09.07.07 FABULOUS FUNGUS

I just could not resist adding another magnificent mushroom to this journal!

09.06.07 PERAMBULATOR

A walking stick insect, order phasmatodea--for "phantom"-- stops by the back porch just a day after I spied a much younger family member. Notice how it has hidden two of its six legs by aligning them directly along its body in line with its antennae.

09.05.07 JIGGLING JEWELS

This delightful little flower is the blossom of jewelweed, Impatiens capensis. Its plants thrive in moist shady areas where it grows about four feet tall. The tender foliage dies back when cool weather arrives but until then the mounds of green are decorated with these pendulous orange decorations. Loved by hummingbirds, the flowers jostle, jiggle, and dance in the breeze.

09.04.07 NEW BLOSSOMS

It is time for Clematis paniculata to bloom. This beautiful vine has escaped from gardens to grow wild in our area. It is covered with an abundance of small white flowers as fall begins. Around here one can easily find the plant growing along the roadside to transplant to the home garden. Or they can be purchased from White Flower Farms for $18!

09.03.07 MUSHROOM MIRACLE

Its warm, and in the woods its plenty damp, especially after a thunderstorm. By the next morning the hidden funguses of the soil have sent up their amazing "fruiting bodies," the toadstools.

09.02.07 WINGSTEM

A very tall roadside "weed," wingstem, Verbesina alternifolia, is now blooming profusely adding a rich yellow to the meadows. Here you can see it growing alongside iron weed and joe-pye weed. It gets its name from the "wings" you can see growing along its stem.

My apologies to all my readers who have visited my inactive blog the last two weeks while I have been away from my computer. I kept a number of journal entries during this time and have entered them all today. Thanks for checking in!

08.30.07 MIDWEST GUEST

This peculiar looking "fruit" is known as an Osage orange or a hedge apple, Maclura pomifera. The tree is a native of the central states and one of the few trees to be found in the dry plains. I spent much time as a child in Missouri climbing among it's thorny branches. It had become a popular plant for farmers to grow in hedgerows, a living fence to keep cattle from roaming. This specimen was photographed at the Montpelier estate where it was probably introduced by the gardener.