have orange gel.

Those are the main ways to tell the berries apart besides all the differences in leafs.

We liked the flavor of the Autumn Olives. They were tart and mildly sweet. They had a good amount of flavor. They were not bland. If I had to compare it to another fruit I would say it reminded me of a plum, the part of the plum right next to the skin. You know how plum skin has the most flavor? It is like the ratio of skin to flesh on the Autumn Olive lends to it having a more pungent flavor.

If you get a chance, check out the link and hopefully you, too, can try and enjoy Autumn Olive!

 

Pecans!

 

I was so surprised and delighted to find this pecan tree down our lane. It is not on our property but it is close to the road on an empty lot.

When I was a young girl my family would travel to Arkansas just about every October to visit my Great Uncle Tony. Down the street from his house stood a big old pecan tree in a Church yard. Uncle Tony knew the people who attended church there. He said they wouldn't mind if we collected the pecans. 

There were so many pecans on the ground. We'd fill a couple grocery sacks in a few minutes and bring them back north to enjoy for a couple weeks.

It was a special memory. Pecans were a rare treat.

I knew there was a variety of pecan that grows this far north but I had never seen one nor did I expect to. 

I could hardly believe my eyes when, as we drove by one day, I looked out at the nut clusters on this tree and thought, "Those look like pecans. Can it be?"

Yes, it can be! I walked over with the children and we picked up a few handfuls. We cracked them and enjoyed them. What a treat!