Every day for the past few weeks,
the cool night-time temperatures have caused the early mornings to be
dewey, if not completely foggy. Every morning the world is weighed down with water, heavy drops that will burn off by about 10 am. But for a while, its magical -- although it makes for wet walking. The spider webs are among the most beautiful parts; here are two from this morning, taken in front of a friend's house. Above is a crazy web that covered every part of the seed head of a foxglove; and to the right, a perfect orb web.
Gentian has gotten its purple color, making it the last new flower of 2009 (at least in my yard). I do expect the color to deepen some... I find them to be especially interesting because even when the flowers are in full bloom, they look like a bud that is getting ready to open. They never do. But they are insect pollinated, mostly by bees or other large bugs that can force their way into the closed-up petals. Later, these petals will dry up and become a pouch containing a bag-full of little seeds!
A late-summer surprise... Each year I plant cosmos. They are not, honestly, in my normal gardening style, but I cannot resist them. They seem almost whimsical to me, laughing in color and slender leaves. And they seem somehow untamed, despite their non-wild-
ness. So this year, as in past, I bought some babies at our school/farm's organic plant sale, and they bloomed earlier but I didn't really mention them here, because I don't really think you can count, as a
phenological occurrence, the
blooming of a plant that was started in a greenhouse. They could bloom at any time. But we had three hearty ones that self-seeded from last year's dead heads. They emerged and grew taller than anything else in that garden, including the sunflowers. But had no flowers. Until this morning. This opened! (And there are many more buds tinged with pink where that came from.) So, after most of my annuals are past their prime, a little present for the end of summer. Yea!
Seeds on bigleaf aster.
ps -- went raspberry picking today. Made raspberry vanilla jam, which I hope will be very spectacular, since, even at the relatively low price of $3.50 per pint, one recipe used over $17 of berries, (not to mention a whole vanilla pod) and netted 9 1/2-pint jars of jam. I was excited to make it, though; I got the recipe for vanilla raspberry jam from the preserves of English heritage sites I got when I was there. I have never tasted such a jam... intriguing concept...
Maidenhair fern, which I could have spent hours drawing, but even getting this far I felt like I was doing the same thing over and over. It was neat, though, because it was wort of backlit by a setting sun so all the shadows were somewhat reversed of what they would normally be.
We have TONS of gentian this year, which is excellent, it's so pretty. Rather a scribble picture, not my normal style, but I kind of like how it came out.
OK, I'm going to come right out and say it -- this gentian may have been beyond my capabilities as a sketcher. But here it is nonetheless. It's a fascinating flower when it blooms (see previous entry under gentian label) and is really lovely in the winter garden, as well. The pods open with a curlicue flourish. At the slightest touch, hundreds or even thousands of ivory seeds spill everywhere; in a breeze, they travel. I hope some land and grow new gentians next year!
Every day for the past few weeks, 
Gentian has gotten its purple color, making it the last new flower of 2009 (at least in my yard). I do expect the color to deepen some... I find them to be especially interesting because even when the flowers are in full bloom, they look like a bud that is getting ready to open. They never do. But they are insect pollinated, mostly by bees or other large bugs that can force their way into the closed-up petals. Later, these petals will dry up and become a pouch containing a bag-full of little seeds!
New England Aster, another of the last things to grace the garden with its bloom, began opening this weekend. Just a few of the hundreds of blooms opened up -- and just the outer-most ring of disc flowers -- so there's still another 3-4 weeks (?) of aster bloom left. Although they are a bit weedy, I quite enjoy them and all their Fibonacci-spiral composite friends. (Perhaps more on that later...)
Gentian will be, at least as far as I remember, the last thing to flower in my yard. Here the blooms are starting to turn just the tiniest bit purple, but there are still a few days or more until these open up. (The brown-eyed susans and goldenrod are still going strong, so the yard is very yellow and purple right now...)
