Yellowwood Tree

Here is a tree that is new to me. I had never seen a tree quite like this before. I was surprised to see the pea pod seeds. Then trying to figure out type of tree it was is crazy. But I did it. My problem was that I was looking for the seeds to be pictured and they are not on the website that I used. To see more info click HERE. Tomorrow I will share the pictures I have of Asa helping to feed a deer. They are not the best pictures but they are very awe inspiring at least to me they are. Happy Wednesday.

Wonder in White

I tried to figure out what type of flower this little guy is, well I just couldn't figure it out and I am just getting frustrated trying. If you have any ideas or if you know please feel free to leave a comment letting me know. Since I started my blogging I have learned so many interesting facts about some of the things I have posted. I have truly enjoyed this. But then again, I enjoy learning especially when I can do it at my own pace. I enjoy school don't get me wrong. I am hoping to go back and start my Master's Degree this next fall. I would like to teach on the college/university level. I originally thought that I would like to teach high school, but have since realized that I want to teach those who choose to be there. Granted in the beginning I might have pre-requisite classes but that is par for the course starting out. Most kids in college have chosen to be there though. So this is what I have planned for my future, now let's wait and see if this is what does happen. So much in my life right now has not gone anything like I would have planned but by no means would I change a thing, well maybe the tight on money situation but having my boys so close in age - one year and eleven days apart to be exact - has made for them to have a close bond growing up and yes I can see this already forming at their tender young ages of 10.5 months and 23 months old. I look forward to watching them grow up together. Well it is getting late and I can feel myself getting ready to ramble as I can do in my stream of conscious style of writing. Have a great Tuesday.

Blue Sky

The day I went to the Sarett Nature Center was a very beautiful day. There were blue skies overhead. The trails were nicely shaded and it was not excessively warm. I enjoyed walking around and looking at all of the trees and plants. I especially loved the butterflies. I have already posted them, scroll down or click on the butterfly label to see them. I had hoped to see more birds but they were not very active while I was out there. I was contented with my butterfly friends though and I was able to capture more beautiful flowers. Have a wonderful day.

Black-Eyed Susan

I am up and running. My laptop is home and my internet is working again. I have been going through withdrawal. I enjoy my blogging. I rely to much on the internet to track my account balances and then there is my email, well my personal email. I have a gmail account for my blogging but my address that I use with my family and friends I can only access through my laptop. We rarely have problems and usually if I have to log onto my internet provider (I have a cable modem) we usually have to call and get them to assign a new password because we can never seem to remember the password we have on file. I think I remedied this the last time this happened but then again I haven't actually signed into the homepage since this happened. Maybe I should do this sometime really soon.

Anyway.

I went to a nature center in Howell today. I didn't get as many pictures as I would have liked because my stomach decided to disagree with me and I wasn't up to the task I had set for myself. (The picture above is from the Sarett Nature Center in Benton Harbor though.) I am hoping to go back to Howell soon and take advantage of some of the wonderful opportunities that are out there. I think I might try to go the first weekend of October. Next weekend is my hubby's birthday and we are going out to the Michigan Renaissance Festival for that. Then we hopefully go to Benton Harbor/St. Joseph to see the lake and to go to the apple orchard with family over on that side of the state. I should be stocked up on photos for a while. I look forward to these trips as well as to my sharing my images with all my blogging friends. Hope your weekend is blessed.

Goldenrod

I have to say I love my camera. I took both of these pictures without changing my position. And yes this is the same plant in both pictures. At times I would like a different camera but I will definitely keep this camera for my macro shots. I enjoy doing the close up images. I would like to have classified this down to the specific type of goldenrod but didn't have the patience to sit and look through them at this time. Hopefully I will be back up and running this weekend. Have a great Wednesday.

Hey Look It's a Caterpillar

Oh wait, no it's not. I had to laugh because I had hooked my digital camera up to my grandparents tv the other night and my mom was saying different things as I scrolled through the pictures. We came across this one and she was all "oh wow would you look at that caterpillar isn't it so cool looking" My oldest niece who will be seven in December looked at her and very matter of fact tone and said "Grandma that is not a caterpillar". I couldn't help but laugh. The reason I took the picture is because it reminded me of a caterpillar. What do you think?

I'm baaaack - Sort of

I think I have found out what kind of flower this is.
A Western Wallflower.
For more information on it go HERE.

I am missing my internet and it doesn't look like it is going to be fixed until next weekend at the earliest. I never realized how dependent I had come on my blogging as a stress relief. It was my little escape from the daily routine. I am hoping to get a few auto posts up and ready for this week. But first I am getting this one done. I am still bootlegging my grandparents internet when I have the chance to get to their house which is typically on Sundays if not a few other times throughout the week. Hope everyone had a good week and may you all have a great week to come.

Queen Anne's Lace

Alternate name: Wild Carrot

Description Introduced. A few large, flat-topped lacy umbels with tiny white flowers, hairy on top, sometimes nearly smooth, with one dark reddish-brown, purple or pink floret usually at center of umbel; lacy-leafed stem.
Flowers: compound umbels 3-6" (7.5-15 cm) wide; the central flower commonly purple, or pink (sometimes all flowers pink), with stiff 3-forked, leaf-like bracts below. Branches of older umbels curl inward, resembling bird's nests.
Leaves: lacy blades 2-8" (5-20 cm) long, repeatedly pinnately divided into narrow segments.
Fruit: oval, with minute bristles along every other rib.
Height: 1-4' (30-120 cm).

