A butterfly in azaleas taken last week at Biltmore in North Carolina where we visited after the Biologos conference. Seek says an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail
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Few nights ago chopped up red beets and cooked them in liquid smoke. Cooked some broccoli, cauliflower and carrots. Black beans with jalapeños. Some wild chanterelles I picked and cooked in some kind of rose wine. I prefer cooking with red wine. But thought rose wine would go a bit better with chanterelles. A chopped up veggie burger. Was good enough of a meal. Been craving beets a lot lately.
The last mushrooms was a species of Amanita. Maybe I shared it before. Found it in the last 2 weeks or so.
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I was guessing pond scum, and then I saw the photo’s name. That’s some beautiful, magical-looking pond scum!
Thanks. I may try to take some more tomorrow, but it is hard on the back.
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I noticed a bunch of those in the lot where the church down the street tore down a house it had used for years as an office. I’ve already dug up a few and put them out where I do conservation work, and plan to grab the rest for my own place. After all, they’re planning to use it as a parking lot!
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I should snap some images of the trilliums in my flower bed. It was a small patch until fifteen years ago a cousin and I organized a “rebuild Aunt Betty’s porch” conspiracy (my mom and dad wouldn’t have accepted money to do it or someone paying to have it done, but with seven cousins and three children pitching in to do it ourselves they were cornered). We tried to carefully work around the trilliums but seriously disturbed the soil. After the project was done, I got a small load of bark dust; first I stirred a layer of it into the soil and spread it all evenly, then spread the rest on top to make it look nice. The next (very early) spring instead of about a dozen trilliums sprouting I counted thirty-four; the year following it was forty-two; this year I think it’s reached sixty (and that’s after I relocated eight to a different flower bed). Obviously trillium seeds want disturbed soil to sprout in!
What caught my attention last week was that among the usually all-white ones there were two with purple on the blossoms. It has me wondering if the purple is a recessive trait that just got manifested, or if pollen got brought in from somewhere else, or if this is a mutation?
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An assortment of things from my hike today. Was going to hike tomorrow but they asked for OT and I always volunteer. Good hours. 3am-330pm Sunday until Friday.
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I used to imagine those were little pixie huts where the fairies who made mistletoe bloom lived.
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Entirely appropriate over there on the West side – near Holland, MI and all those Reformed folks!
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Who’s your pearly friend there?
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The mushroom?
It’s the silky rosegill.
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Thanks.
I really meant the snake.
: )
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I see. I read pearly and thought maybe you meant white like the mushroom.
The snake is a gray rat snake.
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Thanks. Pretty.
I think snakes feel like they are covered with pearls or seed beads.
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You may like these close ups of their scales then. Showing off the barely visible shades.
Also the light on their wings looks cool. A damsel fly of some sort.
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All that makes me think on how feathers and even hair are related to scales–and how marvelous it is.
Thank you.
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Super! Thanks!
Is that the snake’s belly side, then? I’ve never been close enough to examine so well. Or see the way ther skin shows between the scales, and what that skin is like.
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