Walk on the Wildside 2

This past weekend was granddaughter time again. The house comes alive with laughter, noise, laundry and cooking! Amidst all of that, we had party for all of the April birthdays-there are 5 of them. 2 granddaughters, a daughter, a son-in-law and Hubby all were born in April. The party was NOT here this time and that made it even more fun for me. :) We did bake and frost 2 cakes, made a batch of brownies and a big bowl of from scratch coleslaw with lots and lots of help from the grands.

The adventure-a walk in the same woods of 2 weeks ago, we saved for Sunday afternoon. It was a little wet and the plants and briers had all grown some, but that didn't stop us! Our first wildflower...

is unknown, but has very tiny delicate blooms.

Next we saw Mayapples. I was thinking they should be in bloom, when one of the girls looked underneath and found the flower.

One to a plant, and you had to get low to see them, but it was well worth the effort.

The girls and I decided this one was pretty enough to bring home to my gardens, but we thought better of it and left it for the woodland creatures to enjoy. Any ideas on what it's name is?

Golden Ragwort-thanks Linda @ Garden Girl!

We visited the tadpoles again, showing the youngest granddaughter the joys of scooping them up in cupped hands. This was her first walk in the woods. Fortunately, none of the girls are squeamish and all seem to enjoy anything to do with nature. : ) Just past the pond we saw this tree with these buds. Looks almost like a honeysuckle bud, but it is a tree. Again, I need an ID.

I've saved the best for the last. At least, I think so. I am thinking it is some type of lily. It reminds me of a peace lily in shape-sort of. What do you think it is?

                              Jack in the Pulpit or Lords and Ladies-thanks to Lisa, Cheryl and Joey!

What would a walk in the woods be with out climbing on a fallen tree?

One final note. If any one would like baby maple trees, just let me know....

I have a gazillion of them!

To all those who have suffered damage from the storms and flooding, take care and know we are all praying for you.

Have a great gardening week!

A Walk on the Wild Side!

This was a Granddaughter weekend and four of them were here. The four middle ones to be exact. The two older ones are usually working or spending time with their friends and that's alright. That's what they are supposed to be doing at their age. The youngest was with her step grandma enjoying learning to ride a horse. And that is alright too, as we have to share. (I guess)

Papa was busy helping his brother plant corn. That left us free to have an adventure. After a nice lunch out, we decided to take a walk in the woods just south of our town. These woods, about 20 acres, are owned by The University of Illinois and are left completely natural except for a few semi cleared paths.



Our adventure starts.

There are always one or two who like to lead the way. :)

We were on a search for wildflowers. I was inspired by Lisa's post on wildflowers found in her area. These are wild phlox and the woods was covered in them.

The ones in more sun were lighter in color.

We found yellow violets! I would love to have some of these in my garden.

As well as the purple ones which are Illinois State Flower.

And a butterfly! Surely a survivor from last year this is a female Spicebush Swallowtail. The females have blue hind wings where the males have more green. At any rate, we were thrilled to see such a beauty.

And other wild creatures were found. This slug on a walnut was the subject of much discussion and wanting to bring it home with us. We left it where we found it. :)

Earth worms are wild creatures-aren't they??

A stink bug? We couldn't be sure.

Deer tracks were found and again were the subject of much discussion. The mud made for perfect impressions of these and what we thought were raccoon tracks. Also, we saw a huge paw print that was either of a very large dog or as Papa said later, could have been a wolf's tracks.

A very small pond was found and....

proved to be very interesting and...

full of new life. The girls tried scooping up the tadpoles to get a feel of them.

Oh no! A misstep and into the mud! Bottled water saved the day and was used to rinse mud off both feet and flip flops.

Jack-in-the-Pulpits were blooming.

Such a pretty sight.

May Apples were not blooming yet but their foliage was a brilliant chartreuse.

Someone decided she needed to collect walnuts for our squirrels at home.

I told the girls this was a gaul, but now am not sure. Any ideas?

These will soon be in full bloom. What a mass of them!

Trout lilies or Adder's Tongue are so delicate. We only found one blooming but it's beauty has us going back in a few days to see that whole area in bloom.

