The Indoor Plants

It's astonishing, but I can't think of anything interesting to blog about!

I edited, I did computer stuff, I shopped, I filled the veggie tray using my new chopper (it looks beautiful), but how many times would you readers find the same tray filled with the same vegetables interesting? I started to look up a little bit about the next generation in the genealogy, but as I suspected, there isn't much to find. I may have to get that DAR membership to learn much (which would be easy except for the dues because Granny and Mom were both members- so I don't have to start from scratch to prove anything). It was this generation's son-in-law who fought in the Revolution, and gives me the right to belong.

I played my game (but I MAY be able to be calmer about it.) They've added many layers of events because the really top-level players need things to do. So there's no way mid-level players, such as I, can explore all the lands. So I can just pick what I want to work on and try to meet my own goals.

It's fun. The current quest is to assemble a skeleton of the "Loch Dess" (not a typo) monster. You have to get some of the bones from an Inuit who was making oars of the ribs, a dog who wants to keep some of the bones, and a clown who is charging people to look at the skull. You have to go find the things these people and the dog want to trade for the bones. Along the way, there are rewards you can get, resources to collect, etc. And you have to keep your home station operating in order to have enough energy to do all this stuff.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure you really don't want to see a lot of screenshots of a game you aren't playing yourself.

How about the plants I'm nurturing in the house over the winter? Still not too exciting, but it's the best I can do today. I am attempting to keep a bunch of Coleus going. I brought in the 'Lemon Coral' sedum and the 'Sea Urchin' sedum. I have one sprig of 'Blue Elf' sedum, the wandering jew, a tiny aloe that manages to live but not thrive, and a whole bunch of the Aloe squarrosa which is a houseplant. I'm still trying to give several of those away if you are interested...

Remember the cleaning/sorting project I mentioned in September? Well, the point of that was to make space on a table where I can keep these plants for the winter. I think that space gets enough light to make them happy. And it doesn't matter if some water leaks onto the plastic cloth or the junky table underneath. In my dream world, I have one of those earth-sheltered greenhouses attached to my kitchen door by a breezeway, so I can keep plants and grow vegetables over the winter. Meanwhile, I have a rusty folding table and an old plastic tablecloth. It works.

Tomorrow is going to be nice again. I have a plan to do something more exciting than grocery shopping.

See Last Hurrah, Rock Garden 2025

Benzonia and Betsie Valley

The bulk of the day was spent at the Benzonia Holiday Gift Market. They had a lot of vendors stuffed into a smallish room, but it did boost the impression of a busy event. And I did pretty well, so I have no real complaints.

This quilt is being raffled in December. I think by the Grow Benzie group. Yes, it's gorgeous, but it's 100% machine made and so perfect I wonder if it was a kit, so I have mixed feelings.

After the event was over, I went to hike a bit of the multi-use Betsie Valley Trail. Finding one of the parking areas turned out to be a challenge. My map wasn't detailed enough. Google couldn't seem to tell me. The local gas station folks... well, the guy couldn't even read a map. The lady directed me to a parking area that wasn't the closest one (there should have been one in town), but anyway. I did find the trail and a parking area.

It's a wide graveled trail. My goal was really just to get in some fast walking exercise, so that was fine.

I chose to hike back toward town. I knew this section crossed a developed area where the trail has an easement, so there were quite a few houses. But it is also the section that goes along Crystal Lake, which was what I wanted to be able to see.

Found a few things of interest. I always love the tamarack (larch). They turn bright yellow in the fall and lose their needles every winter.

Do you recognize this one? It's a closeup shot of the seed pods for wild clematis (aka old man's beard, aka virgin's bower).

Since it took extra time to find a trailhead, I wasn't sure how long the light would last. I walked 30 minutes along the lake, then turned around. That gave me 3.6 miles when I got back to the car. There was still plenty of light, I went the other direction to M-115 and back which got me to 4 miles. In 1 hr 15 minutes. Nice brisk pace to match the nice brisk air.

There is a Nature Area named Railroad Point right there as well. That trail is less than a mile long, but it's supposed to have a good view of the lake. Maybe another time.

