A Walk in the Woods

Today I went exploring and decided to check out the Patuxent Wildlife Refuge that's about 15 minutes away. It's a nice August day, not too hot and only a little muggy. I ended up taking about a 90 minute walk in the woods.

These weren't woods like Mirkwood - much more like woods you'd find in the Shire. Cleared of too much underbrush with clearly marked trails.  It's hard to wrap my head around having such a great forest so close that I actually drive past it a couple times a week on my way home from work (depending which office I need to be at on a specific day.)

There are several trails that have had gravel coverings to help keep them clear, but not so groomed as to lose the feel of a forest and feeling like walking through a garden.  One of the shorter trails "The Loop Trail" is actually paved, but I got off of that at the first  chance I had. I wanted to get into the woods.

As soon as I got off the paved loop, there were plenty of trees and undergrowth to give a tranquil atmosphere. And even an occasional train whistle in the distance (ooooohhhhhh!!!)

 Just off the loop were a few weeds/flowers (you can decide what to call them.) But they set a tone of not too groomed, but still welcoming. (At least to me.)

 A little farther into the travels was a knobby tree stump. (How often do you get to use the word knobby?)  It was just growing up on the side of the path, or the path was just finding it's way past the tree - probably the later.

The trail I went out on was called Laurel trail. And after a few minutes, Laurel Trail opened up to Goose Pond. (It even sounds like names from the Shire - nothing evil or ominous, simple wholesome names.)

Goose Pond wasn't mirror still, but it still provided a chance for some reflection pictures with the trees around the pond showing in the water.

I don't know where the stream lead off too, the trail didn't go that direction.  I kept following Laurel Trail past Goose Pond and went back into the woods.  I came across a fallen log that was mostly hollowed out and had become a semi-enclosed nook.

I didn't look close enough to investigate any current insect infestations, it just looked interesting off the side of the path.

I did see one area that made me think of Mirkwood though.

Does it look like it could be a giant spider moving forward? Or maybe dropping nets down to catch trekkers?

And there were gnarly trees and tree stumps just off the trail.  (How often do you get to use the word gnarly?)

I guess the best advice still is "Stay on the trail."

I came out OK and came home relaxed and refreshed after a couple tense weeks.  I'll be going back to Patuxent Wildlife Refuge.  I wonder where the other trails lead?

Harvesting the goodness

We started a project earlier this summer - a vegetable garden.  I put in a 4'x4' raised bed for vegetables.  The bottom half of the soil is simple top soil. The top half is Miracle-Grow vegetable soil.  That mix has really worked, and I've gotten to combine my new found passion for the garden with my longstanding love of food and food related activity.

In other word - the garden has exploded.

It started out with what we thought would be a modest mix of tomatoes, zucchini, lettuce, and a pepper plant.  (The pepper plant [front left plant above] has disappeared - hasn't been seen in months - totally overwhelmed by sun stealing neighbors.)

Now we have:

The lettuce have been eaten and we are almost done with the zucchini and cucumbers.  But as the heat of summer is developing, so are the tomatoes.

But first a few memories of the cooler days.

We've had vegetables fresher than anything we could ever find, even at the farmers markets or road side stands we've been visiting for years. It's been a challenge to live up to the freshness of the ingredients and find ways to prepare them.  I will admit that this summer I have started munching on raw cucumbers, just cutting some up with a sandwich or burger/hot dog.

But the heat of August is here, and the tomatoes have arrived.

These will be ready in the next week or two.  Right now we are getting cherry tomatoes and some of the earlier ripe varietals.

And just today my wife went out and came back with this bowl of beauty.

I don't know how we're going to tackle it yet - but we'll try to rise to the challenge.

Executive Decision - They're WEEDS

Over the last couple posts I've been trying to identify a group of plants that have made a big impact on the back hill.  The "Green Spikey Things" have been multiplying and growing taller. The tallest group were up to about 7 feet tall and beginning to spread out at the top - threatening to become a canopy of green over the rest of the garden.  My garden is not a shade garden - it gets sun all day and there's no telling what a shade canopy would do.  So this week we made an executive decision. They're weeds.

If they had been across the back fence and providing privacy screening, then maybe we wouldn't call them weeds.  But they were growing in the middle of the hill and blocking our view of the butterfly bushes behind them.

