September Beautiful!

September, 2017

Our days are getting shorter but our wildflowers and other plants are showing off here in Massachusetts.  Take a wildflower walk with me - and see a couple of tiny critters too.

Evening primrose after a rain.

Evening primrose seeds.

Jewel Weed otherwise know as Touch-Me-Not.

A bee harvesting the Jewel Weed.

Large lily pad with middle "moon drop".

Green and purple.

Lily seed pod

Graceful Blue Vervain

Seed cluster

Climbing False Buckwheat - one of my favorites.

Climbing False Buckwheat vine on Winterberry

Bumblebee and buckwheat

Showy Tick-Trefoil

Monarch caterpillar on Milk Parsley (this plant is rare in these parts).

Extremely prickly Burr Thistle

The "down of a thistle" - the plant is prickly but the seeds are indeed downy.

Meadowhawk dragonfly

Tiny Green Peeper - only 1.5 inches.  He was in my last blog, but had to add him to this one too!

Last but not least - poison ivy, so pretty this time of year.

Thank you for visiting!  Please leave a comment below (you can comment if you have a google account).

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Milkweed is for Monarchs?

August & September 2017 - Concord and Tewksbury, MA

Monarch butterfly numbers are on the rise thanks to many people and organizations in North America who have worked to save them.  There are still threats, but there is hope.

Monarch butterflies need milkweed plants to survive as milkweed provides food for all phases of its life.  

But other critters seem to enjoy milkweed leaves too, for whatever reason - even just to relax in the sun!  Hope you enjoy some of the other critters I saw.  (By the way, some of the photos look like there is flash used - but it is just the sun!)

Colorful monarch caterpillars feeding on milkweed leaves.

Eat up!  This is the generation that will become the butterfly and fly thousands of miles to Mexico!

Now for some other fans of milkweed I saw...grasshoppers, a tiny frog and more!

A handsome fellow (if he is a fellow).

So Cute!  This is a 1.5 inch Green Peeper frog!  I had never seen one - but heard plenty of them as I'm sure you have! Glad I have a close-up lens.

This a nymph (baby) green stink bug.  (I had to look that up!)  At first I thought it was facing me...

...but here is the nymph turned sideways for a more realistic perspective.

This is a second grasshopper sunning on a milkweed leaf.  At least I assume it's sunning....

Another monarch caterpillar.

A bumble bee too.

I'm sure there is a whole ecosystem of beings who enjoy milkweed.  These are just some I happened to see.  

Thanks for visiting!!  Please leave a comment below if you like.

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Vermont in July

I visited Suzanne and Dustin for a day - just about 24 hours.  Emily, Dustin's sister dropped by for a while too.  We had lunch at the Stone Corral brewery while a thunder storm raged.  

In between storms, it was beautiful out!  We walked down by, and in the river as you will see.

(To view any photo larger, click on it and click the X in upper right to return.)

 

Suz, Dustin, Emily and Spike on the river path.

 You can get a feel for the day and the river - watch the video!

I was amazed by this "pumpkin" of a rock at the river!

It was too big to haul, plus it has taken maybe a hundred years for it to get so smooth in its river journeys, so why move it now?

Suz and Spike showed me around the gardens.

The mountain stream and swimming hole next to the house - running a bit fast due to lots of rain.

Spike chose a cool spot for a break!

 Thanks for joining me! 

Recent Early Spring Walks

Beautiful in pink - high bush blueberry leaf bud - ready to pop!

The Ward Reservation bog walk in Andover is just about Spring-ing!  In a couple of weeks, the tight buds will be open with blueberry blossoms, leaves, flowers and more!

Part of the flowering moss took flight and was caught on tree bark. Such tiny perfection and gorgeous colors...

This is a close up of a spider web strand on the blueberry bush.  It is reflecting the blue sky.  I never realized webs have tiny sections to them.  You can see them in this close-up. 

The Rodney Dangerfield of wetlands - the skunk cabbage gets no respect.  And it should as it is part of the Arum family - same as calla lilies and jack-in-the-pulpit!  Above is how the skunk cabbage starts out, a mass of small flowers sheltered by a purpley "spathe" - one leaf that protects the flower. Then the plant's leaves emerge and unfurl themselves!

A fiddlehead family!  

The water was right at the top of the boardwalk.  I like this photo as it shows the path of the water through the bog, the preponderance of moss, dead leaves underneath, and young trees.

 The bog boardwalk.

This is the round pond at the end of the walk - I'll be back in a few weeks to see more green.

 After the bog, you can take the stairs to the Holt Hill trail.  At the top you can see Boston, and enjoy the solstice stones.

A COUPLE OF WEEKS AGO I WAS AT GREAT MEADOWS...

A forest of cat-tails.

 This muskrat was on the back deck of his new home preening for the longest time!

Thank you for visiting "Perspectives"... 

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Fruitlands - Outdoors and Museums, Harvard, MA

Greetings,
Fruitlands, Harvard MA has been a museum and preserve for 100 years!  There are 2.5 miles of hiking along preserved open space, meadows and woods. 

You can learn about Fruitlands transcendental beginnings, history and more at www.fruitlands.org.

Looking through the field to the Shaker Museum.

Thanks to the glacier, a lake used to be on the grounds 8,000 years ago and Native Americans lived there 10,000 years ago!  There were farmers in the 1700s, a brick maker in the 1800s and a dairy farm for a good part of the 1900s.

This a small portion of the foundation of a building that housed workers for the brick making business. 

Since nature is my specialty, next are wildflower photos, and a butterfly. 

This is a male Perly Crescentspot butterfly.  I'm no expert - but I do have a butterfly book!  You can see a damselfly perched in the background too, with a pearly blue end on its body.

Now for an amazing ringed flower on a tree!

This is a highbush cranberry.  Cherrie Corey informed me these were ornamental trees likely planted long ago.  There may not be very many left in the area.

Tiny and lovely New England Aster

Japanese Honeysuckle

Woodland sunflowers - very tiny...

This is the Yellow Hawkweed.

Wild Geranium - Look at the details - and star in the middle. 

Boardwalk surrounded by wildflowers...

Thank you for walking with me!  Be sure and visit Fruitlands soon!

(Walking anywhere in the woods, protect against mosquitoes and ticks, etc.)