Kim's County Line: wildflowers

Showing posts with label wildflowers. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 21, 2024

Like a Rocket - A Dame's Rocket, That Is!

The farmstead was abandoned long ago. Time has erased the evidence that this little grove of trees ever sheltered a family from the worst of the Kansas winds.

Only the Dame's rocket was left behind. The spindly purple-headed plants are still nestled in a grove of trees along the Raymond Road. Randy noticed them several years ago, and since then, we watch every spring for their blooming.

Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses says that Dame's rocket was "an ornamental often planted by early settlers."

Granted, I have a vivid imagination, but I think about a farm wife new to the open plains of Kansas. Many settlers at the time had come from the east - from areas with more trees and vegetation. And I think about her trying to beautify this little spot of a new home with some pretty purple blooms.

Dame’s rocket (Hesperis matronalis) produces either white, pink or purple flowers in April and May. It was introduced to North America in the 1600s from Eurasia. It is often seen in roadside ditches, hedgerows and older farmsteads. Scott Vogt from Dyck Arboretum in Hesston sees Dame's rocket as an invasive weed. In a publication from Dyck's Arboretum, Vogt writes:

Dame’s Rocket is closely related to other problematic weeds of the mustard, family such as garlic mustard, hedge mustard, wild radish and yellow rocket. All of these weeds are prolific and opportunistic, infesting field margins, woodlands, open grassland and wetlands. It ... has the ability to produce chemicals that prevent or reduce the growth of other plants similar to garlic mustard. With these tendencies, Dame’s rocket and garlic mustard will quickly form dense monocultures within a few years, pushing out other desirable native plants.

That may be, but I still love the purple nestled under the trees. Randy knows I love them, so he tried to transplant some of the Dame's rocket at our homestead last year. It didn't take. So he tried again this year. We'll see how it fares.

I am firmly in Winnie the Pooh's camp on this one:

Weeds are flowers, too,

once you get to know them.

Winnie the Pooh

Thursday, July 6, 2023

The Unloved Things

My friend, Pam, posted a poem by Nicolette Sowder last week. It really spoke to me and my philosophy about finding beauty in everyday life:

May we raise children who love the unloved things

By Nicolette Sowder

May we raise children

who love the unloved things -

the dandelion, the worms

and spiderlings.

Children who sense

the rose needs the thorn

and run into rain-swept days

the same way

they turn towards sun.

And when they're grown

and someone has to speak

for those who have no voice,

may they draw upon that wilder bond,

those days of

tending tender things.

She mentioned her husband giving a combine ride to their four grandchildren. That's a familiar scene for us, too - at least, until this year. Here's what she had to say:

They worried over every butterfly, bug and sunflower that the combine might have to devour to get the precious kernels of drought-stricken wheat this year. I missed out on this as there clearly was no room for one more body in that crowded cab. But, I can imagine their commands to “wait, steer clear, turn around” in order to save what they see as tiny, beautiful and valued.

We were at the Stafford golf course during the holiday weekend. It was the perfect day. I had my favorite golfer with me. It was not too hot and no one else on the course. It was verdant green against a cloud-splattered bright blue sky after some rains. I had a great book to read.

I recommend this book: "Drowning" by T.J. Newman. I also liked her first book, "Falling." They are excellent if you like thrillers!

I remembered that poem as we drove from tee to tee on the golf course. The groundskeeper at the course chooses to go around the purple poppy mallows that bloom wild and so abundantly this time of year in the course's rough.

Some might see them as weeds. He sees the little purplish-pink blooms and doesn't want to chomp them through the mower. I don't know what the golf course board thinks about his mowing decisions. But I can't help but think that he has just a little bit of childlike wonder in seeing those "weeds" as flowers.

Just like the poem reminds us, perhaps the world could be a better place if we tended "the tender things" - including the people who inhabit it.

I should have looked at this while I was still on the course and tried again to get the sunflower in focus. But I definitely noticed the beauty of the sunflowers lining the ditches along the eastern border of the golf course.

