all hail the queen

please rise for her majesty, queen anne!

queen anne’s lace (wild carrot)

this too, is peony

peonies are soft, open, hanging pastel flowers. they are also faceted dry stems, tightly curled leaves, and crimson dried flowers. it’s all peony.

peony

july is berry season

berry season starts with bang with strawberries in late june, but july is when the real show arrives. raspberries are free for the picking on most roadsides, alleyways, and and overgrown gardens. And in within a week or so, blueberries will crown the berry season. while strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries get all the attention, we have a lot of forageable secondary berries here in the north: blackberries, gooseberries, honeysuckle, dewberry, elderberries, serviceberries (aka juneberries), and of course cranberries. tis the season of abundance. and ice cream smothered in raspberry sauce.

blackcap raspberries

looks like a thistle, smells like a thistle…but not a thistle

many times i have written how velcro was inspired by burdock. little known fact: in norwegian burdock is borre and velcro borrelås, which translates to “burdock lock”. q.e.d.

burdock in bloom (Arctium)

yet again

queen anne’s lace. yes, i know. i keep coming back to it. in all its forms. but especially those seedheads. i’ll never get sick of them. if you are sick of them, i will always love you, but you are wrong.

queen anne’s lace (wild carrot)