Purple Post

We are in the midst of 3 (so far) days of incredible, relentless wind.  And by incredible, I mean it is literally hard to actually believe that is has been this windy for this long.  Makes being outside rough.  

Still, finally got out for a walk yesterday afternoon and discovered these new flowers:

Iris

Scilla

Spring is marching on!

Prime Prairie

I'll admit it... There are times of the year when the prairie isn't the most aesthetically interesting ecosystem. But she is coming into her own now, and from June through October, the prairie will display staggering biodiversity.  A slowly but constantly changing cast of colorful characters will appear in the endless sea of waving grass.

Here is a partial (because I won't remember them all) list of what I saw blooming in the prairie today:

Shooting stars (still holding on!), golden Alexander, spiderwort, cream false indigo, wild indigo, wild roses (pictured below), lupine (pictured below below), wild hyacinth (pictured way below), wild geraniums, Canada anemone, daisies, fleabane, mustards -- yellow, white and garlic (I didn't say all the flowers were desirable), cow parsnip, bladder campion, hawkweed, irises, a patch of something bright red and far off the trail in a wetter area, no idea what it was... That's all I'm remembering at the moment.  I'm sure there was more, but I probably got the best ones. Even so... That's a lot!

Purple (with an Orange Topper!)

Spiderwort is blooming.

Look at these spectacular indigos!

Purple irises by the pond, with yellow ones blooming in the background.

Also sighted today: my first monarch butterfly of the year!  Too much moving to get a good photo, though. 

Iris

These irises bloomed yesterday but it never stopped raining long enough to take a photo!

Water Blooms

The ponds are surrounded by irises, and afloat with lilies...

Things I Love

Things I Love, by Naomi

• I love waking up to a cacophony of chirps from robins and chickadees, sparrows and cardinals, through the open bedroom window.
• I love walking around my yard to check what's blooming before I leave for work without having to put a jacket on.  (Today: dwarf irises, crocuses, lilac leaves pushing out of their bud scales...)  (I'd love it even more if I didn't have to go to work, but the point is, no jacket to bother with, even early in the morning.)
• I love wearing my sunglasses as a headband when I step inside and not having to worry about the fact that a hat is already in their place on my head.  
• I love not wearing socks.  
• I love when my closet -- situated over the garage and not part of the heating or cooling system of the house -- isn't freezing or boiling when I go to get my clothes. 
• I love when things change every day; it's like waking up to discover a new world each morning.  Even after a mild winter, it's so so refreshing to hit almost-spring.   

(Just wait until we get some sort of April blizzard.  Oh, the complaining I'll engage in!)

Blue Flag Iris

A Few Quick Updates

I really haven't the energy or inclination to write much. I actually feel like I want to draw, but the plant I want to draw is no where near a place I could sit. And I don't draw from photographs, and I don't want to pick it, and it's getting dark anyhow. And so, a quick update on what's happening, mainly for record-keeping purposes. And there is so much going on, I'm leaving out a ton. Beech leaf outs, maple leaf outs, flowering ornamental shrubs all over the place...

First, early wild strawberry.

First, early golden Alexander.

Bellwort blooming (this is what I want to draw.)

Hepatica still blooming... it was the first of the ephemerals in my yard and it may well be the last... although spring beauties are still going strong...

Bluebells are in full bloom and I'm starting to see their color all over.

I used to have these dwarf irises all over my yard, and several large varieties that bloom later. The person who used to live here must have loved them. I have mostly killed them off by neglect. I liked them all right, but my attitude is this. The first year, I'll give you TLC like crazy. I love my plants and am very good to them. The second year, I'll help you out if I can. After that, you gotta be able to take it on your own. I don't want any perennials that I have to care for. This is why I plant native.

But it's also why I have tulips (full bloom) and daffodils (mostly spent at this point). If you're not evil, and you can compete with the big boys, you can stay.
If you're evil, on the other hand, I'll take care of you. This is creeping Charlie flowering. Creeping Charlie is the bane of my existence this year; I hate it. And I am losing the war against it. In other news of the evil, garlic mustard has started flowering as well. But not in my yard! I did win that battle the first year I lived here and have never had any since. I wish it were so easy with the others. I fight buckthorn every year...