Tuesday, June 20, 2023

A Trip to the Fishing Hole

"Your chariot awaits."

Cinderella may have had a pumpkin-shaped coach and a fancy new dress for her outing. I get a loud John Deere Gator and old blue jeans on the way to a fishing hole.

Rain in June finally had the water in the Ninnescah River pasture flowing. This old Cinderella and her Prince much prefer nature's paintings over a fancy crowded ballroom anyway.

We didn't catch a thing - other than a feast for the eyes.

The rain had refreshed the pasture landscape to a verdant green.

Many years ago, hunters created a dam at the Ninnescah, and the spillway always fascinates me. I duck-walked on the rounded pipe that forms a bridge, holding on to the railing. Rushing water gave a feeling of vertigo, but I snapped a few photos before carefully making my way back. No old ladies were harmed in the snapping of this photo.

However, I preferred being back on solid ground where I could enjoy the sights and sounds without fear of falling in!

I did put a line in for awhile.

Patience is not my virtue. I ended up wandering around taking photos instead, leaving Randy to keep trying his luck.

He had some nibbles, but no catfish dinner for us that day!

I did have some success in the beauty department, though.

These may be pretty yellow flowers, but I don't like the "stickers" attached.

These itty-bitty blue flowers - erect day flowers - are some of my pasture favorites.

Even Randy was ready to pack up the fishing gear after awhile. But we still enjoyed a Gator ride through the pasture.

It was the very definition of "pastoral."

Even though we aren't the "official" cattle checking crew, we still had to drive through them.

It appeared they were enjoying their summer vacation spot.

Cattle are curious creatures.

We made our usual stop at the bridge, too. It was nice to see some water flowing.

That was a Saturday morning well spent! I came home and made something other than fish for lunch. And that was OK, too.

Tuesday, September 13, 2022

Magic Exists Among Wildflowers

"If all flowers wanted to be roses, nature would lose her beauty

and the fields would no longer be decked out with little wildflowers."

- Therese of Lisieux (Society of the Little Flower - a Saint of Missions)

It's been a hot, dry summer. Crops have struggled. Depleted pasture grasses have led to early trips to cattle sales, all throughout the Plains, including with our own herd. But, miraculously, the wildflowers still bloom.

On a cool day after our machinery sale, Randy took me on an excursion to the Big Pasture. We used the new-to-us Gator for the trip, giving us a way to traverse some of the rougher terrain of the pasture.

Even as grasses crunched underfoot, there were wildflowers in bloom.

Magic exists.

Who can doubt it, when there are rainbows and wildflowers,

the music of the wind and the silence of the stars?

- Author Nora Roberts

As a loyal K-State fan - and lover of all things purple - one of my favorites was the wooly verbena in bloom.

Some were the more familiar purple-crowned green stalks. But other plants seem to have congregated together, creating more like a purple-topped bush.

If you examine the individual blooms, the blossoms are tiny and intricate.

There was also an abundance of Snow on the Mountain.

The variegated leaves are almost as pretty as the blooms themselves.

"Wildflowers are the loveliest of all

because they grow in uncultivated soil,

in those hard, rugged places

where no one expects them to flourish."

-Micheline Ryckman

I'm not sure what these little pinkish-white wildflowers are.

I found them in the shadow of a bridge. (If you know, please let me know. I tried to find them on Kansas Wildflowers and wasn't sure.)

Are these yellow blooms Thread-leaf Sundrops (aka narrow-leaved evening primrose)? Again, I'm not sure.

Mr. Turtle in the creek didn't know either. Or, at least, he wasn't talking.

I don't need any help identifying our Kansas state flower - the sunflower. Even before we entered the pasture, the Kansas sunflowers waved a greeting as we motored past. Roads that get a minimum of maintenance often have a corridor of yellow lining the dirt path. The road to the pasture was no exception.