Posts Tagged ‘flowers’
Another Transplant
The woods up around our lake place are replete with the white and purple blossoms of wild trillium, which is such a beautiful sight. Just before we left to drive home yesterday, Cyndie’s nephew, Beck, helped her dig up a few of the plants for us to bring home. We hope to seed our woods for a shot at a similar magical landscape down here in a few years.
We tried to minimize the hours they were out of the ground by getting them planted as quickly as possible after we got home.
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I noticed in the second picture there is a worm, which is unfortunate, since, as I recently wrote, they are not trillium’s friend, because they consume the duff layer of decaying leaves and rob the soil of nutrients. I’m hoping our situation is not that extreme yet, and the two can coexist for some time.
I was so excited about the new plantings that I forgot to go check how the recently transplanted maple tree is getting along. Now we have two areas that I will be anxiously observing for signs of success.
There is such a variety of growth that springs forth in our woods every year, we are hopeful that our attempt to add trillium to it all will be met with success and the wonderful beauties will begin propagating unassisted in years to come.
Wish us luck!
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Flowers Show
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Not far behind all the fast growing grass we have around here, flowers are beginning to display their best selves for our delight. Like so many things this spring, it seems like they have just appeared out of nowhere. If we neglect to walk around the house and property for one day, we miss the grand entrance of some plant or another.
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Unfortunately for me, the weeds grow just as fast and get just as tall as some of the desirable flowering plants. I’m never sure which is which, and therefore am unwilling to be very zealous about weeding our landscape.
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The emergence of the flowers is matched closely with the appearance of pestering flying insects, several of which have a taste for blood. While stepping in close to capture the little blossoms on this flowering tree, I fell under attack from a swarm of tiny flying things, a few of which seemed to be driven toward burying themselves in my hair. That’s a joy.
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Speaking of that kind of joy, while working to clear trees from the drainage ditch along our southern border last weekend, I was sure that a mosquito almost large enough to pass for a humming-bird was responsible for the giant welt that swelled and itched when I came in for the night. I showed the welt to Cyndie right away to see what she thought of it. Inconclusive response. It had quickly gotten bigger than any mosquito bite I had ever experienced before.
In a few days, it became painfully obvious that it was not a bug bite. I’m guessing I unknowingly handled some poison ivy down in that ditch, then directly transferred it to my neck when trying to wipe off dripping sweat. The swelling and wide area of reaction is so distinctly different than the usual itchy spots that appear on my skin, I believe it suggests the level of exposure was an order of magnitude higher than my usual experience.
I remembered that my doctor advised I try an antihistamine to control the reaction, before resorting to a steroid prescription. That seems to be working for me, to suppress the swelling and itching, but it doesn’t necessarily shorten the average two weeks duration like steroids will. That’s okay. I dislike the prescription stuff enough to be willing to endure the duration of the process using antihistamines alone for now.
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Relative Something 