End-of-summer wildflowers

Just off one of the back roads in Central New Jersey, there was a field full of these yellow flowers.  A few of the flowers were in a natural arrangement with the white ones.  Google Lens seems to think the yellow is some form of Bidens polylepis, but gave no guidance as to the white flowers accompanying it.

Pretty in purple

This is from September 2023, the last time I took a bunch of images of a patch of purple asters near home.  In 2024, I took a few, and this year, the township buzzcut the entire area along the road, so I'm not hopeful I'll have the opportunity again.  

Out in the back yard

"The image displays Velvetleaf (Abutilon theophrasti), also known by common names like Indian Mallow, Butterprint, or Buttonweed."  But also:  "Since being introduced to North America in the 18th century, velvetleaf has become an invasive species in agricultural regions of the eastern and midwestern United States."

Also on the unlandscaped part of our yard, there were a pair of cabbage whites and a brown skipper on pink sedum.

In bloom

For quite a few years, we've had a dogwood tree growing just at the near end of our driveway.  Like much of our landscaping, it just appeared one year and we let nature take its course.  

In 2019, we had landscapers work on the non-lawn portions of our yard, which we regretted.  Areas where they spread black mulch looked fine at first, but as the summer went along, the grass died alongside the mulched areas, as though the mulch had contained Roundup or some other powerful herbicide.  

A cherry tree declined to the point where only two limbs remained alive.  Next to the shed, a magnolia tree got sick and died.  The area containing the volunteer dogwood also suffered, but the tree remained alive, although several branches stopped producing leaves and were pruned last year.  This spring, it's looking better than it has since before the misbegotten mulching. 

A particularly good specimen

A wildflower at its peak before it goes to seed.   It's worth recording, I feel.

Strolling with a camera-phone

Walked around the development just before sunset today and saw a number of rabbits, including this one.  All of them were in the grass, except this cottontail.  

Another Orb Spider

 

Wildflowers along a creek

 

What *IS* That?

Driving home from the doctor this afternoon, about a mile from home I spotted several of these purple flowers along a side road.  Naturally, I was attracted, and fortunately, the light was good and there was a place to pull off easily and safely.  

What I should have done is use Google to snap the picture and identify the wildflower.  Thanks to that lack of foresight, the ID had to wait until now.

Answer:  "Ornamental onion", or allium.

 

Way, way back when

Shortly after my 2nd birthday, NBC, whose compatible color system gave them a big lead in the early decades of commercial television, broadcast ("in living color", as they liked to put it) The Kraft Music Hall, starring Milton Berle.  

Only recently, a Berle family member provided it to UCLA's Film and Television Archive, where it became the oldest known color videotape in existence.  Until then, An Evening With Fred Astaire, from later in October 1958, held that title.   EDIT:  Network color videotape, I should emphasize.  Or maybe, full-color videotape.  Neither of which applied to the dedication of color studios at WRC, Washington DC in May 1958.  

The Astaire show was rightfully viewed as an event and worth keeping.  The Berle show, not so much.  But it's color videotape from 65 years ago, plus it contains a brief clip from Bill Cullen's The Price is Right, so it's catnip to me.  

White on White

In this area, a lot of farmland has been converted to housing, including the development where I live.  Near the development, there's a field that hasn't undergone that change, but the township installed a blacktop road through it a year or so ago, and since then it has been left unplanted.   

I drove by it a few days ago and saw these flowers standing alone in the fallow field.  An image search identifies them as Ornithogalum nutans, more commonly known as Drooping Star-of-Bethlehem.  The text at the link calls it "charming and underused", but soon after warns that "it is considered an invasive species in ten Eastern USA states...", including this one.

Besides that, another source reports that it is toxic to dogs, cats, horses, and humans, and is extremely difficult to get rid of due to the depth of its roots.  That's a lot to lay on a pretty little volunteer flower.

A fruitful night

As vacation 2023 nears its end... on YouTube I just found two shows, both from before my time, and while they were broadcast far from prime time, they are remembered with honor in television history.  

First, from 1957, the short-lived The Seven Lively Arts, and specifically The Sound of Jazz, in which they assembled an all-star team of jazz players and let them blow for an hour.  

Then, the better-known Omnibus, and the first one I couldn't resist was a 1955 segment featuring Martyn Green singing Gilbert and Sullivan patter songs.   

YouTube's raising the price from $11.99 to $13.99 a month, and I hope some of my money goes to an increase in the royalties for streaming music.  

Mixed Wildflowers: A Bouquet in Disarray

Growing on the property of an abandoned Hess gas station near Allentown, PA.  Chicory, fleabane, hawkweed, Queen Anne's lace, and at the top left, one red clover.

 

Welcoming Wildflowers

The wildflowers in our area have different seasons.  In February, if the weather hasn't been too cold, you can see the first tiny blue speedwell flowers.  Along about April, wood violets make their appearance, and just as they fade away, the roadside Dame's Rocket begins to blossom.  This faux phlox spreads quickly and unpredictably, so that you might find one large clump surrounded by open green space.  Here's a good-sized patch, a mile or so west of home.  

Soon, the chicory flowers will take their place along the back roads and the main roads.  

Trivia:  the slightly elevated area at top right, in front of the stand of trees, was the location of an abandoned farmhouse.  It was burned decades ago by the local fire department so they could practice reacting to blazes.  

 

To infinity...

That rural New Jersey field, revisited (literally).  I went back on Saturday 10/29 and saw numerous honeybees who didn't need to go far for a meal. These flowers were maybe 40 yards from their hive in the middle of the field. This bee had just finished here and was lifting off on a short journey to another cosmos.

Seeing the sights in Quakertown

There have been some cool fall nights recently, but not cold enough to impair the flowers in a field near Quakertown, NJ.  When I saw them just off the road, I pulled over and unzipped the camera case.  

Cornflower (Centraurea Cyanus)

Pink cosmos (Cosmos bipinnatus?)

Let's take a closer look at the insect helping itself to the soft, sweet center. 

Halictus ligatus, perhaps?  (aka Ligated furrow bee, or simply "sweat bee".)

Here's a wider view, including some of what look to me like bee hives, surrounded by plenty of flowers to pollinate.  Might have to stop by there next time and see if they have any honey to sell.

 

Thanks, Bidens

Bidens polylepis, that is.  There was a big patch of these flowers in a field alongside a road in rural southeastern Pennsylvania, and conveniently, there was a fire station with an big parking lot right across from it.  All I had to do was park and walk across the road.  It's not often that easy to find a place to park a car when taking pictures of wildflowers.  

Now, what is this?

Orange Butterfly Weed

I was at Tabby's Place today, but not inside.  OK, I was inside petting cats some of the time, but along about 2:30, everywhere I wanted to go was already occupied with humans, so I went outside and wandered around looking for wildflowers.   

Two from here, two from there

These two are in our back yard...

Sweet Alyssum

Scarlet Sage

...and these two are in a field of wildflowers near the post office in T'town.

Crown Vetch 

Japanese Bindweed

"What a mess, right?"

Brown-eyed Susan

A bystander asked that question as I took pictures of a patch of wildflowers.  Ma'am, it's 10 o'clock on a Sunday morning, and there's a guy in front of you with a camera.   What do you think his answer would be?  (It was "I like wildflowers."  End of conversation.)