Got home a bit after dark, ate dinner. Not sure how much else I'll accomplish today.

Miles hiked in 2025: 437

Betsie Valley Trail, M-115 to Country Farm Road and back (parking at Molineax Rd). 4 miles

See Lake County Museum Quilts

Spirit of the Woods Hike- October- Highbanks Rollway

The Spirit of the Woods Chapter of the NCTA holds its October hike at Highbanks Rollway, which is in the Grand Traverse Chapter miles. But we try to hit peak color because it's a beautiful hike above the Manistee River.

It was scheduled for last weekend, but got re-scheduled because of the weather forecast. Today was a little past peak color up there, but it was a lovely day, and not shabby.

Things did start out a bit iffy with fog so thick you could only see gray from the overlook. But that soon lifted to become only a layer of fog in the valley

This is quite a hilly section. In the 5.5 miles there is about 800 feet of elevation change with the biggest single climb being 250 feet.

The best color was on the way back to the trailhead. By then the sun was out. It had warmed from near freezing into the high forties. This is the riverbend at the actual rollway.

Possibly the best was the sun on bright yellow aspen on the other side of the river.

And another.

We had 21 people in our group. Here we are. Bob took the pic.

The location was extremely busy! Lots of families out for walks with the kiddos which is great to see. Most of the people weren't going too far from the trailhead, but that's OK. I'm just glad to see people enjoying the outdoors.

This isn't particularly special, but Plantain-Leaved Pussytoes presented itself nicely for a picture. Antennaria plantaginifolia.

Sue S from the chapter rode with me (it's a long drive and carpooling is good). We did some more leaf-peeping on the way home. Maybe those will be tomorrow's post.

Now... since I didn't get home till after 10 pm last night and had to get back up a 6 am today- I'm going to go lie down with a book.

Miles hiked in 2025: 408.01
Miles hiked on the NCT in 2025: 236.3

North Country Trail, Wexford County, MI. Highbanks Rollway to 29 1/2 Road and back. 5.5 miles

See Same Hike- 2024 See Wet Spring hike on the same miles

Early Autumn Rainbow

Every once in a while I like to do a collage rainbow post. You get one today. The pictures have all been taken in the past week.

RED- Jack in the Pulpit seeds, ORANGE- Beech leaves, YELLOW- Sassafras leaves, GREEN- mixed leaves including oak, BLUE- the sky, PURPLE- New England Aster.

I got my new computer today and have spent most of the day trying to get my software back to the settings I had, the calendar to work, and all that sort of thing. Managed a tiny bit of productivity. Then bell choir this afternoon, and a little walk.

I should be back to full steam tomorrow

Miles hiked in 2025: 372.

Ludington School Forest, various trails, 2 miles

See Late Winter Rainbow II

500 Species of Plants

Some of you know that one of my never-will-be-finished projects is to build a database of my photos so I might actually be able to find things. I keep working on it, usually a little bit each day.

One of the categories of pictures is, of course, plants. So yesterday, I hit 500 different species entered. This is out of a total of over 3000 photos entered so far. There will be lots more than 500 ultimately. I thought for today, I'd just pick some of my favorite plant pictures from the photos that are, so far, in the database.

I'll start with this bromeliad from the 2010 Philadelphia Flower Show. Of course, these are used in displays a lot because they are so colorful and showy, but that doesn't keep me from liking them. Genus Aechmea variety 'Blue Tango.'

Not all of the favorite plant pictures are going to be exotic things. For example, here is a large white oak tree, Quercus alba, that is found along the Finger Lakes/North Country Trails. It's named for the family that owns the property it's on, the Yorski Oak. With few of the leaves out yet, you can see the great bones of this tree that is probably 200 years old. Picture taken in May 2010 on the hike on which I finished all of the NCT in New York.

This one is last fall in my rock garden. This is the Sedum 'Dazzleberry' making a large bumblebee very happy. See the full pollen baskets?

This is also last fall with late afternoon sunlight on Ostrich Ferns, Matteuccia struthiopteris, Near Round Lake.

