August 26, 2018

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Irish soda bread from Zingerman's Bakehouse.

Tomatoes from the farmers' market.

Day lilies in front of the yoga studio.

Busy pond in West Park.

One adult duck, three young ducks, and a turtle.

This turtle's shell was 6-8" from front to back.

Ironweed and goldenrod in the park.

I am seeing more monarch butterflies this year.  Yay!  I am also seeing more milkweed here and there, which I believe is a contributing factor.  The ironweed near the top of the next image is feeding a monarch.

Monarch (and bumble) on the ironweed.

There is a lot of jewelweed in the park this year.

Jewelweed is a very tender watery plant.  Its stems and leaves are at right.  The sturdy reddish stem at left belongs to someone else.  The flowers are about an inch long.

Lots of goldenrod and ironweed along the southerly path through West Park.

One of my neighbors has a patch of datura.  These plants are enthusiastic about self-seeding.

This is another of the very tropical-seeming plants that grows without coddling in southeast Michigan.  The buds (including green part and white part) average about 8" long, and the open flowers 6-8" across.

As you see, the flowers unfurl as they begin to bloom.  On the 26 there were honeybees working hard to get through those tight folds down into the incipient flowers (no bees in the image).

The datura above are in a lawn extension.  This storm-sewer opening must be down hill (it's only a few properties away from the previous.  I'm betting a seed from the previous patch floated a few hundred feet and arrived here.  It's growing right where there ought to be an opening to the storm sewer, but no one has kept it clean.  There is enough dirt here for this plant to grow. 

This plant had dozens of almost-ready tomatoes.  And then it had none.  We hope it is furry four-legged critters who took them, rather than two-legged ones who ought to know better.  But we've only seen one or two damaged tomatoes, and no fragments on the ground...................  >:-(

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