The botanical garden was deserted during our 13th heat advisory day of the summer. Except for butterflies, who seemed to be thriving under the hot sun. The only reason I was there was to take a picture for Karma’s “same location for all 4 seasons” photo hunt. Tim circled the parking lot in the air conditioned car and picked me up when I was done.
I trust you didn’t have to stay outside in that heat for too long getting the photo you wanted! Hasn’t this been awful? Usually, we can count on a nice cool front coming through every few days during the summer months — not so this year. It got HOT and has stayed that way. The beauty of the swallowtail and pretty flower isn’t lost on me though!
I was out there for less than five minutes, and it would have been even less had I not stopped to get a couple of pictures of the butterfly! It has been perfectly awful, even just getting in and out of the car to go food shopping and do a few errands is physically taxing in this heat. The crepe myrtles are very happy, though, blooming like crazy!
A friend of mine was there yesterday for a long while with her two very active grandkids. You would have noticed, so I suppose you didn’t overlap. Nice photo.
Thank you, Susan! It’s funny, the parking lot was full but I didn’t see a single person. I was only there for a few minutes, though, and there were signs pointing to two indoor activities.
You are dedicated! Stay cool. 🙂
Sometimes I can be stubbornly single-minded! 🙂
👏🏼
Well your Spicebush Swallowtail on the pretty flowers made up for the inconvenience of having to go out in this sauna bath, plus you got the coveted photo for the four-season challenge. Let’s hope by the next season’s visit you will be donning a sweater.
I had to laugh, when I got to where I take the four season photo someone had put a portable sign in the exact spot where I stand. I didn’t dare move it so I stood behind it. The picture was just a mass of green vegetation, it’s hard to tell where one tree begins and another ends.
That is funny. One year I stood in the fork in the path at Council Point Park to take a photo for each season, then made a collage of all four seasons. I measured how many feet from the fork to be as exact as possible.
I remember your nice collage of the four seasons. That was a good idea to measure. I think I found a different spot to try for next year, which will make for a little more empty space in the picture. As long as they don’t move the park bench I’m going to stand next to!
That’s a good idea. I’m glad I made the collage while the “going was good” – maybe I’ll have to try again once the native plants are large enough to make a statement at the shoreline. Right now, it is just Chickory and Queen Anne’s Lace. There was a small Sunflower I noticed one day and I knew it was probably from a seed one of my furry or feathered friends dropped and it was plowed over by the heavy machinery. I didn’t have the camera that day as I was going on errands right from my walk. Next day it was gone – someone must have picked it (or ate it?) I have seen a few tinges of red leaves – that is the saplings you told me are Sumac.
I bet a deer was the one who enjoyed eating that sunflower! The internet says sunflowers are a delectable choice for white-tailed deer. 🙂 How nice of a squirrel to plant a snack for another woodland creature.
I’ve raised those squirrels well haven’t I Barbara? 🙂 That’s what I get for not taking the camera with me – a missed opportunity. Speaking of deer, I was sad to see the Nottingham Nature Nook post today of the poor fawns with chemical burns from pesticides and herbicides. I’ve never seen that type of burns that went through fur. Poor baby.
You certainly have raised your squirrels well, Linda! 🙂 The pictures of the fawns with those burns finally came up in my Facebook feed, what a tragic consequence of people’s obsession with perfect lawns and gardens. Too many animals are paying the price for us not living more in harmony with the natural world.
I am happy to say that there are now about as many squirrels clamoring for peanuts as before – I still think we have some that have migrated to the neighborhood due to lack of trees after the “project” began. I say that as I get “hit up” for peanuts in the neighborhoods near the Park. 🙂
That was very sad and Cheryl said there were others. I am not sure what is going on with Facebook. The Feeds for “all” don’t give you “all” and sometimes posts appear days later (as happened to you with the fawn). If you pick “Pages” or “Favorites” I don’t see anything but news sites I follow.
That’s good news about the squirrels! 🙂 I know you love getting hit up for those peanuts. 😉 Facebook is such a mystery and it even seems to have its moods. Sometimes I think I’m just following too many pages…
Yes, I was pleased to see them again – starting to feel like old times with them and Harry the Heron is back too. I’ll be doing another update the beginning of September. Yesterday I saw the geese had returned and gathered near the walking path and some ducks were in the Creek again … they are done molting. Now if it only didn’t look so terrible. They will plant native plants, according to Friends of the Detroit River and also a woman who coordinates the Ecorse Creek Cleanup Events. I took pics of the crew cleaning up the Creek back in 2022 for a blog post and was chitchatting with some of the volunteers and said I followed them on Facebook and offered to send the photos I took of them, which I did – so Kelly reached out to me a couple of weeks ago about how bad it looked there. She did not organize any cleanup here this Summer because of it. We chatted back and forth and I told her what the mayor said about “the animals are fine” and native plants would be planted. She reached out to the Friends of the Detroit River to follow-up with what I told here and messaged me back that yes, they will do this in about six months (that would be Winter though ???), weather permitting, all along the shoreline. It took from May to July for the weeds and wildflowers to grow waist high, so does that mean it will look bad most of the Summer? Maybe tall grasses might help.
As to Facebook, I give up with it too. I now have a crib sheet of sites I follow that don’t show up … if I select “Groups” I get all kinds of groups, including suggestions. I have a friend I’ve known since high school who posts about 25 times a day – she reposts those “shorts” from wherever, (Facebook, YouTube??), all day long, so I stopped looking at her posts … like you, I like sites I follow but enough is enough. I just unfollowed a blogger from Australia. I enjoyed his posts about native flora and fauna, but posting six or seven posts daily (all for Challenges), I just had enough.
Our cardinals are molting now. Not looking their best — lol! That’s too bad that Ecorse Creek won’t get cleaned up this summer, but I hope they will get into a good schedule (and keep it up) in the coming years. The crib sheet for Facebook is an interesting idea. I have so many little notepads surrounding my laptop. Sometimes I surprise myself finding a note I made months ago that got lost in the shuffle. So many ideas, so many plans!
Yes, the cardinal minus the crest and black “mask” is pretty woeful looking isn’t it? I like my “notes” document on my desktop and that’s where I put it to ensure I look at my favorite sites – not what Facebook tells me is my favorite sites. I copy and paste the “notes” document into a Word document and like you I find a lot of treasures I “jotted down” months ago.
Maybe that’s one of my problems, I don’t use a word processing program! I think Tim installed one for me but I had trouble navigating it and gave up trying to figure it out.
You are typing right into the post then. I did that with my Osprey Pick-up Sticks post as I didn’t have a word processing program on that computer. I am still using the Windows 7 for now as I can do everything but create posts. I hate new things which is why I never switched to Windows 10 … now I have no choice unfortunately.