Walking

Saturday night, since we had had a bit of a lazy day, we decided to take Elsie on her first excursion in the stroller. Wonderful little girl didn't fuss until we were almost home again. I had expected her to fuss within minutes, so I wore the Moby wrap to carry her easier. Since I was all childless most of the walk, I suddenly had a desire to take pictures of flowers. Imagine! 

It was a beautiful evening.  

This is a Marsh mallow. Seriously, it is. Doesn't it look a bit like a Hibiscus?

Day lily. I love day lilies. Really, a lot. 

Orianna got to hold the leash. She had a lot of running and chasing to do. I was given the leash a few minutes after this picture.

Milkweed. This has a fabulous smell. You wouldn't think milkweed would smell so yummy, but it does. And it has flowers that look like stars. And you can often find Monarch caterpillars in amongst the leaves, preparing a cocoon. And when you snap it in half, the "milk" comes out, all white and thick. 

Milkweed is on of our favorite weeds for the above reasons. 

Birdsfoot trefoil. 

Weirdly enough, this is the flower that made me want to study biology. Specifically botany, but SUNY Potsdam had no such program and I was already scheduled for classes there. For some reason, I remember this moment in my life pretty clearly. I had listed English as my intended major (what?!?!?!) when I applied for Potsdam. When listing that, I knew it was just something to put on there, not really what I wanted. I would have died as an English major. One day that summer between high school and college, I was raking hay in the field on this side of the hill. Raking is a somewhat mindless job--follow the lines and that is about it. So your mind wanders a lot. Perfect day dreaming opportunities. Being me, these day dreams were not about winning the Nobel Peace Prize for world peace or anything that exalted. But occasionally, I was a bit deep. And this particular day, after exhausting my I am about to go to college and related daydreams, I was staring at the grass/hay in front of me and to the sides. And I saw birdsfoot trefoil. It was one flower I knew the name of, so I liked to notice it and think "I know that plant." And as I thought this, I noticed all the grasses and flowers I didn't know. And I realized I wanted to know their names and why there WERE so many different kinds of grass a whole lot more than I wanted to find symbolism in a book and dissect an authors writing style.

I wanted to study botany for quite awhile. And then I decided it was okay that I couldn't get a degree in it. I took several classes here and there in relation to plants and loved them. But you never know, it might be one of those things that fascinate you until you have to start dissecting why exactly you love it and skipping walks in the woods to do homework relating to walks in the woods. So now, I am not a botany BA. Just a biology BA who loves plants. And walks. And trees. And outside-ness in general. 

BA is the right initials there isn't it? For a bachelors? I have never had to use those initials.

And that is a pretty long description of a moment in my life that changed it somewhat, but not much. If I ever become a famous botanist or biologist, it will be a great story to tell my grandkids. Until then, purely anecdotal and a way to waste your time. I hope I didn't tell you all that story before. If so, just ignore me.

More daylilies.

Butter and Eggs--toadflax

White Clover. Not Clover White. Hahaha

Globe Thistle

Gilbert pushing. 

And after all that about wanting to know all the different grasses, I am only guessing when I say this is timothy. Actually I feel pretty confident about that guess. 

Queen Anne's lace

Evening sunlight