This one is a little more exotic in that it's not commonly found, but I did find some very near my house in 2010. This is a Grape Fern, sometimes this group is called Moonworts. But those are both just names for a whole group of ferns. The Genus is Botrychium, and I think this is matricariifolium, or the Daisyleaf Moonwort. It's one of the more common ones in the group. That said, I've only ever seen two of species in real life. I'm pretty pleased that I found this one on my own. You can see why they are called "grape ferns" because the fertile leaves look like a small cluster of grapes getting ready to ripen. This whole plant is maybe an inch-and-a-half tall.

I'll end this collection with another from last fall. In the database, I've been alternating entering more recent months with older pictures, so the dates are all over the place. This is just Virginia Creeper, Parthenocissus quinquefolia, in full autumn color, with berries, and contrasted with some ash leaves.

Aren't plants great?

Today I found out that I can get the dental work I need started tomorrow! And that I have to only eat very soft food for two weeks. So, I went shopping because I don't want to have to face that if I feel really bad when I get home tomorrow.

Worked on all the usual projects. Vacation from DMS is up to 41,630 words.

See Best Photos of 2020

Gale's Pond Botany

There is a lot of quality plant material around Gale's Pond. Every one of these specimens is native. Although I didn't see any brand-new-to-me plants, I've added to my knowledge base. First, the plants I see fairly often but are still nice.

This is white turtlehead, Chelone Glabra. Fairly common wetland plant.

Here's another we are more used to seeing in the spring. This is the seed head for Jack-in-the-Pulpit, Arisaema triphyllum. Don't be confused by the fern leaves behind it.

Next up is Purple-leaved Willow Herb, Epilobium coloratum. What I hadn't previously realized about this is that it's in the same genus as Fireweed. Fireweed gets a bunch of curly split seed pods at the end of the season, and so does this plant. I'll have to watch for those. I think that's the more interesting time frame for the plant rather than these tiny flowers because of the interesting texture.

Now we get to things that are more interesting to me because I am less familiar with them. Next is Horsebalm, Collinsonia canadensis. I first saw this plant right here at Gale's Pond in August of 2019, but the flower wasn't in full bloom, so I never shared it.

Here it is this week, going to seed.

Here it is in 2019, with the flowers just opening. The thing is, I saw it somewhere else, perhaps later in 2019, because I remembered the name to tell someone. No clue where or who, and my photo sorting has not reached that year even if I took a picture. Yesterday, I could only remember that it had "horse" in the name.

Here's another plant that I've seen elsewhere, but I have no idea if I have other pictures of it, and I couldn't remember anything about it, except I could tell from looking that it is some kind of nettle. It's Wood Nettle or Canada Nettle, Laportea canadensis. Yes, the kind of nettle that has little stinging hairs if you touch it.

You could easily see the stinging hairs on these stems. But the most interesting thing is the flowers. They are little palmate clusters of greenish-white blunt petals. I believe these are the female flowers. The male flowers are separate but will grow on the same plant.

I don't think I'll forget this one again, although I may not recognize the male flowers if I see them alone.

Finally, we get into some semi-informed speculation. I THINK this is Marsh Fern Thelypteris palustris. That is based on where it was growing, the shape of the pinnules, and the shape and placement of the ruptured spore cases. Well, that's part of how you'd identify any fern, but it's late in the season, and I should have had a fern book with me to really ID this. Anyway, it's a nice picture.

I got myself back on track today. Laundry, editing, other computer projects, and I wrote 585 words in Vacation from DMS. Current total is at 40,418. I guess there's hope I might finish the book. Now I'm going to go make a gallon of yogurt before I crash.

See Gale's Pond

Three New Rock Garden Plants

Two of these are not new, new. I did buy them this year, but was waiting to test their survival before posting.

The other one was recently given to me by author friend, Jean. This is Sedum kamtschaticum 'Variegatum.' At least I'm pretty sure that's what it is. I'll know more certainly after it blooms next year. It stays low to the ground, while another of the S. kamtschaticum's - ellacombeanum, gets a little taller. I have a lot of the second one, and it's one of my favorites. This one is supposed to spread easily, so that will be good. The leaves aren't particularly colorful, but the buds are orange, opening to yellow flowers. Sounds good!

