Tuesday, April 26, 2005

Where I walk



One of the farm roads.

The perfect combination of rain, early warm weather, and no late frosts has made for a wonderful wildflowery spring.

I've never seen crossvine in such profusion.




An explosion of ginger.




An embarrassment of foamflower.




Unfortunately the poison ivy is doing very well also.




Maybe it's time to mow.




Summer is hard on the heels of spring. Wood Thrushes are playing their flutes. We've seen lightning bugs!

19 comments:

  1. Anonymous9:06 AM

    Lovely, enjoy.

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  2. Anonymous9:28 AM

    Lots of crossvine and foamflower here also. I didn't know the name for crossvine until I read this post. It has truly been a perfect Spring.

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  3. We have foam flower (the deer like to eat it) and, unfortunately Poison Oak, also. I have some ginger growing in my yard but it certainly doesn't look like that...wish it did.

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  4. Your summer may be coming on, but winter is still fighting with spring here. Our daffodils which semed crushed below snow the other day have lfted their heads again. Amazing.

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  5. I realized that I forgot to include the latin names.

    Crossvine, a.k.a. Trumpet Creeper: Bignonia capreolata

    Deciduous Ginger: Asarum canadense

    Foamflower: Tiarella cordifolia

    Poison ivy: Rhus dermatitis

    I wish I could remember latin names - I keep having to look them up. Maybe if I blog about them often enough I'll have better luck remembering. :)

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  6. That country road looks right out of a dreamscape, so perfectly lush and green.
    I've never seen anything like crossvine before. Just beautiful. It must be pretty hot there already.

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  7. Oh, trumpet creeper - of course. "Crossvine" is a cool name, too.

    Our foamflower is up and ready to bloom as soon as the weather turns warm again. But here in PA, we won't see fireflies until June. Just glowworms in the grass now.

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  8. After the day I've had, I'm ready to swap places with you. Just let me know when...

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  9. Hick, there is evergreen ginger too, but I don't seem to have that one here. Some people call the flowers "little brown jugs", but my Mom's family always calls them "pigs"!

    My husband always accuses me of fondling the ginger since I'm fond of looking for the flowers.

    Anvilcloud, I saw that pic and it's a good one - good analogy too.

    My grandmother always called crossvine "cow itch"!

    RD, it was warm but the past week it's gotten cool again. We actually had frost yesterday, which I think was a record. Luckily it was a light one.

    At first I thought I was seeing things when we noticed the lightning bugs... haven't seen them again which is strange.

    Dave I don't think I've ever seen a glowworm. Not even sure what they are.

    MM would I get your cute kids too???

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  10. Thanks for the pics. In particular, your green filled road made my day. I've been stuck inside because of an asthma flareup and am being a right and proper grump about losing even one day of our short spring (I live about 20 miles from Dave). We're in the cloudy, rainy, cool part of spring, but I still love to walk about in the large park behind my apartment to see what plant has decided winter is over and what bird has claimed which nesting site. Aren't four seasons a joy?

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  11. Anonymous1:41 AM

    I just love wild ginger, it's one of my favorites.

    I wish we had crossvine here, it's gorgeous!

    -Sarah
    http://www.slaphog.com/sarahblog/

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  12. Anonymous4:58 AM

    Great photos, as usual! Crossvine is new for me. I've never seen it. I just bought "Appalachian Wildflowers" by Thomas E.Hemmerly so now I can look up some of your flowers.
    Meanwhile, in southern Ontario, we just had another snowfall on Sunday. Our Daffodils were having to fight the weight too. Ours too have survived.
    One last note: Rhus dermatitis is the skin condition caused by poison ivy. I think poison ivy's Latin name is Rhus radicans. I have to look up most Latin names too. They just don't stick with me. When I double checked "radicans" I also found that it is a subspecies called "Rhus radicans ssp negundo" that climbs trees. We have both here in Southern Ontario but they do not grow too much further north. Just thought you would like to know....

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  13. Handdrummer, the older I get the worse my outdoor allergies get.. I never had any as a kid but now after a day spent outside it seems like my lungs shrink. Ugh!

    Sarah I'm surprised you don't have it - the climate seems right. It's usually pretty far up in trees... could you have missed it?

    Dean - D'oh! Thanks for correcting me! That's what I get for not double-checking. I tend to look the latin names up online since most of my books are older and so many names have changed. But I got in a hurry on this one. I don't have that book - let me know if you think it's a good one.

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  14. I have a wood thrush. He lives in Riverside Park, half a block away. Last summer, his tumbling flute song echoed between the buildings of 106th Street.

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  15. Anonymous4:42 PM

    I love your pictures. When I come here every morning, it's like going for a walk in the woods or on the river banks...

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  16. Sarah, never mind... I haveno idea why I persist in thinking that you are in AR when you're actually in OR. I'm insane.

    Charles it's nice to know there are birds like that in the city!

    Thanks Jenny!

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  17. Anonymous9:16 AM

    These are all really beautiful photos.

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  18. Please, please...stop y'all. It's still winter here in northern Illinois. I had to scrap ice off my windows this morning.

    Love the photo of the road, but where's the road? I can barely see a rut. Lovely flower photos but WHERE'S THE KUDZU???

    I want to see pics of kudzu eating Volkswagens!

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  19. Bite your tongue! No kudzu in our little corner and I pray it doesn't come this way.

    We had a killing frost last week, AFTER we planted everything, if that makes you feel any better. :)

    There used to be gravel on that road... or actually chert... but the grass has kind of taken over.

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