This is the leaf of a tree that...

had these almost spent blooms. I couldn't tell the girls what tree it was. Does anyone know?

I thought this a weed, but the girls said it was another wildflower. Does kind of look like a wild cleome doesn't it?

A small glade that is perfect for picture taking at the end of our walk on the wild side!

A Correction! and Some of This and a Little of That

Another busy week since I last posted and there has been precious little time to spend in the gardens. Fall is here and can be seen in the fading flowers, in the leaves turning and falling from the trees, and felt in the wonderfully cool nights. So much needs to be done outside and inside, as my house has suffered from massive neglect. I am sure, though, that many of you feel the same time constraints-I empathize with you. Somehow we will get it all done, we are super women after all, and what doesn't will wait for us.

Thank you to all you wished me Happy Birthday. I was really touched and it made the turning of another year older much more bearable. Rose took me to a long lunch and we sat outside in glorious weather catching up on family and of course gardening and blogging. Life long friends, we have shared much over the years and now find it so wonderful to share the world of blogging as well! My hint worked,(I can be shameless at times!) and she gave me a beautifully illustrated guide to 'Butterflies and Moths', by Paul Opler. It is a great size to carry when on a butterfly safari. Actually, the granddaughters were here this weekend and we were able to identify several from the book. They(and I) were amazed.





Now, for some clarification. In my last post, I identified this as a butterfly chrysalis and wondered what would come out of such an unusual looking cocoon. Thanks to Lisa who was the first to correctly identify it. It is a BAG WORM chrysalis. If you see one. throw it into the trash! Here I thought I was becoming somewhat knowledgeable about the world of butterflies. Nope-it's back to Butterfly 99 class! (99 is a class for people who are not up to speed in a certain subject) And yes, there is a picture of the moth and the chrysalis in my new book.

Back to my birthday for a minute-this is a bouquet my daughter and her girls gave me. It has been lovely to have it where I can see and smell these glorious roses. Now, a week later, they are still pretty and not one of them is drooping. Thank you girls for giving me such a long lasting taste of the flowers I would love to be able to grow.

There are a few new blooms at Dragonfly Corner. A different morning glory has started blooming in the wildflower patch I planted. I like this almost-pink-but-just-a-shade-darker-maybe-mauve color. It certainly brightens up the edge of the dismally gray deck.

This is the area where I planted several packets of zinnia and wildflower seeds. My thought was that they would brighten the area. Of course when I planted them the tree nearby didn't have it's leaves yet and I planted in what I thought was a sunny area. Another error in judgement in the garden. It is a shady spot only getting very late afternoon sun. They have grown like little troopers though and have bloomed in spite of my mistake. If you look at the upper right corner, you will see Thomas the cat standing on a rock inspecting the flowers. He is the town cat who graces us with his presence a few times a week. Of course if you happen to have a little extra cat food, he doesn't mind taking it off your hands. Thomas does show his appreciation now. He will let us pet him and he loves to have his head scratched.

We had been dry for more than a week when I found a few of these in our back yard. Different than I have ever seen, they are the purest white and have a very rough looking skin- most mushrooms have such smooth skin.

Twins!

And what would a post from me be without the 'Heavenly Blue' morning glory? Still blooming! I checked back and the first blooms appeared on Aug. 26. Everyday it blooms and by noon the blooms close up and die. The next morning there are dozens more taking their place. The number of blooms from this one plant must be in the hundreds! The buds just keep forming and the vine is still reaching out and entwining itself on more of the dead sunflowers. See the ornamental plum tree in the background? I fully expect to find the vines growing up that tree in a few days!

For all the complaining I did about it not being a moon flower, it has surpassed anything I have ever grown in my gardens. Well done Morning Glory! Well done!

I hope you all have a wonderful week of gardening!

****** Updated Sept. 24-8:30 pm

After some good natured coercing :) I have decided to save some 'heavenly blue' seed. This is what I found when I googled collecting seed....

Bag seedheads to capture ripening seed; collect seedhead/pod when flowers fade; allow to dry; Allow pods to dry on plant; break open to collect seeds; remove and collect seeds; properly cleaned, seed can be successfully stored .

If you would like some, I have set up an email for this blog and you can reach me by using it.