Field Trip!

On Saturday we went to our local arboretum for a guided tree walk.  This is George.  He did the talking.

He knew all sorts of factoids.  My favorite was this:  He said if you go rooting around under a patch of goldenrod, you'll basically find a desert.  Goldenrod has a chemical or something that is toxic to other plants. 

This was our favorite tree.  We might get one for the yard.  It's a Regal Prince Oak.  I know this because a lot of the trees at the arboretum have nametags.  They're red and white stickers that say, "Hi!  My name is Regal Prince Oak!" and then you have to do warm-up activities with them.  In case you weren't sure, I made that last part up.  They have snazzy signs:

We also got to see something really cool- Indian pipes!  They're very cool.  You should click the link to see.  

After a while, the mister got bored and decided to take the camera from me.  I didn't realize it, but he was holding it at his side and just randomly clicking without looking.  He got a lot of shots like this:

At the end of the walk, George asked us if we had any questions.  I did.  I asked him if I could take a picture of his tattoo.

The end.  Oh wait.  I liked their barn painting.  And then there's that picture I have of a butterfly on a tarp that doesn't seem to fit any posts, so you can see that too.  Then it's really the end of this post.

The End.

Bouquet of the Day

Lilies, oxeye daisies, Jupiter's beard, lady's mantle, knautia, coral bells, petunias

I picked this bouquet for Teller.  Check out the leaf we used for a doily.  Anyone know what kind of tree that is?

PS:  That's actually Monday's bouquet.  And it's night, not day.  

Elm?

One of the trees at the campground was very tall and had no foliage down low so I couldn't tell what kind it was.  I zoomed to try and get a look at the leaves.  It might be elm but I'm still not sure.  I just like how the shot came out.

I'm Trying to Propagate a Pussy Willow

First I had it soaking in a bucket. A couple of times I found it blown out by the wind so I trimmed the stem again and weighed it down with a rock. Still looked kinda crappy, so now I'm trying this. Hopefully it'll get the message.

Of Birches and Big Dogs

We've lost two birch trees in the past two years. Apparently, like dogs, they just don't have very long lives compared to humans. Now here's another on our property line with the neighbor, and it's dying too.

I learned something about plants this year. When they are dying or the season is coming to a close, they will start dropping seed like crazy to insure their survival. This birch made a huge mess all over the neighbor's driveway this year. When neighbor guy was cleaning it up, we got to chatting about the mess and how he'd never seen it that bad before. I don't look at that tree much because the view is blocked on my side by those pines (left side of pic). As we were chatting, I walked over and looked at the thick coat of catkins of his driveway, then up at the tree. There's still foliage at the top (the part I can see from my yard), but there was nothing below that. It's dying.

They are such lovely trees, and like big dogs, the pain of losing one is never enough to stop me from getting another. I just hope the tree is on his property so we don't have to pay to get it taken down.

This one came out blurry

But I still like it. Kinda creepy, huh?