The wildflowers above were growing on the rocks at the beach. The garden flowers below were planted around the flag pole in front of Tyler House. Muggy days…
Her body moved with the frankness that comes from solitary habits. But solitude is only a human presumption. Every quiet step is thunder to beetle life underfoot; every choice is a world made new for the chosen. All secrets are witnessed.
~ Barbara Kingsolver
(Prodigal Summer)
Hi Barbara. Cheers to the joys of wildflowers. Hope all is well & have a good holiday weekend!
Thank you, Frank! Looks like good weather here for Independence Day, wishing you the same!
astonishing lichen. Never seen anything like that in lichen before
That lichen really caught my eye, too, Leelah! So many wonders to behold…
Thanks for this gallery of beautiful life in many forms, Barbara. I loved the lichen photo, and the pink flower at the end attracted me too. The Barbara Kingsolver quote went beautifully with this series of witnessed secrets. I’m glad you are enjoying your summer days.
Thank you, Jet. Those were my favorite photos, too. I’ve never seen a lichen quite like that before. This is the second summer I’ve noticed the rabbit-foot clover growing in the rocks, it’s not native. Fun to wonder how it got here but it will be keeping its sunny secret.
All secrets are witnessed.
I love that line. Profoundly true, while politely circumspect.
Ah yes, the amazing Barbara Kingsolver weaves her words most judiciously. I hope she will come out with a new novel soon!
Nice walk. I have found the Seek app is awesome for identifying plants.
Thanks for the suggestion — will run it by tech support (husband) to see if it might work for me.
One more day and we get a break from the heat. It is tough staying inside all day long! 😉
I think your mystery flower is a Lobelia inflata, an eastern native.
or another possibility: blue toadflax (Nuttallanthus canadensis).
It’s a little cooler today, but still oppressively humid. Ugh! The weekend looks promising, though. Thanks for weighing in on the flower id. My field guide is short on colors but both of your suggestions seem plausible. Next time I go down there I will try to get a better picture, less blurry if the sun is out. That might help!
It’s nice to look down as often as looking up. Barbara Kingsolver is one of my favorite authors. I thought I had read all her works but I just checked and her latest, UNSHELTERED, is new to me. I’ve put it on my list. Thanks for that nudge.
You’re welcome! I’m delighted to connect with another Barbara Kingsolver fan! I have read “Unsheltered” but, like you, I was surprised to discover she came out with a book of poetry last year, “How to Fly (In Ten Thousand Easy Lessons).” It’s been ordered and is supposed to arrive tomorrow. I’m looking forward to devouring it!
I enjoyed you wildflower sightings, very nice, especially love your last photo, the flower pushing up and through the grass, making sure it is getting its chance to proudly display to the world!
Thank you, Donna! The last photo tickled me pink. 😉 The flower seemed to be way ahead of the other buds poking through the dewy greenery… It’s fun seeing the world from a beetle’s perspective sometimes.
Late to arrive here, Barbara, thanks to buckets of rain all week. Finally, we got a cool front through, so maybe we can dry out before the mosquitoes show up. Lovely wildflowers you’ve photographed for us!
Thank you, Debbie! We’re getting the buckets of rain now and today we’re supposed to get the lowest high temperature for this date since records have been kept. Roller coaster weather! Mosquitoes do have a way of spoiling a summer mood…
I’m with you Barbara – one of Summer’s joys is seeing the wildflowers, all Mother Nature’s doing. I recently went on a walk at a nature preserve and came home with about 20 shots of wildflowers. I’d like to think I can I.D. them, but may be stuck and will be leaving blanks/???s like you. I recently bought a small paperback book on Michigan wildflowers since I don’t have a smartphone to help I.D. on the spot and I find looking on the screen doesn’t always pinpoint what it is. The lichen and moss photo looks like a turtle!
To me, wildflowers seem to be more difficult to identify than birds! Even my brother-in-law, who is a botanist, seems stumped at times. I have a couple of wildflower field guides but they are so crammed with black-and-white sketches of the flowers that it’s just about impossible for me to discern the differences in the detailed drawings. Maybe in the future I’ll try to make more of an effort to navigate the Connecticut Botanical Society website…
They all start to look alike after a while Barbara. I looked through quickly today and he does separate them by petals, leaves and color, plus they are only Michigan flowers which would narrow it down, but there are 278 different wildflowers per his book. Maybe for something fun, I’ll do the post without flower names and repost next Spring with the same flowers, having identified them … depends on how successful I am. 🙂
I wish you the best of luck! 🙂 I am constantly amazed at the endless variety of wildflower pictures posted in the “Wildflowers of North America” Facebook group.
I need luck! I see three kinds of daisies in one location … one is very tiny, the other two are either in a clump or a single stalk. I can’t even I.D. that. A fellow blogger has home schooled her two young children as her little girl has a serious heart condition so she tries to keep them both from coming home with the usual colds or childhood diseases. She’s done this for a few years, not just due to COVID. She does these elaborate science experiments, plus they go on these little field trips to identify birds, bugs, leaves. In Michigan we celebrate the centennial of our state parks this year. I heard about a site for teaching your kids about birds, insects, wildflowers and experiments. So I took a look … those kids probably know more than me as I was clueless. I’m going to pass along the site to her as it looked very fun.
Those childhood years between 6-12 are so special, when kids are just intensely interested in learning anything and everything, without the power struggles of the toddler and teen years… 🌼🌼🌼