My Weekend Communing With Nature
This weekend, we spent most of our time outdoors. On Saturday, we pulled weeds, trimmed shrubs, repositioned the rocks around our pond's waterfall, and tried to kill as many Japanese beetles as possible.
On Sunday, we took a guided nature walk in a nearby fen with our friends Teresa and Kim. A fen is a wetland area where water seeps from glacial formations. Limestone gravel left by the moving glaciers below the ground makes the water alkaline.
We always have beautiful dragonflies and damselflies at our pond. I decided to take a break from my work and photograph two of them. This Blue Dasher was amusing, in that he always came back to land on the same daylily bud!
This Twelve-Spotted Skimmer darted here and there, catching insects on the wing, but tended to land on our rocks, or on the rushes in the center of the pond. Here he is on a daylily stem.
Our "Nikko Blue" hydrangea turns a beautiful shade of blue in acidic soil. Unfortunately, the soil around here is much to alkaline, so unless I add some aluminum sulfate to the soil every year, our "blue" hydrangea turns a wimpy pinkish-purple! As you can see, this year, I forgot to amend the soil!
Nikko Blue Hydrangea
Our lilies have finished blooming...
...but not the daylilies, garden phlox, hydrangeas, and many of our other perennials:
Monarda "Jacob Cline"
Monarda "Blue Stocking"
Phlox "Barthirtythree"
Daylilies "Hyperion"
Daylilies -hemerocallis fulva
"Annabelle" hydrangea
Potentilla "Miss Wilmot"
Liatris spicata
Lady's Mantle
Coreopsis "Zagreb"
Gooseneck Loosestrife
Purple Coneflowers
our guide discusses the milkweed plant
We saw some of the low areas where the seepage occurs. You have to be very careful walking in the fen, because there is quicksand!
The ground is a floating mass of peat. We saw many types of grasses, sedges, cattails and prairie wildflowers. The fen we visited is 260 acres. Volunteers are trying to restore it to its original state. There are many species that are not native, and it's difficult to eradicate them.
Prairie Thistle
Our guide told tales of children lost forever in the tall prairie grasses as early pioneers moved westward across America.
We also saw interesting insects, like this Widow Skimmer dragonfly...
... and this beautiful Red-Spotted Purple butterfly!
It was a great weekend, enjoying the beautiful weather in northern Illinois!
For more information, visit Teresa's blog or Chicago Wilderness Magazine.
10 Comments:
Hi Pam,
Losing people in quick sands and children in
tall grasses in the fen - Yycks! How fascinating!
You have a real talent for photography Pam. Have you ever entered some of your shots in photography contest?
Anyes
XX
Hi Anyes-
Thank you for the nice compliment! I never did enter a photography contest. But I enjoy it immensely, and took a lot of photography classes in college years ago while working on my design degree! :-)
-Pam
you really did a beautiful post.. I love dragon flys.
I have alot of the same plants and
everything looks great because of all the rain.
Hi Yvonne-
I used to be afraid of dragonflies as a kid because they look so weird. But now I enjoy them.
Yes, a good rain really makes the flowers come back to life after a few hot days!
-Pam
Hi Pam, I agree with the previous post, your photgraphy is amazing! I made my husband come over to my laptop just to see your pics, they are beautiful! The Blue Dasher Dragon fly looked like he was smiling back at the camera!
Thank you for the post about the 60th anniversary. We will breathe a sigh of relief when we are done, its been an amazing undertaking (wedding like). We have power washed, re-painted our wrap around porch, scrubbed, planted flowers and painted some more! But...you will FINALLY get to see the Eastlake bed reveal:) It is making its debut at the party along with a few other pieces we've re-done...whew, can you tell I'm wound up:0)
We are so excited to be able to do this and glad you stopped by for a sneak peak at the goings on...Stay tuned:)
Terry
Hi Terry-
Thank you for the nice comment! The dragonflies do turn their heads to look at you... it's kind of creepy!
Ooo, I can't wait for the Eastlake bed reveal, and what else you've done lately! It looks like your party planning is under control, but it is very draining taking on such a large event. Can't wait to see the results! :-)
-Pam
I always love to see you photos Pam! Even the one of my back there wading through the tall grasses of the fen :j
Teresa
Hi Teresa-
Thanks! Sorry about the back shot, but I thought it showed the tallness of the grass. I wish I had gotten a shot of those really tall reeds we walked through, but I was trying not to fall off the boards!
Pam
I am sea green with envy. I adore peat bog walks. So much to see and hear and smell and and and...
Sea Witch
Hi Sea Witch-
That was the first time I visited that bog. I'll have to go back at different times of the year to discover even more new sights, sound & smells!
-Pam
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home