Cool enough to walk

So off I went. I've been pathetically low in energy lately so I seized the moment and went on my normal walk rather than the ten minutes, if that, I've been getting.

I saw a little flock of warblers around the evergreens, interesting songs, tiny birds. We get them in migration season, which usually peaks in May and early October, but I wonder if storms have blown them off course. We're bang in the middle of the Eastern Flyway, ringside seat.

It seems that fungi are in season

This might be a good one for dyeing, but since there's only one just now, I left it. If a colony develops we'll see.

Toe in picture for scale

And we still have the yellow sorrel I like to see underfoot.

Here I'm asking for an id. The blue plant behind the coreopsis. 

It's in my neighbor's garden, she thinks from wildflower seed she put in, and doesn't know what it is. Does any of our crowd of knowledgeable botanists know? As you see, pretty tall, maybe 18". Thank you. I'll pass on the info to her.

It occurs to me, while I'm asking, if you can identify the fungi, pretty common around here. I'll look them up, too. 

My Little Golden Guide, I love those books, enough information for my purposes. And the Non Flowering plants one

which took me ages to find, being named for what it isn't, has some hilarious notes, such as: this was listed as poisonous but has been found to be edible. Wonder who took a chance for the sake of science? And the shaggy manes, edible but you must pick before they darken. Or else what? And the careful comment that some of this group is edible, some poisonous. I guess you're on your own after that.

And on the less welcome side, back home, I found a resurgence of the cursed catbriar among the ground cover in an awkward spot, and got out what I could.  No pictures of that little pest.

The air seems cleaner now, smoke haze gone and my eyes not so gritty. That put a dent in my doll progress, so I'm going to get back to her. 

Nature note entries for the day done, as usual emerging with questions. Always more to learn.

Solstice Greetings

Happy Summer Solstice to northern hemisphere blogistas, and Happy Winter Solstice to blogistas reading in Oz and NZ. and any other southern hemisphere readers I don't know of.

Longest day here, and wildflowers everywhere. They're tiny so you need to keep looking.

Here's vetch, finished flowering and now making tiny seedpods. I expect they're related to edible peas, same vining tendrils and small flowers succeeded by pods.

I forget the name of this creeper, which showed up a few years ago and has brightened the ground cover with a lovely green. I like that it climbs right over the top of the ground cover. Right now it's in yellow bloom for a few days. 

Sorrel everywhere, edible where they haven't sprayed it, a dark sour flavor great in salads. I've never had enough to make soup but I believe you can.

The summer Austenfest continues, with the BBC Emma. 

Low budget costumes, wonderful sets, great acting, except I think Harriet Smith and Emma should have exchanged roles. Mainly because though Romola Garai is a powerful actress, she's not up to the subtleties of Emma, and I think Louise Dylan, who plays Harriet, would be a very good Emma.  

Mr Woodhouse brilliantly played by Michael Gambon, Miss Bates likewise by Tamsin Greig.  You can tell who understands Austen and who's following a script.

I'm only partway through, since this is a four episode TV series. With subtitles, I'm happy to say.  And I may adjust my attitude as I see the last two episodes.

Then I will return the DVDs to the library where I found recently someone's put a box for collecting donated eyeglasses.

I'll add these prescription sunglasses to the collection. I used to donate old glasses through my eye doctor but the person who was doing it had to stop temporarily for Covid reasons. 

Meanwhile these will be useful. My eye doctor told me years ago he'd done voluntary work in Haiti, fitting people with the nearest to their required correction, free of charge.

I was doubtful, after Handsome Partner died, whether his glasses would be useful. He had no vision in one eye, so clear glass, and a massive correction in the other. Astonishing that he did great scientific research at a lab bench with such limited sight.  But I wondered could his specs be useful for anyone else.

Eye doctor, who knew him, explained to me that the glasses would be prized. With that correction even in one eye, it could make the difference between employed active and helpless. He was happy to take all of them.

Speaking of happy to receive, my next door neighbor is delighted with his little jar of plum jam, and as soon as I handed it over, ran for the muffin to toast for it.

Happy day all around.

Montauk daisies finally

They start to leaf out in spring, bigger and bigger and no sign of buds until you've about given up on them, then in October they suddenly get cracking and put on a show.

Passersby can see them againsyt the Autumn Joy sedum. Coming up the path to the door, and through the kitchen window.

I take all this into account when I plant. Small area, many vantage points. When they finally show up. They're like the last minute passenger hurtling to the departure gate.

There are wild flowers too, less spectacular but dear to me, like this spiderwort lovely blue sparks.

And here shy foliage among some creeper that runs its own life ignoring the gardener, are the closed flowers of scarlet pimpernel, cloudy weather makes them close. At the bottom you see a volunteer Montauk daisy which apparently has plans for next year.