Month: September 2017

Creepy Coffee Cups

| Flower Roberts

Just when you think you know a plant, it morphs on you.

The Coffee Cups/West Indian Kale/Colocasia escuelenta was unhappy.

I moved it.  It loved the new spot beside the small pond.  More sun, more water…

I loved it there too, until the leaves turned into “Coffee Cup Caterpillar Crappers.”

Then the Yellow Jackets started using the leaves as their levy. They hold water you see.

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Then came the creepers. Long skinny purple arms reaching out in all directions.

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One even grew down into the fish pond.

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Since when do elephant ears have runners?

Oh well.

I love them for their swirly venation

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and their purple stems and ribsIMG_4885

and how water beads up on the leaves

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and how the curled up new leaves look like closed umbrellasIMG_4887

and the heart-shape of the leaves

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and that the baby leaves have a blue hue.

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I just love this plant, despite all its quirks.

I am glad, because it looks like I will have many more.

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FLOWER

The Poisonous Path

| Flower Roberts

I went into the woods this evening

to try to locate a lovely bracket fungi that I had photographed previously.

I needed to look up to find it,

but one must always look down while walking in the woods.

This is how I found the path…

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of white mushrooms.

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Yes, they are poisonous Amanitas.  They are lovely but deadly.

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Fear not. I was following their path, not eating them.

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A circle of these is called a fairy ring, so I thought of this as a fairy path.

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If YOU found a fairy path in the woods wouldn’t YOU follow it?

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Every ten feet or so was another cluster of lovely, glowing, white mushrooms.

It went on and on until I had to pause in awe.

There before my very eyes was the Mother of all mushrooms.

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It was big enough to wear as a hat.

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It was a magical adventure. I am so lucky.

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The FLOWER follows a poisonous path through the woods and survives to tell the tale.

What can we learn from Fungi?

| Flower Roberts

There is devastation in Texas, Mexico, Florida and many of the Islands below Florida.

Once all the power and water are back on, there is a big souvenir pile left.

Debris. Non-biodegradable. Non-reusable. Trash.

Soggy sheet rock, insulation, plastics, moldy furniture, ruined appliances and cars…

Dig a hole? Throw it in it?  Have you forgotten the water table below?

Nature experiences its own devastation.

Who cleans up?

Fungi.

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They break down the dead trees and leaves and return the nutrients to the soil.

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This isn’t the end of the story.

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Things eat the mushrooms. They are food for the living, while living off of the dead.

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That’s called a cycle. The circle of life.

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Until we humans figure out we are all part of this same web,

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we may end up in one of these holes we keep digging.

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FLOWER

Finding the Falls

| Flower Roberts

Across the lake, past the island, under the bridge,

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around the bend, through the farm pond

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left of the rushes and mallows,

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up the creek, under the hornet’s nest

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through the floating fungi,

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over the sand bar, down by the liverworts

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toward the sound of running water, up to the rocks

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there is a lovely little water fall.

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FLOW

 

An Evening Walk in the Woods

| Flower Roberts

I took a walk down our road this evening.

I wanted to photograph two of our wildflowers.

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Jewelweed/ Impatiens capensis/Touch me nots

The orange Jewel weed was being molested by a group of hummingbirds.

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They were zipping through the patch, shaking the plants and making all kinds of racket.

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Periodically one would sit and rest on the nearby Pokeberry weed.

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I also wanted to get some pictures of hearts-a-bustin’.

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Hearts-a-bustin/ Euonymus americanus

I cut across my neighbors’ property on the way home.

I found even more fungi.

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Red -belted polypore/ bracket fungi

This snail is having this knocked-over-one for supper.

IMG_4304I gave it back after the photo.

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Amanita ? Poisonous ? Never eat tall white.

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‘Tis the season!

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Snail on a mushroom on a tree. Food chain!

Snails love their ‘shrooms!

Wild FLOWER

Up River

| Flower Roberts

If you want to go where it’s cool and quiet, go up river.

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As you travel, you feel you are leaving everything behind.

Floating between the water and sky with the wind in your hair,

Quietly cruising past the lazy life along the river.

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The air gets cooler as the water gets colder.

It’s time to soak in some sunshine.

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Sit on the shore.

Maybe hang out with Huck Finn

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or lay low with only a couch and a cooler.

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The only sounds are quiet sounds up river.

The wind passing through the grasses,

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and the water lapping the shore,

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or the an eagle flapping its wings.

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the splash of a fish or the plop of a turtle leaving its log.

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Life is slow up river.

We know when we turn around,

that we will yearn for this peace.

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But the wind blows us and the current takes us back to our lives.

Waiting for us to get busy again.

FLOW

 

 

 

Go Find Some Fungi

| Flower Roberts

When the ground is too soggy to dig in,

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Witches’ butter

I put on my rubber shoes and go mushroom hunting.

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Ringless Honey mushrooms

I do not eat what I find.

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Splash Cup

I like my liver too much to risk eating a poisonous fungus.

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Turkey tail polypore

This snail is enjoying a snack.

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I only know common names of some of these.  Please forgive my ignorance.

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Violet toothed polypore

I have always been fascinated by fungi.

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Maybe I should start another blog called fungialley.

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Russula

I consider fungi both beautiful and beneficial.

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Clitocybe? (some are poisonous others edible)

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I took all these photos this past weekend in my yard and in the woods behind my house.

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I did go out in a kayak and found some floating fungi.  That will be another post.

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If a reader knows the true identifications of any of these, please send me a message.

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FLOWER loves fungi.

No Sedum? You Need’um.

| Flower Roberts

In September most flowers are drying up and needing dead-heading.

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Not the sedums. They have been slowly stretching out their clusters of green buds.

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As the tiny flowers open the entire head blushes with color.

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You don’t need to look to know if they are blooming, you can HEAR it.

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Each colorful head is full of all kinds of bumble bees, honey bees, wasps, butterflies, moths and lightening bugs.

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It’s like a party on every plant.

FLOWER