A false liatris in front of a pinewoods hibiscus. Was wanting to see how well the creamish color of the broader hibiscus help highlight the slender purple color of the false liatris.
Wow. I wonder if that hibiscus is the one I use to make gumbo, okra. I met a fellow named Mike from Devon on an old online gardening forums called Moosey’s created by a lady from New Zealand. Small world. He used to post photos of the garden he and his mother were developing in Devon. So when I planned my only trip to England in 2008 I made plans for us to spend three nights at their B&B. From there we drove to sights all around the SW corner.
Their two acre garden was surrounded by high walls. Your pitcher plants reminded me of their bog garden. When I last looked for it online it was no more. Lovely people. I hope they landed okay.
Essentially, because North Carolina has not had significant glaciers since the Cryogenian (~670 Ma), and anything inland of the Sandhills isn’t flat enough for lakes to form in many other ways. This contrasts with Michigan having had very recent extensive glaciation. Most of the lakes in the northern US, Canada, Europe, and northern Asia are glacial in origin.
The few natural lakes present in the Southeastern US are almost all in very flat areas (a few blocked off montane valleys, and oxbow lakes/ponds are the exceptions). All (that I know of) formed by one of the following means (examples in parentheses): a preexisting depression in a limestone layer filled with water (Okeechobee), a large river changed course (Pontchartrain or oxbows), a slight depression had water pushed by prevailing wind circulate and slowly erode it larger (Carolina bays, like Waccamaw and Drummond), or a marsh peat deposit caught fire and created a depression (probably Mattamuskeet). Virtually all of these lakes are less than 10-15 ft deep, and average about 3.
I grew up hearing that Caddo Lake is the only natural lake in Texas, only to find when confirming it for this post that it is only semi-natural, having formed from a log jam, but later dammed to preserve the lake once the log jam was cleared. And, a number of small oxbow type lakes do exist, though no lakes of size that are not man made. Caddo lake is on my list to visit. The Texanist: Is There Really Only One Natural Lake in Texas? – Texas Monthly
that is really interesting–Thanks! I know that Lake Michigan came from glaciers. It seems that everywhere we go here, there are lakes–but I know that the Canadian Shield, which extends through Minnesota, Wisconsin, and the Upper Peninsula made lots of thin soiled, multi-laked areas. I Googled it, and found it fascinating that only a portion of the Minnesota and Wisconsin lakes are even named.
These are some of the “to look at even more closely”, many to photograph, out of about a thousand from one of the recent sampling efforts (~300 kg of material). The specimens in view contain at least 8 genera (maybe-pyramidellids are a woefully undersampled mess), and about 25 species. Whoever reads this first is the fifth human to ever see these or pictures of these.
The last time we were at Tahquamenon Falls people made little rock towers all over the place in and near the river. (It’s a thing here.) There are loads of great rocks for this in the shallow river with a slate bottom.
Related to that, I recently saw this in a publication from our DNR (Michigan’s Department of Natural Resources). I thought it was interesting, particularly after having lost any kind of interest in the rock stacks after seeing the 429th one in one day.
I first saw rock stacks back in 1981 while doing a rotation in Hawaii near some petroglyphs. They have since grown in popularity and one town nearby has an annual festival that features a rock stacking contest. So, it has been around a while. And like you say, it has gone from interesting to annoying. https://www.llanoearthartfest.org/rockstacking
Also, snacking on candy corn and black licorice with this pumpkin spice soda I saw. In the last 3 said I’ve already worked 39 hours and so I decided to get candy and soda while watching some new African horror movie. It was filmed mostly in USA I think but the director was from the Congo and it’s predominantly an African cast. Focused on African folk lore. My cat is the same colors as my snack. She was smelling, not allowed to eat even if she wanted too. My favorite way to relax is watching films with my cats or listening to a podcast or reading a book with them. I’ll probably get another third one soon. Though I’m also thinking maybe it’s a good time for me to go ahead and get a smaller dog. Then later on I’ll get a larger dog again. Though I may get a rat xd.
Great share about rock stacks. I appreciate that for some it is a bit of fun and for others, it is a way to connect with nature, and I am all for both of those things, for sure. And yet, every one of those rocks is a microhabitat. When they are removed from the river, the microbial life on the stone dies and the river water sweeps away the nutrients trapped under the stone.
Not to mention it is one less place for inverts (like dragonfly larvae) to shelter. If someone flattened a village or burned down a cornfield there would be uproar, but it is not that much different when someone pulls a bunch of rocks out of the river.
And of course, as you said, after rock stack number 178698629845692847659823475 it does start to get a bit old.
That’s funny. It was at the shore below the Urquhart Castle ruins and there was a presumably BBC crew taping a children’s show of some sort, because there were people in silly costumes and cameras and lights. One of the crew called down to me and said “Be careful, you’ll wake up Nessie!” I haven’t gotten the impression that Nessie was supposed to have tentacles though.
Speaking of okra, was out picking and snapped a few pics. Okra has pretty flowers, much like its relative cotton. Here in full farmer mode. The okra this year has really grown, tallest stalks over 9 feet tall.
I haven’t gotten the impression that Nessie was supposed to have tentacles though.
