have you heard? the catalpas are blooming

some trees get a lot of attention when they are flowering: apple trees, magnolias, dogwoods, redbud, and cherries for example. but not catalpa. have you ever heard anyone say “omg, the catalpas are in bloom! have you seen them!? it’s soooo amazing!”. nope, i have never heard that. and i am not sure why not. the trees are covered with foamy lathers of white flowers , with each individual flower displaying pleasing orange and fellow landing stripes for pollinators. they are pleasantly fragrant, smelling like vanilla and gardenias.  they seem pretty magical to me. i don’t know why they don’t get more attention. tomorrow, i am going to try it out on my morning barista…”hey, have you you seen the catalpa blossoms? aren’t the great?” i’ll let you know tomorrow how that goes.

northern catalpa tree flowers (Catalpa speciosa)

hiding in plain sight

i love love love that i am still discovering new-to-me STILL subjects right in my own backyard. these exuberant little wetland plants were found along our dock. i have never noticed them before. it turns out that they are a native form of loosestrife–not to be confused with the much maligned invasive purple loosestrife. a little digging, and i have leaned that we have at least ten kinds of native loosestrife in this state of abundant wetlands. this makes me realize that when i walk on my lakeside trails, i always stick to dry ground. the mucky, boggy, swampy edges of wetlands are almost entirely undiscovered territory for STILL. time to pull on some wellies and get busy!

tufted loosestrife (Lysimachia thyrsiflora)

bluets

“If you truly love nature, you will find beauty everywhere.”  –Vincent Van Gogh

wildly imperfect beauty

“Whether I’m thinking about elevating every day moments of the day or about timelessness, there is no greater source of inspiration than mother nature in generosity, in heer wildly imperfect beauty.” — Robin Standefer (of Robin & Williams)

a box of summer greens

“Use What You Have. Do What You Can.” – Arthur Ashe.