Practically Perfect in Every Way

 
Ester is already home now, but before she had to leave we packed the day to the max. And after a slow start the weather turned out to be drop-dead gorgeous.

First we went to Loda Lake Wildflower Sanctuary in White Cloud. It's about an hour away and I will write about it for this month's newspaper column. I arranged for a tour for us from the Loda Lake Garden Club president. She was able to point out some of the plants that I might have missed.



This is the only Wildflower Sanctuary in the entire National Forest system. It is 77 acres which used to be private. Here's Loda Lake, itself.



I last had a tour of the area in 2012, and the link below shows you some pictures from that trip. This time, we did not see some of the special plants we saw that time, but did see others. Of course, to really see wildflowers, you have to keep going back to the same area over and over. A one-day excursion is nice, but it's a complete crap shoot as to what might be blooming.

Some of my pictures are good, some not so much. So today you'll get to see one common flower, but I finally got a good picture. This is starflower, Trientalis borealis.



And one that isn't so common. This has been planted as part of a prairie restoration they are working on. The land was donated by a family who had a farm and summer home on the property in the early 1900s. The area around the old barn foundations is open and perfect for starting a small prairie area. This is prairie smoke, Geum triflorium.


Dogs are allowed on leash, so Jade got to walk with us too. We spent about two hours exploring and taking tons of pictures. Maybe I'll feature a few more another day.

After that, we got some lunch and then treated ourselves to Jones Ice Cream in Baldwin. I had lemon custard, and Ester had black cherry. Outstanding!



When we got back here she left so she'd make it home before dark. So I spent some time weeding my flower beds.

Wonderful day! Tomorrow, it's back to work.

	See Some Special Plants from Loda Lake
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