Field report

 From my walking app:  "1.22 mi walk / Thursday, August 6 at 9:51 a.m.

"Getting out in the morning instead of evening due to coming heat and humidity.  Three rabbits, two goldfinches, several barn swallows, and a few chicory flowers along the road in the nearby park. Possibly a killdeer cry from a stony area in the park.

"A house along the way has a for-sale sign in its front yard.  The yard also has little yellow flowers all over it.  I'm a fan of wildflowers, so I like the way it looks.  It's unique in the development.  I do wonder, considering the elevated price tag, how a potential buyer might view a house with a front yard full of what they consider to be weeds.  Considered taking a picture, but decided that standing in front of someone's house taking pictures might be seen as suspicious, even if it is for sale.

"A couple of houses down, a butterfly bush more than a foot tall has sprouted from a crack along the curb.  Pretty purple flowers, though."

Looking back

I knew it had been awhile, but nothing since mid-July?  And I've been taking pictures all along, I just haven't felt they were stuff I wanted to share right away.  Here's one from this past Sunday afternoon, so see if you don't agree.  It's something I wanted to have a memory of seeing, but not something I thought would be a post I couldn't wait to make.  

I'll go through the other snapshots and put up two or three of them. 

 "I don't fill every minute of every day with purpose and joy, but I do all right." - On retirement, July 2026.

In the back yard this afternoon

A new volunteer

Here's a recent addition to our back yard.  Google Lens says this is Moth Mullein (Verbascum blattaria), an introduced biennial weed.  The Missoula County Department of Ecology and Extension has it on their Noxious Weed Watch List, which doesn't surprise me in the least. 

The same, only different

It's another recent blossom of the same kind of flower shown in the previous post, except this time the image was taken late in the afternoon, and with a camera instead of a phone.  Definite improvement.

Another newcomer, and another

 

In early spring this year, I picked up a packet of flower seeds and planted them in our back yard.  Most of the flowers that have come up are cornflower, although a few other types have shown up as well.  This one just appeared yesterday, and the name Google identified it by is listed on the seed packet.

Much the same with this one, which I photographed on Monday.  Google says it's Clarkia amoena, and Clarkia amoena appears on the seed packet.  Maybe more of them will appear later, but for now we've only seen one of each.

Keeping busy

"Shorter of breath, and one day closer to death."  -- Roger Waters

"Can't we talk about something more pleasant?"  -- Roz Chast

"It was a good day." -- Ice Cube

In fact, it was a good day.  Fair and comfortable, with cumulus clouds across a bright blue sky.  PG and I drove a little, walked a little, enjoyed two good meals together.  I learned some things, accomplished others, made dessert (vanilla pudding from scratch), and practiced a piece until I could get through the first third without error at 75% speed.  

Oh, and this.  I was driving on a side street when I spotted a cottontail rabbit in a yard to my right.  The rabbit began moving in the same direction I was driving, and I momentarily lost sight of it behind a parked car.  

Just in case, I slowed down, and a second later, the rabbit hopped across the road in front of me.  It was barely visible in front of the car hood, and if I'd been going faster, the close call might have been too close.  Didn't anyone ever tell it about hrududil?