July 22 -- walking to yoga

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Updated with new info about the bug and the pink flowers.....

In the park.  All of the flowers are not yellow........

I don't know what this pink stuff is, but the flowers remind me strongly of milkweed and butterfly weed......

Both of the critters on the pink flowers in the image above are this kind, whatever kind they are.

Update -- a nudge from my brother led me to google "big orange wasp Michigan."  I looked at the images, and the one I found for Great Golden Digger Wasp even shows it on the same plant I spotted it on in West Park.  So I think that's what it is -- Great Golden Digger Wasp.  The info says they are very non-aggressive.  I was respectful.  The camera was feet away from them....

I don't remember ever seeing these, before, with all the orange........  They were big.  Probably nearly 2" long.

You can see what I mean, about these flowers looking like milkweed.  That set of petals? going down, the other set of pinkness going up, and it looks like there are those pointy things curving over, pointing toward the center of each little flower, too.

Update -- Ok, so I went and googled this, too -- pink flower like milkweed.  I found Swamp Milkweed.  (scroll down if you click through)

So now we know -- this is a Great Golden Digger Wasp on Swamp Milkweed. 

Got to love the interwebs.......  All of this info at our beck and call, from the comfort and privacy of our own homes............  !!!!

Something else that's not yellow.  These flowers are tiny.  Less than 1/3 of an inch.

I heard park personnel, last year, bemoaning the fact that the muskrats were eating the park's special water plantings.  I told her I, personally, would rather see muskrats than plants, but I didn't think she was impressed by my opinion.

There were muskrats in the park last year, and the year before.  This year, no muskrats.  I hope the park people didn't do anything to them...............

I think this is one of the plants that woman didn't want the muskrats to eat.

The flowers remind me of begonias.  I took these pics from a standing position on the bridge. I bet the camera was about 8' above the flowers.  Zooming in, and cropping, and getting the images on "the big screen" lets me see things I can't otherwise see.

Danger lurks...............  See the spider, in the upper right?  It's facing the center of the flower, with its long front legs waiting to grab any inattentive visitor to the flower.......

And look at this.  Another close crop of the same pic.  I think this is (or will be) a seedpod on that arrowhead-leaf plant.  Interesting texture........

Beautiful skies...........

Looking closely at the tall droopy-petal yellow flowers.

Oooh, look, I caught a bumble bee in flight!

I think this shows a good bit of the lifecycle of these flowers.  The new baby flower, with undeveloped petals.  Well.  "Petals" -- this is another case where the "petals" bring in the insects to the aggregation of little true flowers in the center, I am pretty sure.......

Anyway -- that baby one, some kid ones, and the mature flower just above the baby.

A closer look at the center of the mature one, with what I think are the actual tiny flowers around the sides.

Ah, here's that bumble, confirming that the sides of this are where the interesting bits are.

A clearer shot of the flower, but it's perhaps harder to tell what's going on with the bee.  You are looking at its bee-hind.  :-)

More of the same kind of flower, I believe.

Interesting how the flowers in different parts of the aggregation seem to bloom at different times.

This one is almost blooming, at the bottom.........

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