Prelude to a steamy day!
At 5 am it was already promising to be a scorcher.
These are the days when the sky becomes hazy and everything takes on a wilted, washed out look.
The warmer weather encouraged blooms from one of our new plants, a buddleia or so-called butterfly bush.
The new flower bed still looks like a graveyard plot, in part because it is near a groundhog hole and the little dears pop out to nosh on the wallflowers and daisies.
Yesterday I accidentally pulled up a wild pansy from another bed and thought I would add it to the “plot”.
Grant protested! “Don’t put that there. They grow all over the place!”
Usually they do. Not this year.
Humph. I returned the poor thing to where it had been, since otherwise it would have been ejected the moment my back was turned!
But I am secretly pleased he’s has become so invested in the garden.
Hopefully, the buddleia will attract butterflies. But I shall not frustrate myself attempting to photograph them.
Every time I notice one, I can’t stop myself from exclaiming “Oh, you’re pretty!”, whereupon it flits off.
No Monarch caterpillars for two days!
Friday, before the weather turned hot, we went off for another scenic drive. I told Grant he should let me drive for once, so he could do the sightseeing.
He gave me a look.
Not going to happen, I guess.
People wanted to know how I could shoot so many images so quickly. ..
.
This is sumac. It is thriving everywhere.
…When in a moving vehicle, you tend to come upon subjects very suddenly and travelling at speed, often the images are blurry or plain horrible.
There is no time to focus or frame anything, so I just keep shooting and hope to capture something. Digital photography has made such a luxury possible.
The only thing is that it’s time-consuming to sort and sift the results.
On Friday we re-traced a previous journey that took us into Vermont. This time we set off a bit earlier so the light was slightly different as well as the sky.
Additionally, in the short time since our previous trip, there had been a change in the vegetation.
Wild grasses have grown long and produced colourful seeds.
We encountered a lot more traffic than usual that day.
Not that you would really notice!
Usually, Grant doesn’t like driving behind anyone.
When sightseeing, though, he doesn’t like anyone behind him. So we pulled over and I got out to examine the hedgerows till a car had passed.
Wild parsnip is an invasive plant that can grow very large and can cause nasty skin rashes, though the root is said to be edible. I think I’ll pass.
Its flowers are interesting!
Batting off flying insects, I noticed this curious plant which PlantNet informs me is Purplestem angelia.
Wherever we go now, there are pretty blue flowers.
Chicory.
Goat’s beard.
Valeriana
Purple flowering raspberry
Blackberry?
.
Everywhere, an assortment of “yellow stuff”.
Wild mustard, I think
Bird’s foot trefoil
It grows prettily along roads
Another variety of bird’s foot “cinquefoil”. (In my garden)
It’s hairy bud was rather attractive
It’s always good to have clouds playing with the Sun
It’s never hard finding pictures to take.
It’s only ever hard knowing when to stop.
Wonderful lush vegetation at the roadside. Over here they cut everything down for ‘safe visibility reasons”. I have two types of compact buddleia in my garden, smaller flowers and not so tall.
After tonight’s wonderful treat of wildflowers, flowers, and musings, Carolyn, I have just one message for you:
DON’T EVER STOP!
Joanna
I agree with Joanna!
I like it when you go on a scenic drive – look at that pretty blue flowers and no traffic (although you did mention one car … and I saw another on a photo) ☺️. I don’t think I have ever seen Valeriana, but it’s beautiful (it looks like it may have a nice smell). Thanks for the ride Carolyn, it was nice and I’ll pop in again when ever you go for a drive!
You get out and about a lot. Much more than I do. Well done!
Best wishes, Pete.