How many nicknames do you have?

Common mullein has the most nicknames of any plant I have come ever across: cowboy toilet paper, hig candlewick, Indian rag weed, bullicks lungwort, Adams-rod, hare’s-beard, ice-leaf, woolly mullein, velvet mullein, blanket mullein, beggar’s blanket, Moses’ blanket, poor man’s blanket, Our Lady’s blanket, old man’s blanket, feltwort, flannel.  I come from a family where everyone had nicknames. Mine was Mickey (for Mickey Mouse). How about? Do you have any nicknames?

common mullein (Verbascum thapsus)

Let’s go to the beach!

My high school Spanish text book was titled Vamos a la Playa!  (Let’s Go to the Beach!) It’s interesting the tidbits we remember. And equally interesting, the things we forget. We have two book launches going on simultaneously in our house right now. So there is no beach time for us this summer. Luckily, I have several glass jars filled with sea glass from previous summers. One of my happy places is late afternoon on a beach, sifting through handfuls of sand in search of buried jewels of sea glass.

sea glass from the Mediterranean

It’s been balmy!

Our roadside are prettier this year than I ever remember seeing them. It’s sort of like a super-bloom midwestern style. Heaping mounds of wildflowers in every color. I am not sure exactly why: I suspect all the recent rain has a lot to do with it, and possibly the previous three years of drought that could have killed off many of the non-native choker weeds, and maybe because the MN DOT has finally gotten on board with not mowing the bejeesus out of the roadside habitats in hopes of creating just this–one huge open-field wildflower bonanza.  One of the stars of this roadside show right now is bee balm–miles and miles of lilac-colored jester’s caps. I stopped to pick some today, and was quickly reminded why it is called bee balm: the flowers were covered with a buzzing, throbbing, cloud of bees (especially bumble bees). I reached in to pick my few stems without concern, knowing that the bees were far to contended with their balm than to worry about me.

bee balm (monarda)

love maple

This color combo stops me in my tracks every time.

amur maple samaras in july

Rain, rain, go away

It has been raining almost daily here since summer started. While we humans are simply tired of the swampy, sticky humidity of it all,  we do get to escape into air conditioned homes or offices when we need a break. It is the trees I am starting to worry about. Their roots have been sitting in fully saturated soil for almost two months. Imagine sitting in a bathtub for two months?  I get a weekly newsletter from the Minnesota DNR, they too are concerned about the “wet feet” of our trees. We seem to be whiplashing between drought years and flooding years. We are all on high-alert, looking for signs of climate change. But the truth is, extreme weather has always been a hallmark of the upper midwest. The question is…is this more extreme than normal? And by how much? It’s time to revisit the data.

mid-summer elm leaf and hibiscus leaf with raindrops