Aug 30, 2012

few flowers & the furry fellow

last two weeks have been a whirlwind...had to take time off the other evening to walk the dog and rest my mind a bit. first off i noticed that someone has been kind enough to cut the long grass along the walk. this is tick-country so thank you very much, whoever you are.






sad for the bees, but as these buzzers lived on the ground, good for the dog's rhinarium






the clouds have captured my attention a lot this summer, some formations are utterly beautiful, some very dramatic, like here. yes, yes, i will get to the flowers...






before we took off for the walk i wondered how many flowers would still be in bloom this late in the summer (might not be late summer some place else, over here the leaves have started to turn...). this clustered bellflower (campanula glomerata) is still in full bloom.






as is the red clover (trifolium pratense)






and this yellow flower that isn't dandelion, but...hmm...i think it's hawkweed (hieracium umbellata). and how did i come to the conclusion that it is hawkweed? well, the tips of the leaves are 5-toothed...






i was going to call this a daisy (bellis perennis), it kinda is, but an ox-eye daisy (leucanthemum vulgare)...

oh, i found a plant identification page at nature gate's website, how cool! there's an app you can get on your phone, and it's free...this is too good.






this rose's better days have long gone..






hmm, i'll let you use the nature gate service to find out what this is...it towers 1,5 to 2 meters high, grows in a sunny spot, and blooms late in the summer...






"let's GO!"






we used to call this a chocolate pin when we were kids, it's cattail / typha, or lesser bulrush, or narrow leaf cattail, or...

who knew that man has been so inventive as to the use of cattails, as lining to moccasins and as filter to remove arsenic from drinking water, among many other things.






pootch that he is...anything goes for drinking water...






"hurry up, my dinner is waiting"






my new, tiny abode is starting to shape up, been living there for a week now. there are still a lot of stuff (=junk) at the old apartment that i need to deal with. my craziest find, so far, has been a torquay (UK) buspass from 1978 (gosh, i look SO young in the picture!), but there's also been plenty of the "normal" extras as cute gift wrappings, all sorts of plastic containers (you just never know when you're going to need it...sorry, mom, but i'm blaming this on you!)