Snakeroot Update

Snakeroot started going to seed this weekend... 

Sunday Sketches

I have decided I need to take the time to draw again.  This weekend was nearly perfect for it, weather-wise (though the wind made my subjects prone to more movement than I prefer -- if I wanted moving subjects, I'd draw animals!

Woodland brome is one of two grasses (the other being sea oats) which, right now, are adding great interest to the shade garden in my front yard with  green seeds.  Though unripe, the seeds are lovely in this stage, playing in the wind, flickering, twisting and turning on their slender stems...

White Snakeroot isn't yet blooming; in the center of the (unfinished) picture is the bud cluster of future flowers -- they are one of the last to bloom.  Blooming or not, snakeroot got its name from the incorrect belief that it could help cure snake bites.  In fact, it is poisonous to animals as well as humans (and including humans who drink milk/eat meat from animals that have eaten it!)  The ones in our yard have leaf miners at work... They live within the tissue of the leaves and they create these white trails that form random patterns all over the leaves.  They get slightly thicker as the miners grow larger, which is kind of cool...  

It's definitely getting autumnal around here. Trees are turning vibrant colors and prairies are turning browner. Above, a maple, bright red, is already shedding its leaves. Below, the ash tree in my front yard has a burgundy crown with yellow underneath. (You can tell from the photographs, it's a cloudy, dreary day...)
Snakeroot blooms in my yard. This was a little treat when I arrived home, as I had forgotten about this final flower.

In the garden, we planted garlic yesterday. Last year (harvested this summer) we grew 18 bulbs in 2 varieties, of which we saved 2 bulbs for planting this year, and have 3 bulbs left BUT we have been eating garlic from the farmers market because I wanted to save some of ours for a little while. This year (for harvest in 2010) we planted 42 cloves, in 10 varieties! It's exciting to do something for next year in among the cleaning-up and destroying... yesterday I also removed all our tomato, pepper, basil, melon, corn and bean plants (and a lot of weeds that had grown in between them to snugly to take out before). And I started the long process of flower bed tidying with the composting of the nasturtiums. So it was a long, chilly afternoon in the garden -- and several more are needed before the winter sets in!