We missed our morning walk yesterday because of on and off thunderstorms throughout the day, and it’s amazing how much around the farm can change in just a couple of days. Moth mullein, for example, is just breaking out in blooms. This European import is common in our fields. Its delicate blooms are lovely and quite popular with pollinators.
Common milkweed (shown below), another flower popular with pollinators, is starting to form the seed pods that will dry this fall and expose layers of seeds with tufts of long silky hairs.
The berries on the autumn olive bushes are turning red. One of the blogs I follow suggests picking the berries for eating now or preserving when fully ripened (http://forageporage.wordpress.com/2011/09/14/grab-your-bucket-baby-its-autumnberry-time/). I’m definitely going to try some of their suggestions.
Swamp milkweed is finally blooming in the low area of the front field. We’ve been waiting for the flowers to open and they are gorgeous! This picture shows the flowers in various stages of bloom. The flowers don’t last long, but they are appreciated by all the bees, butterflies, wasps, and other pollinators that visit them.
On the way back, we stopped to see if we could find some ripe blackberries, which are usually scavenged by wildlife before we can pick them. I guess the storms kept the berry-lovers at bay because there were a few ripe berries here and there, and Autumn and I scrambled to see who could get them first! (I managed to get a few and we enjoyed them in our cereal for breakfast.)
The saying that ‘some things are worth waiting for’ couldn’t be truer. The gorgeous blooms of the swamp milkweed, the red berries of the autumn olive, and enjoying blackberries with our breakfast were definitely worth the wait!
Wood and Field 