Habitat: Roadsides, dry fields, and old lots.

Range: Old World native; introduced and naturalized throughout most of North America, except the far north.

An attractive, hairy biennial, Queen Anne's Lace is considered a troublesome weed and is classified as a noxious pest in some areas. It is so prevalent in the East that it is often thought of as a native wildflower rather than an alien introduction. It was the ancestor of the garden carrot, and its long, first-year taproot can be cooked and eaten. The plant has been reproduced from one embryonic cell in tissue culture and has actually flowered, with even the usual central red floret present. The flowering heads served 18th-century English courtiers as "living lace," hence the common name.

The above information can be found here.

I never realized that the plant wasn't native. If you take the time to look it is amazing the information that you learn. Since starting this blog, I have learned so much about different bugs, birds, and now flowers. I have sure enjoyed this. I love eavesblogging and seeing what others have to say to the blogging community. Hope everyone had a good Labor Day weekend.

Toad Away

Well this is the last of the critters from my trip. I had hoped to have more critters but they just weren't there. Although, I will have a post about the doe that my son helped feed a bit later. I was disappointed that I did not see more birds and such, they just were not in to mood to be seen or when they were visible it was so fast that you did not have the time to move the camera into position before they were out of sight again. I could hear them everywhere and I think that is why I was so disappointed that I didn't see many of them. This toad is actually a little toad that we saw on the trip home. He was in the rocks at the gas station that we had to pull over in because my baby was hungry and since we switched him to the big boy car seat he doesn't do well drinking his bottle without someone holding it. He sits up more in the seat and doesn't tip the bottle back far enough. Needless to say we have a mess right now when he does it himself. Now that I have bored you with that bit of information let's get back to the toad. At first I thought he might be one of the rocks so I had my two cousins go over and check it out, sure enough I was right he was a toad and not a rock. So my youngest cousin picked him up and hence we have her hand in the picture. This is the second toad that I have seen this year but I have to admit I don't really look for frogs and toads. At least not yet I don't. I remember growing up I saw them everywhere. We lived next to a crick (drainage ditch). It actually ran right through our backyard cutting it in half well actually it cut the back yard up so that we had one fourth of the yard behind the house and three fourths of the back yard on the other side. We actually owned one of the largest lots on the street but it seemed so much smaller because the majority of our yard was not easily accessible. The way the crick ran through there was actually room to have put another house on the land between the house on the west side of us and us but the crick would have ran in the front yard so we each had a lot and a half of land. But now that I said all that we would have frogs and toads all around when I was younger. I loved hearing the bullfrogs growing up. And as I was searching for the type of toad this was I realized listening to the sounds that some of the noise I remember from childhood were actually from the frogs and toads and not the cicada bugs like I had thought they always were. Oh and I found out this is an American Toad.

The sign is from the Sarett Nature Center and the toad was found at the Galesburg gas station exit 85 off I-94. I loved the sign when I saw it and thought I would share it with you. Also if you hadn't figured it out I am a stream of conscious writer, so forgive me for my ramblings.



For more critter pictures click the icon.

Calico Pennant

Here is a different flier for me. This lovely dragonfly was kind enough not to fly away as I was taking his picture. He did reposition himself though. I was within a few feet of this guy. He was in the same area as the first two butterflies that I took pictures of that day. I believe that this dragonfly is called a Calico Pennant. He was much easier to narrow down. There are not near the amount of dragonflies and damselflies as there are butterflies and moths.

I have never photographed dragonflies before but after viewing them on a few of the blogs that I read regularly - Virtua Gallery and The Ohio Nature Blog. So when I saw this guy I thought why not and gave it a shot. I am very pleased with my results. Also I am learning that the camera I have at the moment is great for shooting these macro type shots. This is great for me since I enjoy the close up shots.

Another Gray Comma

Here is another picture of the Gray Comma Butterfly. Well I am pretty sure this is a Gray Comma. The only other possibility in my mind is the Hoary Comma Butterfly. This image concludes my butterfly images from this trip. I have a couple other critter images, then onto the flower images. I am trying to find a good link to help with identification of the floral images that I have. If anyone has any suggestions of sites they like to use please feel free to share I would greatly appreciate it. Have a great evening.

Black Swallowtail

I could have spent hours and taken countless pictures of the butterflies out at the Sarett Nature Center. And this was all within steps of where I parked the car. I saw at least five of these beautiful Black Swallowtail butterflies fluttering around. I was in awe of the fact that I saw them all at the same time. I also saw a Hummingbird Clearwing Moth but was unable to get a clear picture of it. While there were not many different types of butterflies and moths around that day, I could have take a memory card full of the few that were there had I allowed myself. It was great and I look forward to my next trip to a nature center in hopes of seeing more butterflies and possibly some birds on this future trip. I could hear birds everywhere but was unable to spot them except for the few that zipped by so quickly you almost didn't notice them until they were gone. Have a happy Tuesday.

Great Spangled Fritillary

My first picture from my trip across state. I had planned to finish up my Petoskey images but I am to eager to share my images from my trip. The first images of my trip will be from the Sarett Nature Center in Benton Harbor, MI. The last of the photos will come from my cousin's yard in St. Joe. We had such a great time and are looking forward to returning in October sometime when we go to the apple orchard.

The butterfly is a new one for me to photograph. (If you would like more info on this butterfly look HERE.) I am so excited to add another image to my butterfly and moth collection. Have a great Monday.