Fall Meadow at Lake Springfield Boathouse (1)

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We visited the meadow near the Lake Springfield (Missouri) Boathouse last week  on a sunny, but relatively cool fall morning. Near the Boathouse, I noticed some beautyberry and asters.

The large cup plant has already been cut down - the stumps of the 4-angled square stems obvious.

We noticed that the purple martin houses had been taken down; there were big mowers in the area around the boathouse as we walked toward the meadow.

A lot of meadow plants have already produced seed. The goldenrods and asters are still blooming…and a few thistles.  

The area that becomes an overflow creek during heavy rains was dry but there were some interesting plants around it:

Invasive bush honeysuckle with lots of red berries.

Seed pods of mallows.

There was only one milkweed plant I saw in the meadow…and wondered what happened to the plants I had seen earlier in the season. Perhaps they fell over, and the other plants hid them?

On the other side of the visitor center, I did find some milkweed with bursting seed ponds. The plants had fallen over but the seeds were still spilling out and floating away.

The vines in the trees were easy to see. The leaves on both poison ivy and Virginia creeper turn red in the fall! The edge of the forest is full of trees with the vines growing up the trunks and into the higher branches.

Tomorrow’s post will be about the insects we saw.

Shaw Nature Reserve (2)

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Continuing the images from our hike at Shaw Nature Reserve…

At the Brush Creek Trail’s crossing of its namesake creek – the creek was dry. I took pictures from both directions from the bridge. In one direction the banks have vegetation all the way down to the edge of where the water would flow. In the other direction there is undercutting of the bank and some areas where vegetation has lost its hold. I wonder how long the tree growing above the undercut will survive.

Native hibiscuses were still blooming. I realized that I like to photograph the buds and unfurling flowers rather than the open flowers!

There were orange and yellow flowered jewel-weed a little different from the ones I saw in Maryland that were usually solid orange.

There were some signs of fall already – sumac with some red leaves, red poison ivy?, and a tree in the forest that stood out with its red foliage.

Enjoy the best of the rest!

When we returned to the car, I realized that it had acquired a coating of fine white dust on our drive around the (white gravel) loop…and it contrasted with the redder dust from Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge! I put my camera away and we headed over to the Fall Wildflower Market.

Yard Work

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I had a high-priority bit of yard work to do after we set up the bunkbed frame for the camping gear: clear out the regrowth of the invasive pear tree in the crepe myrtle. On closer inspection there was another plant that was not the crepe myrtle also growing around the base.

I got my pruners and gauntlet gloves out…took the wheelbarrow to ease moving what I cut. I noticed that the poison ivy had regrown under the cedar on my way and pulled it. There was part of it that had grown up into the cedar enough to put out rootlets!

It didn’t take long to cut all the green on the pear sump and pull/cut the other plant too. The wheelbarrow was about half full. I cut one of the larger branches of the crepe myrtle because my attempt to brace it had not worked.

I opted to leave the cuttings in the wheelbarrow to dry out/reduce their bulk before I put them in the compost ring. I left the wheelbarrow on the patio under the deck and decided to photograph the longer crepe myrtle stem in the red wagon.

The red wagon had been under the stairs during recent rains and has some water in it – which is emptied out. I (thankfully) didn’t see any mosquito larvae in the water but there was a skeletonized leaf that stuck to the wagon when I poured the water off.

Took pictures of the bark, flowers, buds, and forming seed pods of the crepe myrtle…. appreciating the ease of my phone for some quick macros.

A little bit of yard work…that morphed into a photo shoot!

Bark and Vine

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This time of year, some vines have lost their leaves and it is possible to see their dried stems overlaid on the texture of the bark. There was one such tree trunk I photographed in Druid Hill Park that appealed to me in much the same way as abstract art. My camera’s autofocus and exposure gave these first two pictures a different ‘feel’; the darker one seems more mysterious and a little sinister – a dark forest.

My favorite image is the most zoomed one – following my usual pattern. Shades of gray and brown…with the swath brittle leaves providing the highlight.

The tree was a tulip poplar…not sure what the vines are. Poison ivy vines would look fuzzy (lots of rootlets holding it onto the tree) and I couldn’t see any suckers that are common for Virginia Creeper. Maybe it is an invasive? It would have provided a little exercise in identification if I had taken a key for vines into the field!

Gleanings of the Week Ending July 14, 2018

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The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

Top 25 Birds of Protected Areas  and Top 25 Birds of Asia – Several collections of ’25 birds’ were in my news feeds as I was catching up after returning from Texas.

BBC - Future - Thai cave: How life in darkness could affect trapped boys and BBC - Future - Cave rescue: The dangerous diseases lurking underground – I wondered why the sensationalism of the mainstream media coverage did not include more of these aspects of the story.

Feeling young could mean your brain is aging more slowly: The first study to link subjective age to biological age shows that elderly people who feel younger have less signs of brain aging -- ScienceDaily – Feeling young is a big plus!

Minimizing Your Exposure to Pesticides in Produce: Help from the Environmental Working Group (EWG) Dirty Dozen List | Berkeley Wellness – The ranking comes out every year…I use it to prioritize which veggies/fruits I buy ‘organic.’ Of course – during the summer I am eating veggies from the local Community Support Agriculture which is all organic.

Scientists capture breaking of glacier in Greenland: Event points to forces behind global sea-level rise -- ScienceDaily – There is a link to the video at the bottom of the post….well worth watching. Awesome ice.

The Ultimate Guide to Yellowstone Wildlife Viewing – Cool Green Science – I reminder of a place I want to visit again.

Beaded Necklaces: Complex Restringing | In the Artifact Lab – It took 25 meters of string to do the work!

Take a VR Tour of an Egyptian Queen’s Elaborate Tomb | Smart News | Smithsonian -  Another attempt to create ways to experience a place without actually being there…and potentially damaging it.

Poison Ivy: Busting 6 Myths to Avoid the Itch – Cool Green Science – It’s that time of year. In Maryland there is a lot of poison ivy but I’ve managed to avoid it in recent years….or maybe it is the gardening gloves with gauntlets that cover most of my arm and tucking my pants into my socks (for ticks…but also means there is no skin exposed to poison ivy either.

Gene therapy shown to cure type 2 diabetes and obesity in mice, researchers report -- ScienceDaily – Early days…but wouldn’t it be wonderful if something like this would work form humans?