I moved a patch of 'Dream Dazzler' over one space and replaced it with this one. I previously had two purple ones too close to each other. I spend a lot of time trying to decide where things should go to look good in the long term.

On this topic, when I visited Dow Gardens a few years ago, I was astonished at how well the plantings were planned. The designer had to be able to envision how various trees were going to look together after 100 years. And they succeeded!

This one isn't really a rock garden plant, but I wanted something taller near the retaining wall in this space that really doesn't show up well. And I needed something that will hide that cable.

This is Yarrow 'Cerise Queen' which will have magenta blooms if it decides it's happy there. The location is part shade and part hot sun with the heat bouncing off the retaining wall. But so far, it's at least growing. I've killed a few things that can't take those interesting conditions.

I'll end today with a tentative sharing of a plant that I'm trying for the third time. It should absolutely be happy in my rock garden. But I've killed two of them in the past. I don't want to jinx it by sharing. (Wink) This is Mt. Atlas Daisy, or Garden Gnome, Anacyclus depressus. I got it just before I went away in June, and things got pretty dry. But it survived that and is growing. If it lives, the flowers are great! The buds are a deep red, but when the flower opens, the petals are white on the inside. Anyway, I'm hopeful, and I didn't spend very much on it, so it was worth another shot. And the leaves are an interesting texture too.

I edited, I worked on volunteer stuff, I spent a huge amount of time on some marketing materials, I got back to a project of my own since the ADK data is done (well, I still have some files to upload, but I'll putter at those.) Just a few things to get ready for the vendor event tomorrow at Cadillac.

See Rock Garden Report

Bigbract Verbena or Not?

In 2016, I encountered this plant while walking to town one day. It's Bigbract Verbena, Verbena bracteata. It's kind of funky, and I hoped it would grow in the same place again, but it's only an annual, so it would need to reseed.

I've never seen even a hint of it again, and I've been looking. These pictures were taken in August of 2016. The appeal of the plant to me is the texture of the bracts.

So imagine my surprise when a couple of days ago, in the correct location, I saw this.

Could this be some of last year's seed stalks?

Maybe. I gathered up those dried stalks, and yesterday here's what I did. I had to take the daffodils out of a rock garden space they were too tall for. I put them along the lower edge of this as-yet-unnumbered space. Mixed in compost. Stripped the seed stalks and mixed them with some soil. Filled the top part of the area.

Hopefully, something will come up and then I can find out what it is and if I want to keep it. I'll be really happy if it is the Verbena.

It was nice and cool this morning, almost chilly for July. I walked 3 miles. Other than that, it's all the usual stuff, including finishing the trimming around all the gardens. That looks decent. Editing, computer stuff, am writing my next column. Researched some ideas to water my flowers with less water waste.

The lilies are almost done for the year, but a few other things are starting to bloom, so stay tuned.

Miles hiked in 2025: 316.6

See Bigbract Verbena

A-grrrr-essive Plants

I finally got the pieces together (and the weather contributed its piece by not being too hot) to start mowing. Discovered that in just the time I've been gone that a grapevine decided it should own the lawnmower.

Don't think it was content with that one little tendril. Oh, no! It was already getting serious about tying down the entire engine.

Here's one of the reasons I need to get cracking on the mowing. I like the big bluestem grass in the back field, but if it gets a foothold in the lawn that will be a problem because it grows in big coarse clumps.

The grapevine is funny. The autumn olive is not. I managed to mow five swaths and realized that a front tire on the mower was completely flat and trying to come off the wheel. At least it turned out to be fairly easy to remove the wheel. That little aggressive plant cost me $45.00. One of the thorns had punctured the tire.

Also, it took time to get it fixed. So I managed to mow two lawn sections after it was repaired. Other than that, I edited and did errands and a bit of computer stuff.

Hopefullly, more mowing tomorrow.

See Also Known as Turkeyfoot