The garden path was totally blocked and there was no visibility beyond the screen of Green Spikey Things.

Fortunately they were easy to pull.  Even the 6-7 foot tall ones didn't have roots and deeper than 3-4 inches.  So I filled up 2 big yard debris bags this afternoon after church and now I can see the garden.

And now I can get back to the more remote corners and keep getting pictures of the pollinated and pollinators.

And an added bonus is that the hill is more presentable for the end of the month panorama next week.

FLIES - (dragon and butter that is)

The pictures are making their annual transition from flora to fauna as the Spring and early Summer bloomers have invited in the flies. The butterflies, and a dragonfly earlier this week.

The butterfly bushes have been blooming for a couple weeks now, and the phlox and lilac have been blooming for ahwile. The lilac is over now, but we had some nice blossoms considering it was just planted last year and had to winter over one of the coldest winters in years.

The first butterfly I saw (and got pictures of) was a cabbage butterfly.  I thought it was a moth at first, but after posting pictures I was told that it's a cabbage butterfly. I love my friends who can help me learn more about what's happening in my backyard.

Here are some pictures of a cabbage butterfly.

On one of the butterfly bushes up against the back fence.

I love the colors of the butterfly bush,
but I have to be almost on top of it to see the blossoms and colors.

This has a lot going on for a "simple" picture.  The depth of field
 (the out of focus elements framing the center)
 and the parallels between the spots on the wing and the leaf make me really like this shot.
I wish I could claim credit for having planned it all, but I still appreciate it.

I was also able to get some pictures of a dragonfly as it stopped to rest on one of the statues in the garden. I really like how delicate the wings are - you can see the texturing of the statue even through the darker sections of the wings.

He's resting on the back of a dog's head (statue) - I hope he doesn't get any ideas to start riding around on any of the fur babies. I don't know how they would react.

A day or two later I saw my first tiger swallowtail of the summer. It was hanging around the phlox before moving over to the butterfly bushes. I got a picture at the butterfly bushes, but it wasn't as nice as these ones at the phlox.  The colors really pop in contrast between the fushia and the yellow.

And I also got pictures of some smaller butterflies - I have not researched the exact variety yet.  But I don't recall seeing these last year. So I'll have to do some googling to see If I can identify them.

Since there are two of them there, I'm hoping there will be more coming.

Mid July Panorama and Bloom Day

I'm cheating a little, I decided to take advantage of a Sunday afternoon for my pictures and blog post for Mid July instead of trying to get lucky on weather on Tuesday evening after work.  We've been getting a lot of afternoon thunderstorms over the last couple of weeks, but today is bright, sunny, and hot.  So I'm taking advantage of the sun, and the excuse to sit in the air conditioning and post on the blog.

First, the mid July panorama:

There's a lot of green, but not a lot of color - but it's there if you look.  We talked to our neighbor about the tall spikey growths in the center (and all over really) and couldn't decide if they're weeds or not.  I'm willing to give it some time and see if it flowers and what any flowers look like.  Here's a closer look.

Against the back fence we are just in the last two days getting blossoms on the butterfly bushes.  There are four of them back there.  And with the blossoms I was able to get some pictures of a white moth checking out the blooms.

Over in the vegetable garden, we're still getting blooms as the vegetables are continuing to come in.

Tomato buds.

Zucchini blossoms

And inside the fence at the far right (over by the holly trees) we have a flourishing patch of phlox.

And there are still just a few of the June bloomers, the rose campion and the yellow primrose.

And we have a visitor who is growing under the fence from our neighbor's yard - a day lily.

I know that the lily is potentially poisonous to the dogs, but I haven't wanted to pull it out.  I've accepted that despite my professed intent to create a totally pet friendly garden, I'm not really ready to pull out all the plants I would need to.  It would mean getting rid of the big cherry tree, the azaleas, and enough others that I had to come to terms with my goal.  I will continue to try not to add any hazardous plants, but in 4 years here we haven't had any problems with the dogs chewing on the plants (running them down - yes; eating - no) Maybe I'll need to refocus and work on rescuing the garden from the dogs. 

The Garden Bloggers Bloom Day page is at http://www.maydreamsgardens.com/search/label/garden%20bloggers%20bloom%20day