Also noteworthy: I have 13 stalks of sweetgrass flowers. Apparently it's hard to get it to flower, so I feel pretty good about that.

OK. It's 8 pm. Is that too early for bed?

Best known for its canyons and waterfalls, Starved Rock, of course, has some very interesting flora and fauna, which I may have enjoyed more if I had not been groggy from a cold during my trip there last week.

Botanical (and other) highlights included:

Solomon's seal, flowering.

Fungi growing on a log.

Yellow irises in bloom.
Harebells.
Deer allowed us to watch them for quite a while, which is very exciting to students even if I would actually prefer to study plants.
Stonecrop flowering, and growing where it's actually supposed to grow, (on rocks), as opposed to in my yard, where it's a weed.

More April Fools

We happened on a magnolia tree today that was flowering -- some blossoms fully open, most in process, and some still tightly encased in their large furry buds. Above is my sketch study of some of them. It was very windy, which meant both that the flowers would not hold still for sketching and that their floral scent surrounded me. (Actually, a mother with small children came up to me and said that she liked to sketch but she couldn't get her kids to sit still so she didn't do it any more -- I responded that I couldn't get the plant to be still, either!)

Here are some other tree flowers I saw today:

(In order, a red maple, a variety of cherry not native to this continent, a pussy willow -- look at those colors -- and a cottonwood.)

These tulips must be an early-blooming variety, because most are not close to flowering, even in the city.

These little dwarf irises are a beautiful spring treat... as are the Dutchman's breeches, but I am a little sad because mine aren't even emerging yet, which means they're probably not coming back. I mean, this was a little south of my house, but not that far. Sadness. (But I still have some hope, I'll keep you posted.)

And my last bit of plant news -- after I posted this morning, I went into the front yard and saw the above daffodil. I have no idea why the shaded front yard daffodils flowered before the back yard ones, but today is the first day I've seen the full-sized ones blooming around here.

In animal news, I also sketched this pair of geese that was both nestling their heads in their backs and resting, if not sleeping. I also saw a mink. It ran right past me while I was sketching, and at first I didn't know what the brown thing was, but I ended up getting a good and pretty long view of it. I was drawing, so there was no hope of getting a photo, but it was still pretty cool.

And a last bit of news, I heard on NPR today -- and I assume it was serious, although they were doing all sorts of April Fool's broadcasts, but this one wouldn't be very funny -- that we had record-breaking high temperatures. It hit 83 degrees F. And it was warmer than many southern cities like L.A. (that's the only one I remember). Funny, if people went on trips for spring break and it ended up being warmer here than there! Ha! That's like nature's April Fool.

Mayflies Turn into Junebugs (Kankakee River Part 2)

I spent three more days down south in Kankakee River State Park.  Not a lot had changed, but, as the title jokingly suggests, I saw a lot fewer mayflies (and more junebugs, although in this instance that means I saw one).  Here's some of the other things I discovered... 

As at home, the foxglove beardtongue is making its floral debut, with the first pinkish blooms opening. 
Kankakee River has a lot of butterflies.  I saw painted ladies and monarchs, blues, ones I didn't recognize without the aid of a book, and this lovely swallowtail.  It's about as large as my  hand.  I had to take about 25 pictures before I finally got this one, as it was not sitting at all still!
I first noticed these yellow irises at home on Saturday, 5/30, but this one is the first I have photographed.  While these wetland flowers are quite lovely, they are not native irises, but rather garden escapees.  
We saw many turtles on this trip.  This one, away from the river, was quite large.  
Last week's black raspberry flower becomes this week's tiny green raspberry.
A crazy stinkhorn!
Lichen and moss growing together on a rock cliff.  Perhaps not phenologically significant, but I do love these nonvascular plants (or, fungi+algae, in the case of lichens) and their ability to grow right out of a rock.  
And speaking of growing right out of rocks -- this fern has found itself a cliffside home, as well.  Pretty impressive, if you ask me.

A dwarf iris...

A bright spot in an otherwise dreary day.  Rainy and dark and in the 30s... I'd rather have snow!

It's a beautiful day for baseball -- I wouldn't normally say this, but I'm sure glad I didn't have tickets for opening day at Wrigley.