Winners of an Ad for a Month

This month there were two entries in the contest. Both of them got the laddergram right. The solution was TEAM LORE.

The entries came from John of English Wilderness and Ratty of The Everyday Adventurer

But the final winner was Ratty, since he also sent an essay using the 12 words from the puzzle. The words are 1. trail, 2. liar, 3. air, 4. routes, 5. routs, 6. ruts, 7. astern, 8. terns, 9. sent, 10. lamed, 11. dale, 12. lad. Here is the story by our imaginative friend, Ratty!

The lad was such a liar. He claimed the air routes sent him to a ship in the midst of a flock of terns. While he stood astern, the ship turned into a wagon that was in a dale full of ruts. He was seriously lamed by stepping into the ruts on the main trail, so he routs the terns from the water to carry him home. What a liar!

Now for the top commenters from March. I never did get February done, and I apologize, because I do like to thank those of you who interact with me in some substantial way. Anyway... here's how March came out.

There were 40 people who left comments, and a total of 229 separate comments (not counting my own responses to them).

The Top Commenters
I like to give the top commenters of the past month a free link with a small icon in the sidebar. I really appreciate every one, and try to respond. I had to go to 12 winners because the last 3 each had the same number. Here they are:
Ann's Snap & Edit (Ann- 33 comments)
Everyday Adventurer (Ratty- 29 comments)
Poetic Shutterbug (Jo- 19 comments)
My Journey (rainfield61- 15 comments) tied with
Duxbury Ramblers (Carol- 15 comments)
Secondary Roads (Chuck - 12 comments) tied with
Duck and Wheel with String (Lin- 12 comments)
Carmen's Chronicles (Carmen- 9 comments) tied with
Spinning Lovely Days (Ivy- 9 comments)
Vanilla Seven (VanillaSeven- 8 comments) tied with
Our Simple Life (Julia- 8 comments) tied with
Dennis the Vizsla Dog (Dennis' dada, James- 8 comments)

See Contest Day- Win an Ad for a Month for the puzzle

Carex tonsa

I'm guessing that I may be more excited about this post than many of you. In a previous lifetime, I was working really hard at becoming an expert in wetland plants. Most Carex (sedges) do like wetlands. But there are a few that prefer dry and sandy habitats. This is one of them, and it grows in my kingdom.



We won't do a whole botany lesson here, but one little thing to remember is that "sedges have edges." While they may look like grass if you just glance at them, one quick touch will inform you that the stems are triangular. OK... you've now just identified a sedge!



This little cutie is less than three inches tall! I don't know if it is the smallest sedge there is, but it's the smallest one I've ever seen. Those yellow things sticking out of the top are the anthers at the end of the stamens... think male parts.

Here I've pulled the leaves out of the way, and you can see that there is a different kind of flower down near the base of the plant. That is the staminate (female) flower. In this sedge male and female are on the same stalk, with the male parts above. Other sedges may have them on separate stalks, or with the female parts above. It's one of the characteristics keys use for identification.

It's not a hobby for the faint of heart. Some of the ID's can only be done with a microscope, or at least a good hand lens, and then only when the plant is blooming. I'll try to get some pix through the microscope of the achenes (seeds). Those can be interesting.

There are 169 Carex in Michigan. I wish I knew all of them. I'm working on it, but I haven't counted the ones I recognize. I think I'd be pretty embarrassed.

White Trees- Part III

 


Remember this picture? Probably not. It was part of a post about telling the difference between aspen and birch trees. Here's how the tops of those trees look at this time of year.



Basically the aspen is on the right, and the birch on the left, although there is really only one birch, with quite a few aspen. Can you see how the branches grow differently? The birch is very finely divided, and the twigs are all dark. The aspen is much more coarse.



Here they are a few days later, with the buds starting to swell.



Finally, here is the bark. You can see that the birch is much whiter, with dark branches, while the aspen has both gray trunk and branches.

Took a few pictures of birds that weren't there any more. Maybe tomorrow I'll catch one!

See White Trees- Part II

Error in Puzzle

I am not very happy with myself. There was a mistake in this puzzle too. I am just getting way too careless. It is now fixed, and you can stop wondering whether you are losing your mind. You aren't. I am.

Entries received: 2

Sunrise March 30

Here is my first try at showing you a time lapse sunrise. It's not an overwhelming success. I set the camera on a tripod and took a picture every two minutes from 7:30 to 8:15 am. It's too jerky. I should take a picture every minute.

But it was the kind of morning I needed. There were no clouds near the horizon so you can see the sun come up, but then there was a higher band so that the sun didn't just "burn" a spot on the picture.

See Kitchenhenge- Spring Equinox 2010