This and That, Mostly in My Neighborhood
June 19, 2022
Since wandering last week I haven’t been out of the neighborhood with the camera. But I found some things to photograph close to home.
1 These aren’t “amber fields of grain,” but the green “wavin’ wheat sure [looks] sweet.” This is winter wheat, sown in the fall. I’d never seen so many wheat fields as I did last week on my wandering—more even than corn or soybeans. I wondered if this was because of the shortage of wheat coming from the Ukraine until my husband reminded me that Russia hadn’t invaded yet at the time of planting.
2 Wild grasses always appeal to me.
3 Just in front of the grass shown in #2, at first I mistook this sprinkling of white among the green for another variety of grass.
4 A closer look (but, alas, poorer focus) showed me I was wrong. This is Bedstraw (Galium aparine).
5 About a week earlier I caught Cottonwood seeds in a marshy area in my neighborhood.
6 About a week after that, I saw some Anemones making shadows on a sidewalk.
7 Bird’s Foot Trefoil (Lotus corniculatus) is all over the place here.
8 I spent more time in the Courtyard Garden, which my husband is developing. He and a neighbor who works with him in the garden hand feed the three Painted Turtles (Chrysemys picta) in the small pond. That’s why this one is so happy to see me. Sorry to disappoint.
9 A little later one of the other three turtles climbed up on the rocks on the other side of the pool.
10 My neighbors are dumbfounded that Prickly Pears (genus Opuntia (family Cactaceae)) will grow in Ohio.
11 Even I was surprised to learn that they can be found as far north as Ontario, Canada.
12 Prickly Pear comes in many colors.
13 This has to be my favorite Prickly Pear color.
Romancing Reality 