I’m not sure if I’ve never seen dandelions blooming in December, or if I’m just looking for more 2020 weirdness. This is a common dandelion; it turns out there are other varieties as well, but for me, this is what I mean when I say dandelion. And no, I don’t pull them.
According to Native American seed, fall is the time for sowing wild flowers. I’ve done this for the last three years, and I never remember where I’ve sewn what in the meadow. Neat little plant markers don’t work so well when you have to mow it all down (after it has gone to seed, of course). So this year I took a picture of the meadow and marked up the photo on my phone. I took a picture of the seed packs too, as a key. We’ll see if this helps identify what does well! It might take a couple years. I had some plants come up two years after I spread the seed (I’m looking at you, standing cypress.) American basket flowers are my favorite, so they get an extra dose of chance.
It has taken three years, but I finally found the right pot, in the right window, for my spider plant to be happy. I’m frankly amazed it made it as long as it did looking as sickly as it did. But now there are flowers! And soon there will be spider plant babies! Hurray! (If you don’t know, spider plants are quite hardy and it says quite a bit about my lack of plant skills that I nearly managed to kill it.)
I’ve been getting household tasks marked off the list, which is productive, but doesn’t make for great blogging. (It took me two days to get through the filing. Ugh.) So today you get pictures from a recent walk. We’ll get back to chickens and crafts soon.
I was at an outdoor amphitheater for a school event and someone yelled out that they needed all the kids to go grab a crab apple and put one per bag to keep the bags from blowing away. Being a northerner, I was completely confused, as one crab apple wouldn’t hold anything down. But the kids didn’t blink and they all went to find one. They came back with huge green heavy fruit, which I have been calling osage oranges. Putting one of these rock hard monster fruit in the bottom of a bag of balloons makes complete sense. It also demonstrates the need for scientific nomenclature when identifying plants when species is critical. Although I’m not sure yelling “go get Maclura pomifera!” would get the same reaction.
Critters and Craft 