Visit from My Grandson...June 26,27,28

Steve came to visit.  It has been a while since I have seen him.  We had a good time. 

I made a strawberry pie using fresh strawberries cut up, dumped into a jello, cornstarch, sugar and water mixture.  I dumped the filling into a ready-made graham cracker pie crust and put the pie in the refrigerator.  By the end of the weekend Steve and I ate most of it.  We took one piece to Eleanor, the neighbor across the street.  I never thought about taking a photo of it.  It has been a long time since I have been thinking about blogs as I go through the day.

I did get some photos when Steve, Jeanne, and I walked at Charleston Falls on Saturday morning.  

It is between blooming seasons.  The early flowers are finished blooming and the showy prairie flowers are just beginning to show buds.  But there were oxeye daisies along the trail around Cedar Pond.

And Steve spotted a lone Deptford Pink.

On Saturday afternoon, Steve and I visited Bill who lives nearby.  Bill let Steve run the CSX engine on his track.  It was the first time Steve had run the engine.  It was a birthday gift from his Meemaw in Florida.  He and Bill enjoyed talking in that special model railroad fans' language which I only partly understand.  Lots of references to numbers of engines that I don't understand at all.  Steve had a wonderful time.  Bill was happy to talk with Steve.  It sounded like it had been a long time since either one of them had had a good session with someone who understood their hobby.  Steve and Bill social distanced but Steve kept his face mask under his chin in case someone else showed up.

The next morning, Steve and I checked out Herrlinger Park.  He has been going to this park since he was a preschooler.  A railroad track runs along one side of it.  We met a woman who came to feed the squirrels.  She brings her brother to see the trains.  He likes to take photos of them.

Two long freight trains click-clacked by.  Steve tells me about the engines and what is special about the various cars.  His cell phone has a railroad scanner aps so he knows when the trains are coming.

Back to Painting...A Rose Using Watercolor...June 23, 2020

My son sent me a bouquet of roses and other flowers for my birthday.  I decided to paint a sketch of one rose for a thank you note I was sending to a niece.

First I cropped a rose from the bouquet.

Next I used a pink Staedtler watercolor pencil to sketch the rose.  I like to do my sketching with a watercolor pencil because the lines blend into the watercolor as I paint.

For this sketch, I used analogous colors (colors found side by side on a color wheel) for the rose.  For the leaves, I used a complementary color...a green on the opposite side of the color wheel.

The red/pink colors I used were Permanent rose, Quinacridone red, and Alizarin Crimson.  The green is Winsor green dulled a bit by Quinacridone red.  I also used a bit of Aurelion yellow on the leaves.  Aurelion is a pale yellow with a greenish tinge.

Back to Blogging

Glad I checked out Help.  I was surprised that I couldn't find New Post in the list of options on the left.

It has been a week since Jeanne and I walked at Cedar Bog.  Jeanne did the driving for which I am thankful. Tom always did the driving but he is no longer here.  I miss him.

Tom and I always tried to go to see the Queen Lady's Slipper in bloom.  Because of Jeanne, I saw them this year.  This was the first time she had ever seen them so the trip was special to her also.

Because we met a volunteer from Cedar Bog, I learned the name of a flower I have wondered about every year.  Now I know what Corn Salad looks like.

I just looked up Corn Salad on the Internet.  I should have taken photos of the basal leaves.  Next year I will know.

It has been a long time since I have posted.  Life has been harried and I think it will continue to be harried.

However, I did walk at Brukner Nature Center on Sunday.  Here are some photos of flowers that are blooming.

Bloodroot

Cutleafed Toothwort

Dutchmen's Breeches

Hepatica

 

Rue Anemone

Purple Cress

Spring Beauty

One of the last Snow Trillium for this year.

A Walk at Charleston Falls with Tom...July 23, 2019

Tom and I loaded up Tom's old power chair and headed off to look at flowers.  His new chair is   wonderful but it is not as powerful as the old one.  Since Charleston Falls has hills, power is important.

We saw butterflies at the new entrance to the trail. Tom took photos.  Our first thought was that they were Pearl Crescents...

But then Tom enlarged the photo and we could see that they were Silvery Checkerspots.

Then we moved a few steps further and he got to see the Rain Garden for the first time.

The Queen of the Prairie that I saw had finished blooming but Tom spotted a Cardinal Flower and the Rattlesnake Master..

and a lavender blue one that we think is a Monkeyflower.  I didn't know until I was looking through my wildflower field guides at home that I should have checked for a square stem.

We were off to a good start.

Tom stopped to take a photo of the falls through the trees.

We turned off toward the Octagon Prairie...

Tom with his camera...

Me with my camera.

Tom stopped to take a few close-ups of Gray-headed Coneflowers...

He looked at the other side of the trail and said,  "Look, there is a Viceroy butterfly."

I took these pictures.

And Tom took this one.

Deptford Pinks are an alien species but I have never seen more than a couple plants in any one spot.  They don't appear to endanger the native species.  They are tiny.  I never knew they were spotted with white until I took a photo of one and enlarged the photo.

The Rain Garden at Charleston Falls, July 13, 2019

I sat down to write this and realized I hadn't taken notes or pictures of everything to tell this story.  When I saw the prairie plants flowering in the Rain Garden near the entrance to the trails at Charleston Falls, all I thought about were the blooms.

I know Rain Gardens, whether planted in a a natural depression or in a dug out depression, are meant to drain water and are usually wet only seasonally or after heavy rains.  The flowers that grow on tall grass prairies are adapted to land which is wet in spring and dry in the summer so prairie plants and Rain Gardens complement one another.

A section of the Rain Garden at Charleston Falls.  The rock covered dip to the left of the photo slopes down from the paved gathering place for groups.

And in the depression, I saw....

the round flower heads of Rattlesnake Master and Queen of the Prairie.  The yellow Black-eyed Susans, (Rudbeckia hirta) are on the higher ground of the rest of the planted prairie.

I usually have to go to Garbry Big Woods Preserve to see the Rattlesnake Master and to Aullwood Audubon Center to see the Queen of the Prairie.   Seeing the two plants made my walk one to remember and I hadn't taken a step into the peaceful woods.

Closeup of the Rattlesnake Master, (Eryngium) ...

Each bud will open exposing a tiny flower.

A closer look at the Queen of the Prairie (Filipendula rubra) ...

Last of June, First of July...A Busy Time

We have had a good summer...

Our son, Ray, and his wife, Gretchen, visited with us the last week in June.  They have been in London, UK for the last year.  It was good to see them.  Afterward, Tom said, " Do you realize that is the longest visit Ray has had with us since he started college?"

I think that was a bit of an exaggeration but it is true we haven't had him stay overnight for an extended period for a long time.

We didn't do much over the Fourth of July.  We did watch the traditional People's Fourth of July on PBS.  I realized I do not know the popular singers of today.  I did recognize the Muppets!

The prairie flowers are blooming.  Tom's little patch beside our driveway is beautiful.

The same kinds of flowers but about a million more of them, and other flowers, too. are blooming at Huffman Prairie.  The butterflies are enjoying both places.

I saw a bobolink at Huffman Prairie.  I like walks by myself but when I see a bird I don't see often, it is even more special when I share the experience with a friend.  And Jeanne was with me.