backyard collage, floral edition

isn’t she lovely? Bouquet

Picked myself an early bday bouquet as the asters have about had enough of cool mornings and the marigolds and roses aren’t amused, either.

  

spring, Bobby: Morel hunting is the WORST hunting I’ve been party to

–the one thing I did find was my 1st tick-bite of the year

Not only is it plant hunting but … we found none. I took photos as I searched and went into the front creek after giving up. Bobby got to enjoy some swimmins when we got back to the house. -he swims 3,278 times a day in our ponds anyway but it’s always fresh for him!

Missouri Wildflowers -helps identify by colour

Basic (Missouri) Mushrooming -don’t miss several linked articles at bottom for related articles

Lichens of Lower Ozarks -for the serious wildcrafter, this is a paper by a member of MOBOT

Our Front Creek is part of the Big River Watershed -we’re in the nice, mixed-y-up area towards the bottom with the best variety of geo-formations

Videos as links to my flickr, below photos…

 

baby wild carrots

Bobby and Himses Pond (one of them)

methinks a fawn femur, given size

determined white oak roots clinging to the side of a ravine

mmm, shaley goodness

I’m crap at rock identification but I think the orange might be granite. Honestly, I took this for Cha0tic, whom I thought would like these two more colourful ones

sun! (reflexion)

purple hyacinths and Bobby on the wrong side of a fence

everything around here is tumbled down, it’s a very Ozarks sight

robust moss, less-so wild fern

fawn (reckon) vertebrae

unsure: tree ear fungus?

you can’t tell but this is 20 feet down a ravine where a bunch of our chat washed, which is also a common Ozarks phenomenon. Put 20 tonnes of chat on a road, next year 2/3 of it will be Elsewhere. #Incline

redbud blossoms

wee mandrake/ mayapples…they’ll grow up 10x this size or if you know what a full-grown plant looks like, this is at 1/10th

Bobby in full swim (about 15 feet deep where he’s crossing).

Front creek.

Spring Forward: # 1niece’s peach tree

The buds are just starting! It has been WELL below freezing for weeks but mental Midwest weather has reminded us that it can get warm fast. – 60 degree F shifts in a given day has never been unusual here

Insects and plants alike are waking up!



some photos of Naked Ladies

Or ‘Surprise Lilies’ as they’re called round a bouts h’ya.

Medium:

Closer:

For perspective, they’re moderately tall, suppose–foot as point of reference.

Peach and vines and needles

The peach is on #1niece’s poor tree. It’s much assaulted by pestilence but at least alive, which is a notch higher than the other nieces’ dead trees!

The others are wild.

garden

We needed rain desperately and got some! The garden will hopefully be happier but everything went in late (long winter) and then we had no moisture, so whatever’s up is sort of mealy — except the asparagus which regularly produced a gallon a day. -except when it doesn’t, fickle Mother Nature

I noticed yesterday that anything that managed to bloom seems to be violet!

 

Flora: wildflowers

These are amazingly fragrant, as you’d expect!

I only pick when there are loads more or you’d see a wider variety (over-harvesting could ruin the ‘colony’).

Last night’s walk showed many ‘pop ups’ from the insanely-hot day (for spring). It was 90F/ 30C. Tomorrow’s low will be nearer freezing — although we don’t expect it, we could still get a hard freeze!

This high temp belongs in July but here it is! Tree frogs (extremely loud, unlike the joyous noise of spring peepers) are coming out, Mayapples and Dogwood peeked out and a WASP!

‘Down in the Pawpaw Patch’ the tropical fruit of the Ozarks

Already out of fashion by my teens, apparently Missouri’s Department of Conservation and neighboring state universities are trying to bring it back!

Once well known to early explorers and settlers in Missouri, the pawpaw tree (Asimina triloba) is but a faint childhood memory for many. Some who know the old children’s song by heart wouldn’t know a pawpaw tree if they saw one…

The first written description of the pawpaw tree was recorded during DeSoto’s expedition into the Mississippi Valley in 1541. However, fossil records indicate the pawpaw’s ancestors were members of a tropical plant family and were present in North America millions of years before the arrival of humans.

I don’t know the Bros. Stark but they sell ’em.

Here’s a GREAT article (layman’s terms) that tells about all you wanted to know but never knew to ask about pawpaws by Cynthia Andre.

That I can recall, we don’t have any pawpaws on the ranch but they grow nearby. I remember eating them raw as a kid. Dad’ll also bring in The Best Pears of the Universe from an old grove that was planted circa Civil War. Now, it’s buried in the middle of the woods but I can tell you what you already do know: there’s nothing like ripe, directly off the vine/ tree/ shrub freggies!

Gram sang this all.the.time!

Also don’t know this fellow–he appears to be a Northerner–but at least he’s singing a good song AND playing uke.

The wee one reminds me TOO MUCH of Lil Lily.

‘Mo…’