My compost heap: every now and then I do cover it with dirt.
Thursday Challenge theme is MESSY (Children, Rooms, Garage, Yard, Disorganized, Hair,…). Next week is CRAFTS (Supplies, Knitting, Crocheting, Woodworking, Pottery, Painting,…).
Goldenrod was growing by the Raritan River near Rutgers Gardens. Goldenrod is blamed for allergies, but that’s because it blooms at the same time as ragweed.
Thursday Challenge theme is GOLDEN (Jewelry, Coins, Sun, Leaves, Fields, Hair,…).
Next Week: MESSY (Children, Rooms, Garage, Yard, Disorganized, Hair,…)
There are some lovely paths by the Raritan River in the back of Rutgers Gardens. We enjoyed walking through nature last Sunday.
Some leaves were changing to red; not all the leaves looked so healthy. I wondered if it was because of the dry summer we had.
Is this what Monet saw before he painted his famous lily pads?
I believe this pretty lavender flower by the river is a cleome.
I was excited to see milkweed, as Michelle of Rambling Woods has talked about it on her blog as attractive to butterflies. And I even saw some milkweed aphids, too.
And since many of you enjoy seeing my family, here’s my husband and daughter. The chocolate around her mouth is probably from an Oreo cookie, which may not be a very natural food, but it’s in her nature to enjoy cookies.
For more Nature Notes:
I photographed this cardinal in my backyard in early September. Today I saw a robin in my backyard. I usually see the cardinals in pairs or groups – the bright red birds are a delight.
Here’s the September cardinal again, profile view.
I looked around in my backyard for what to photograph for Nature Notes, and the rose hips caught my eye. “Rose hips are red, my kale is green, one evergreen died, my harvests are lean.” I’m growing kale in my front and back yards instead of grass. The ones in the front are doing quite well; the ones in the back look like someone nibbled on them. One of my little evergreen bushes died this summer — it could have used extra watering in our drought-like August. Oh, well.
There is a rowing of burning bush plants near our supermarket. They are starting to turn red, though I noticed one was brown. Perhaps those also could have used more water this summer. Will fall foliage be less brilliant than last year’s due to the summer drought?
For more Nature Notes:
As soon as we entered this small, two pathway long butterfly garden in Washington, DC, I thought of Rambling Woods and Nature Notes. How pretty were all the flowers in the garden!
The butterfly garden is near the National Gallery of Art and next to the Natural History Museum; both are on the National Mall.
Despite all the butterfly-attracting flowers such as butterfly bushes, we didn’t see any butterflies. Perhaps the many people and cars and big, concrete buildings of Washington, DC scared them away?
I am guessing this lovely red bloom is a cardinal flower.
On the last day of our vacation we visited Mount Vernon, Virginia, home of President George Washington. There I spotted – a butterfly!
There is a lovely butterfly park in East Brunswick, New Jersey.
For more nature notes:
There is a lake at Batsto Village in the Pine Barrens in southern New Jersey. There one can see all sorts of natural elements, like wildflowers and a pretty butterfly.
This star-like lavender flower (spotted knapweed – thanks to EG Wow) was also growing next to the lake. There is a nature center at the village, but we didn’t get a chance to visit.
This cattail is situated in a man-made pond created by 19th century businessman Joseph Wharton.
For more nature notes (and this week’s post about lawns) visit:
This family of birds was living in the rafters at the Longstreet Farm in Holmdel, New Jersey.
My daughter had the opportunity to milk a cow at the farm. On the left is that cow’s calf, whose birth helped the cow be a plentiful nurser.
In local sad news, the mama of the guinea pigs we adopted for the summer has died. We buried her in our backyard. In the words of my veterinarian friend, she was “geriatric” (over four years old). The guinea pigs’ original owner comforted me over the phone, saying, I was afraid this might happen. I think I was more upset than my daughter. My daughter noticed that I’ve been checking on the remaining two a lot, and she said I’m glad you don’t fret over me like that.
For more Nature Notes, visit:
In memory of Bobbie (click to read Michelle’s memorable post about her dear friend):
My daughter and I were on the porch yesterday, and we heard a cat cry. No, maybe it was a baby. No, it was two birds, meowing at each other. Now I know why these are called gray catbirds. Here is my gray catbird photo from last summer.
For more Nature Notes, visit:
Last week I featured a radish; this week here are homegrown strawberries. Can you guess what the bright blue background is?
For more photos with red, visit Ruby Tuesday:
You need: 1 pack of radish seeds, some small plot of land or a pot of potting soil, water and tender loving care.
Prepare your soil. Dig it up a few times and mix in some organic matter such as compost or an organic mix-in available at a plant nursery or Home Depot. Either plant your seeds 3 inches apart or be sure to pull out seedlings that are too close together when they germinate. Put some compost on top of the germinated seedling about a week or two after germinating. Watch until a red ball appears in the ground, and then pull out your pretty red radish. Photograph the radish for Mary’s Ruby Tuesday meme.
For more photos with a little or a lot of red, visit:
Learn how to make delicious pickled radishes (made with umeboshi paste).