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Smooth Sumac
Just a couple weeks ago, some of the bushes along my woodland edges were abuzz with pollinator activity. The flowers of Smooth Sumac, Rhus glabra, were the magnet. Butterflies, including this Red-banded Hairstreak, Calycopis cecrops, were part of the crowd. Honey Bees, gathering nectar, to help some bee keeper with his honey supply were also attracted. And so many…
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Sweetspire
A gift from my son, some years ago, has turned into quite the pollinator magnet. Virginia Sweetspire, or another common name, Tassel-white. Itea virginica. Three small bushes have grown into a lovely mound of cream colored, cascading blooms.These cascading blooms have become tantalizing lures for pollinators in the vicinity of my central Virginia mountain cabin.…
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Just An Inch
Wednesday night, into Thursday morning, the weather forecast was for some rain, and maybe in the mountains a little snow. Hooray for elevation! It was beginning to stick when I hit the sack and Thursday morning I was greeted with an inch of snow on the grass. Given all the talk of the rain/snow line…
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A Good Day For Monarchs
Oh What a Day! I think it was just a perfect day! After finding a sincere pumpkin patch and locating a large, golden orange squash that would please even the Great Pumpkin, I returned to my cabin to find a Monarch butterfly, Danaus plexippus, enjoying the many varieties of asters that I have in the yard. What a…
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Always — New Things!
The Joy Of Discovery Each day as I start out on my hike there is anticipation. What new things will I find? Summer is drawing to a close and with it, the days, which earlier this season had been extremely wet, are now quite dry. The waterfall which I pass along the way is a…
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A Question Mark In The Sun
Up And Out Before The Butterflies! This morning I was up and out before the butterflies had started on their rounds of checking this flower and that. I was also working against a deadline, so my hike was, still the same route, but was completed in record time. Five miles in two hours. Okay, I…
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Brilliant Yellow Wingstem
My First Up Close Look I got my first up close look at this brilliant yellow Wingstem while checking out a wonderful field of Sunflowers that my yoga teacher had planted at her studio. There were so many Sunflower “faces” looking toward the sun, but the Wingstem caught my eye, in a wild patch of…
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My Hiking Buddies
My Buddies Are Butterflies As I hike my mountain road this summer, I am nearly always accompanied by my buddies, the butterflies. Often they are passing by, over my shoulder as if a fellow hiker with someplace important to get to. They seem to use the dirt road as their road. These butterflies that float…
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Eyed Brown
I’ve been seeing a few of these, just a few. They tend to hang out in the same place day after day, so I know where to find them but they are not happy to sit still long to have a portrait done. I appreciate that this Eyed Brown (Satyrodes eurydice) stayed in one place…
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The Comeback of American Chestnuts?
Stories From Long Ago You might be fortunate enough to have family accounts from the older generation of gathering chestnuts, or of your granddad building a fence from chestnut trees on his farm. I don’t have those stories in my family traditions, but still I fell in love with the American chestnut tree when I…