Remember when we played a little game to figure out what random species I’d found in the canyons of Pleasant Grove? Let me introduce you to some plants I met on my hike to Silver Lake. Some of these are easy, others are not. Do you know them all? Just click on any picture to add your best guess to its comment section. (more…)
Mystery Blossom, final stage, also in September
Update: We figured out what this is called! 
And it’s bad news! But I still think it looks pretty neat.
Name that Plant! What utah-native wild plant (read: interesting weed) starts out as a curly vine, sports lantern-shape buds that blossom into nodding yellow flowers, opens up to expose long tendrils that look like some whimsical version of the snakes on medusa’s head, and ends as fluffy as a feather? You tell me! I’ve seen this plant while hiking, and it looks to me less like a wildflower from Utah than it looks like it could have come straight from Whoville. (more…)
Lilacs Bloomed Every Spring, Just like before… I loved that eerie song about the Soldier Boy by John Rutter. We sang it in our SATB choir in either Highschool or Junior High. I’ll type the full lyrics if I can remember them. But more than the song I like Lilacs! Here are seven pictures, including my favorite: the six-fingered mutant lilac!
See anything wrong with this lilac?
Update: For anyone who found this page googling for the song Soldier Boy, I found a lovely recording of it here. And here is a sample of the recording — certainly the best I’ve come across!
Today the kids and I walked to the back of the yard and into the field, where we found ladybugs, dandelions, speckled rocks, forget-me-nots, and all sorts of tiny wild flowers. I couldn’t catch a picture of the ladybugs but here’s a mini-bouquet I picked and Mary flaunting a dandelion she found. TGIS – Thank goodness it’s Spring
Miniature Bouquet of Field Flowers
In like a lion out like a lamb, my eye. March for me began with a promise of Spring and ended with a foot of snow on the ground. April seems to be off to a good start though, with clear blue skies and patches of ready-to-mow grass poking up through the snow. And should the weather continue to tease me I’ll at least be grateful for plenty of water this year.
Here’s a zoomed-in pic I took of the lilac tree…
Snow melting over falls seed pods and springs new buds. Like three seasons in one lilac tree!