Secret Garden

During my morning walk in Sister Bay, I passed this old-fashioned patriotic garden with pretty flowers of all varieties and colors, along with a few pots of tomatoes, lettuce, and other veggies as well!

Smell-O-Vision

Seriously - if you have never had the chance to inhale the intoxicating perfume of the milkweed flower, you are missing something amazing.  I wish I could share the air around this bloom with you.  It's no wonder that the Monarch Butterflies go crazy over it!

Trilliums

Trilliums are the perfect "trifecta." - The flowers have three petals and the plant has three leaves.
This pretty pink variety was growing along the edge of Lindsay Road. I experimented with a b&w overlay to show the contrast of the flowering plants against the lush green background.

Spring Wildflowers

Spring is truly here and there are a variety of wildflowers, blooms, and fungus scattered throughout the woods during our daily walks.  Here is a delicate variety of spring beauties (or fairy spud!) growing in the shade under a canopy of ash and hickory trees. Latin name: Claytonia virginica. I'll have more postings of our discoveries throughout the week.

Pink Lady

The "Pink Lady" lily's latin name is Amaryllis Belladonna. It's also called the"naked lady" lily because - as you can see in the photo - it has no leaves to cover its long, thin stem.  Technically, it does have leaves, but they show up in early spring like a clump of long blades of grass, and then die back after 4 to 6 weeks.  Then after another 4 to 6 weeks, the graceful lily stalk appears out of seemingly nowhere with this lovely topper of pale pink blooms.

Jack-in-the-Pulpit Berries

Autumn is on its way around here, sooner than we'd like to admit.  However, one of the pretty pops of color in the fall woods are the Jack-in-the-Pulpit berries. The stalks are anywhere from 8" to 12" tall and the cluster of berries is usually the size of a golf ball (above). However, the specimen below was about about the size of tennis ball! You can see what the springtime flowers look like here. You'd never guess by looking at them that they turn into these odd little pods.

Hibiscus

The oppressive heat has been good for at least a few things around here - one of them being our coral hibiscus.  (As long as I remember to water it once - sometimes twice - per day.)

Amaryllis

As my last post mentioned, I am gearing up for the gardening season again this spring and in sorting through old photos, found one of this beautiful lime green amaryllis from last winter. It was grown as an indoor potted plant, but can also be grown outside in the summer. The contrasting colors were so brilliant, especially in the sunlight, and helped brighten up our dreary Wisconsin weather!

Wild Cucumber

While hiking around Balmer Park just east of here, Nik and I stumbled upon an unusual vine weaving itself through the shrubs. The leaves were so pretty and bright green, almost like a Sycamore. But then I saw the itty-bitty spiky fruit hanging here and there, and realized they were wild cucumbers. I had never seen these before because they don't bear fruit until fall and usually I'm not looking for that sort of thing. Plus this little guy was camouflaged among the wild grape vines.

According to Wikipedia, they are not edible, but with those little spikes, not sure I'd even want to try!

Mushroom Tree

A moss covered tree trunk full of mini-shelf mushrooms on a trail at Lapham Peak in Waukesha County.

Hot Stuff

Summer is officially just around the corner here in Wisconsin, but with today's temps predicted to reach into the 90's, I think we're already there. At least this potted ranunculus bloom seems to love all this hot weather.

Mushrooms

During our recent quest for the elusive morels up on the Ryan Road trails, we came across a handful of other beautiful specimens of fungi (but never did find any morels this year.) These are mostly "shelf mushrooms" which usually grow on dead trees or fallen timbers. The top image is called a "Pheasant's Back." I'm not sure of the identification of the ones below.

Watercress

While searching for morel mushrooms recently, we came up empty handed. Instead, we came across this lovely patch of watercress in a local stream. It added to a healthy, crispy, & delicious salad!

Virginia Bluebells

We have a small patch of Virginia Bluebells back in our tree line that come up every spring. They are finally in bloom! Bluebells (also called the Virginia Cowslip) are a perennial plant native to North America.

Spring has Sprung!

It's been a chilly season this year in Pewaukee. We've only had one day in the 70's so far & that was way back on April 10th. We did have a lovely, sunny day last Friday (4/29 - the same day as the Royal Wedding!) and during my morning walk, I discovered this pretty little patch of wildflowers blooming on the north side of Lindsay Road. I've noticed them in this same shady spot each spring for the past few years, but have never seen them anywhere else. I have some "feelers" out to my botanist friends, so I hope to discover their official name soon.

Caterpillar

Not sure what type of butterfly or moth this tan furry caterpillar will turn into - but he sure was cute and fuzzy. Reminded me of a muppet! :-)

Parker Pears

Our neighbors have a beautiful "Parker Pear" tree in their front yard. It's healthy and compact and each year in early autumn bears these gorgeous juicy, red fruits. The only challenge is keeping the bees at bay while picking them!

Macro Geranium

I finally got a new camera. Much better than my old Canon Powershot A710 - but small enough so that I can still carry it in my pocket or crossbody bag during my walks and hikes. It's a Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS7 and I love it! Above is a sample from the first set of photos I took with it. It's a close-up/macro night shot of a single geranium flower taken during a light rain. Especially like the fact I could get such nice detail without any elaborate settings.

More Fungus Among Us

After our hot and humid summer, we are also seeing quite an amazing variety of shelf-type mushrooms growing on and around the dead trees along our trails. These were both growing on the scars of where branches had been removed many years ago.

Black-Eyed Susans

While at "Taste of Lake Country" at Pewaukee Lake a few weeks ago, I couldn't resist taking a picture of these happy Black-Eyed Susans. There is a lovely tended garden at the west end of the park with other Wisconsin native flowers, along with a few exotics, such as hibiscus.