florjus blog

Summer 2023

A Summer with Few Wildflowers


I wasn't feeling this summer.  That explains the number of summer posts.

The milkweed, thistles, marguerites, yarrow and teasel all but disappeared compared to previous years.  No flowers means no pollinators.  I didn't photograph any butterflies; bees were few and far between.

When not much is happening on land, I look up to the sky.  But cloudy or smoky skies foiled those plans.

Nature is irrepressible, though.  Native blackberries and non-native queen anne's lace thrive in this bizarre summer season.

Ripe and ripening berries on the end of a blackberry cane.

Allegheny Blackberry canes (Rubus Allegheniensis) are heavy with ripening berries.

The sun is low in a peach colored sky and casts golden light on a meadow full of common teasel seed heads.

The sun dried Common Teasel (Dipascus Fullonum) stands from last summer.  This summer they glow under the evening sun.

Close up photo of a blooming queen anne's lace flower. Queen anne's lace flowers in the background are in various bloom stages.

Queen Anne's Lace (Daucus Carota) flower at sunset.  The flowers held their own in an unlovely summer.

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