Monthly Archives: September 2014

Black-eyed Susan, From Behind

I went out to take pictures this evening and didn’t find a lot new to photograph. There were some old mushrooms and I got pictures of them, but they were pretty ugly pictures of mushrooms turning to mush. There are still a huge number of black-eyed Susans and blue mistflower (Conoclinium coelestinum), a fairly prolific herbaceous perennial with frilly, pale blue flowers. I wanted something different so here’s a photo of a black-eyed Susan from behind, with a bit of mistflower in the foreground. Actually, we have some mistflower with white flowers. I don’t know if that’s a common, natural variation or not, but they are nice. I should photograph them at some point.

Hens and Chicks

This morning I took a few pictures of a goldfinch on the black-eyed Susans outside our kitchen. Technically, that satisfied my goal of taking at least one picture today. They were not very good, though, so late this evening I took some of some plants, cacti and succulents, that Dorothy has potted up for herself. These are commonly known as hens and chicks and are in the genus Sempervivum which is in turn in the Crassulaceae family, known as houseleeks

Lobelia cardinalis (Cardinal Flower)

Cathy and I thought we’d go for a walk today, around lunch time. It was unexpectedly hot, so we didn’t go as far as we had thought we might, but we were out a little while. We walked around the edge of the woods near the various buildings of our office campus. In addition to blue mistflower (Conoclinium coelestinum), we saw this cardinal flower (Lobelia cardinalis), one of the showier native wildflowers of our area.

Crab-Apple Stump

For yesterday’s photo I posted a picture of a man cutting a fairly tall but completely dead tree in our next door neighbor’s yard. Today I cut down a much smaller but equally dead crab-apple in my Brady and Albert’s front yard. While a chain saw makes a big difference when doing something like this, unless you have a well tuned saw and unless you know how to deal with a few problems, it can be as much a frustration as anything. My saw runs fast. Until recently it ran so fast that when I squeezed the throttle it would stall. I managed to adjust it a bit and now it runs well when cutting. I need to slow the idle speed a little.

The real problem I’m having now is that my shoulder gives out before the work is done. So, I cut a little while, then rest (and rest the saw). Then, back to work. I managed to get the tree down this far before my arm refused to do any more work for the day. Sorry, guys, but I’ll be back to cut the rest of it when I get the chance. Thanks for the firewood.

Sesame Seeds

I like plants and gardening and I know a little about both. I try to know a something about the plants from which most of our vegetable foods come. Sesame seeds have been a bit of an exception. I knew that they come from an herbaceous (non-woody) plant that grows in tropical regions, but beyond that didn’t know much about them. Four countries, Burma, India, China, and Sudan account for more than half the world sesame seed production (about 56% of 4.76 million metric tons). The sesame plant, Sesamum indicum, is an annual, growing to about three feet in height, bearing (usually) yellow flowers, and producing the seeds in small capsules.

Grass

I met Maureen and Sokho for lunch today over at Fallsgrove and when I came back to the car I noticed this grass growing in the area between two rows of cars. Rather than use all underground drainage in parking lots, the current style seems to be to leave spaces every few rows and turn them into drainage ditches but with ornamental plants that can take a certain amount of flooding. I think this is a nice trend and some of the plants used are quite nice. This grass, for example, it nice. This photo has the feel of the country, not the middle of a busy parking lot.