dianthus for the distracted

In a couple of weeks I am heading to Longwood Garden near Philadelphia, PA to be one of several instructors at a week long photography conference. These are the kinds of things I get invited to do now ever since the success of my book. Anyway, I am not only teaching for three days but I am also giving the keynote speech. Today, I sat down in earnest to begin the laborious task of putting together what I hope to be a memorable keynote. As a result, I reached for the easy dianthus in a bouquet of flowers I was gifted recently. When time of short, work with you got. Even if it’s non-native and store bought.

pink dianthus

STILL worthy x 2

Soon after I started STILL in 2012 it became a family affair. Every outing turned into a treasure hunt for STILL. The kids would find something interesting, like a cicada husk, and wonder if I wanted it for STILL. We quickly quickly created our own shared language: “Hey Mom, is this STIL worthy?” they would ask. And just like that, “STILL worthy” was part of the Hoffman Family lexicon. We still use it to this day: “Hey Hon, I think the elderflower berries are going to be STILL worthy in a day or two” or, from my son “These sour cherries are STILL worthy, too bad I am have to process them all tonight before you can photograph them.” And in my own head: “tiger lilies are worthy of at least STILL posts”–STILL worthy x 2.

Tiger Lily flowers (Lilium lancifolium)

everyone talking, no one listening

The stamens coming out of each of these tiger lilies look to me like cartoon speech bubbles. So much so, that when I see this photo I get the impression of a large family gathering, maybe Thanksgiving, and everyone is a little tipsy and talking over each other, and not a single one of them is listening. Okay, I may have just described my family gatherings from my childhood. Come to think of it, a rowdy collection of boisterous tiger lilies is a pretty good description of the Lapadat clan.

Tiger Lily (Lilium lancifolium)

a driftless weekend

Steve has an assignment to write an article about hazelnuts so we have been scouting hazelnut farms in Minnesota and Wisconsin. This past weekend, we drove to The Driftless Area of southwest Wisconsin to check out two farms (as a bonus for me, we also got to visit Frank LLoyd Wright’s Taliesen East in Spring Green WI). As upper midwestern natives, we already knew about the beauty of the Driftless Area, but this weekend felt different: We were gobsmacked by the tree-covered rolling hills, the tidy farms, the fertile valleys and the general beauty of the place. I think we logged over 300 miles. We saw a lot. And it never stopped impressing us. This collection of wildflowers was beside the driveway of one of the farms we scouted. The whole region was in bloom, and every single roadside was awash in wildflowers. It was a magical weekend.

For the curious, this is from Wiki:
“The Driftless Area was never covered by ice during the Last Glacial Period, so the area lacks the characteristic glacial deposits known as drift. Its landscape is characterized by steep hills, forested ridges, deeply carved river valleys, and karst geology with spring-fed waterfalls and cold-water trout streams. Ecologically, the Driftless Area’s flora and fauna are more closely related to those of the Great Lakes region and New England than those of the broader Midwest and central Plains regions.”

July 26th wildflowers from Pam Saunders and Tom Lukens’ farm called Nature Nooks Retreat in Viroqua, WI

waiting on the queen

We (Steve, Joseph, and I) have been watching the roadsides vigilantly. Joseph wants to harvest Queen Anne’s Lace seeds, so he want to catch it when it starts dying back and forming those little beautiful little baskets of seeds. Frankly, I am not sure why we are are on high alert, why he want the seeds sooner than later?? I need to ask him: is is because they are better right after the form (he plans to use them culinarily)? Or is to beat the other omnivores or the wind and rain to them?? Or is it impatience to fit in a seed harvest before he heads back to NYU for his last semester?? I will report back what I learn (Joe is on his way to Door County, Wisconsin today to harvest cherries otherwise I would ask him). In the meantime, the queen still rules the roadsides.

Queen Anne’s Lace (Daucus carota)