we have had a lot of thunderstorms lately. almost everyone we know has lost trees. some have lost the only mature trees on their land. the 50 year old ash at our former home in minneapolis blocked traffic for 4 days before the city could get to it. these peonies fared quite well considering, but they look exhausted from their fight. i think they look like a flop pile of dainty show dogs the evening after a very long walk in the heat.

pink peonies from the yard of our old duplex

minneapolis, minnesota

everyone in the family has been bitten by the STILL blog bug.  yesterday my husband brought me this trio of LBMs (little brown mushrooms).  he was slowly working his way up the dense green tunnel that is our driveway, cutting back the new growth just enough to keep the approach to our house passable.

i don’t know the name for these fungi.  the irony is that we know more about the mushrooms of languedoc than we do about our own back yard.  we told ourselves we would join the minnesota mycological society when we returned home from france. we missed the big spring event, but hope to join the group in time for the fall hunt.

little brown mushrooms from our driveway

saint paul, minnesota

we slid into summer vacation mode at our house this week; sleeping on the porch, staying up late, and sleeping in. i love when we get to let the days unfold without a plan.  with one hour blurring into the next, and before you know it we’ve spent four hours on the deck chatting with friends as twilight set in and the fireflies came out. with temps in the 80’s and humidity in the 80’s, we are all moving a little slowly as we acclimate to the high heat of summer.  these cheerful roadside daisies felt like the perfect symbol to mark the beginning of our slowing down into summer.

wild oxeye daisies

saint paul, minnesota

when i first heard the term roadsidia to refer to the abundance of weeds and wildflowers that grow on the sides of american freeways, i was smitten.  it’s the perfect word.  this spray of grass seeds is an example of roadsidia.  i found it roadside.  a tall weed grass heavy with seeds.  it may be wild oat grass, but i am not at all sure about that.  but i am sure that it belongs to the category roadsidia.

possibly wild oat grass

saint paul, minnesota

i followed a monarch butterfly yesterday to a large patch of milkweed. at first glance what i noticed was the fuzzy new blooms at the center of each tall stalk. but on closer inspection, i was struck by the perfect reflectional symmetry of the alternating leaf layers. i had never noticed it before. and once i saw it, it was all i could see.

milkweed in late june

saint paul, minnesota