Spikey Weeds and Shaded Leaves- Nature Walk #1

Hello dears! Long time no see, I apologize for my absence over the past few weeks, June was hectic to say the least and July seems like it will only be a little less so... can anyone else relate? ':D But hey, I'm back, and I'm quite excited to share this post with you!

Last week I was out watering the front flowers and it was just so gorgeous out, so I decided to finally do something I've wanted to do since I had the idea for this blog, a nature walk post! I really should have done it a week or two earlier because some of my favorite wildflowers on our property were finished by the time I got around to doing it, but I still found some little cuties hiding in the weeds. :P I would say this is the peak time of year in our flower beds though, the colors are just AAA.

Oh one other thing, in case anyone is wondering, I took all the pictures with my phone camera. Perhaps someday I'll actually be able to afford a DLSR... *sigh*

So without further ado, let's start at the front flower beds!

These little guys are called Campanula or Bellflowers. I love how shiny they are on the outside!

We have a whole bunch of wild geraniums as groundcover, the plant is super dense and we have to cut it back a few times per summer or it'll grow over the whole sidewalk! I like how the water droplets caught the light in this photo.

Alright, a couple collages with a handful of the other flowers in bloom right now.

The top square, clockwise from top left: one of the lavender pots, some gorgeous clematis growing next to our climbing rose (it's sadly about finished blooming by now), a potted begonia next to our garage, and another wild geranium flower.

The bottom square, again clockwise from top left: a huge white hydrangea cluster, some petunias in the front step pots, a bunch of spiderwort (pretty flower, not-so-pretty name), and a beautiful, ruffly rose.

Speaking of roses, I LOVE THIS PICTURE. My phone camera actually does great close-ups when it decides to cooperate. XD

These bushes are called Agastache and are a member of the hyssop family, for you fellow plant-enthusiasts. In early summer they get these bright, almost lavender-colored spiky flowers and as they mature they fade into this pretty dusty purple shade. 8D

I noticed this weird shoot with a spiky ball on the end when I was inspecting the Agastache. Is it a weed, or a seed from a neighbor's plant that has invaded? I have no idea.

You guys, trees are wonderful. This is a young river birch (I think it's five years old? Four?) and it's my favorite tree on the property. :) Sorry about the slightly weird lighting, heh.

I'm an especial sucker for the tops of trees... like, LOOK AT THAT GORGEOUS CONTRAST BETWEEN THE LEAVES AND THE SKY! It's like the tree is willing each piece of itself to touch the heavens, loving its life and praising God with every ounce of it. Trees set a good example for us humans.

More pretty trees and pretty light.

Okay, now for part two of the nature walk. Here's the view from the driveway of about half of the yard, to give you a bit of reference as we wander about, heh. First we're going to turn left and admire the daylilies and the... um, I'm forgetting what this other one is called. That one. XD

^The one-with-the-name-that-I'm-forgetting.

More lilies, and our yard from another angle. (The picture below this was taken near the middle of the very-left-edge of this one, if that makes any sense.)

Now let's run across the yard to the pond. There's this little corner where the line of brush next to the pond meets this pocket of wilderness in the middle-back (ish) of our yard, and there's not much to look at- or at least I thought so until I made myself stand in one spot and find four interesting photo subjects, including the one above.^

Can you spot the bird?

I like how trees create little pockets of sunlight on the grass.

More leaves and sky and sun, I just couldn't resist. The walnut leaves look almost tropical silhouetted like this, don’t you think?

We have an abundance of deer, and it looks like they've been sleeping here lately. :)

Some more context for where we are, heh.

And here's the pond! It's pretty long, stretching past our property and the next-door neighbors', and we call it a lake usually although I don't think it quite qualifies as one. It attracts a host of geese, ducks, turtles, frogs, and birds. Right now it isn't too covered in algae, thankfully. XD

I like how the reflections on the surface blend with the plants underneath. The whole pond is pretty shallow but we do have lots of fish, who are apparently a bit camera-shy as they darted away as soon as I bent down, haha.

My camera miraculously managed to focus on this waving bit of grass and I was surprised at how nicely this photo turned out!

If we move past the lake we come to another shady little corner, one of my favorite spots in the yard.

This is a huge honeysuckle bush, believe it or not! About a month ago it was covered in yellow-white blossoms.

I have no idea what this bush is, honestly. XD I'll have to look it up later. Isn't the flower cute?

This little nook is especially peaceful. If you're brave (and small) enough, you can turn right from here into a tunnel of branches and thorns leading to the peninsula sticking out into the pond!

We've come to the creek! At this point in the season it's practically buried in flora, so this time I didn't go wandering under the fence and farther up the creek like I sometimes do. XD Maybe if you readers request an autumn nature walk I'll do it then. But only if you ask very nicely. ;D

This is a very interesting plant/bush/natural hut, I don't know what exactly it is. But it's interesting, so I took a picture.

Okay, next confession- I actually took this picture a week or two before this nature walk... but the reason I’m adding it to this post is because I found some sweet little Blewetts, tiny blue wildflowers, in the tall grass by the creek and was disappointed because I couldn’t get to them to take a photo, but I remembered I had one from a little while ago. So that’s what you’d see in the last picture if the grass wasn’t so tall. XD

This is milkweed, what monarch butterflies lay their eggs on! This means we’ll most likely have some monarchs flitting around the yard in another month or two. :)

This is called creeping thistle. It’s a really interesting-looking plant, but my phone camera was acting up so it didn’t focus right. *sadness* *longing for a real camera*

And let’s end with this cute sprig of coltsfoot! I’ve noticed that the flowers turn pink as they age, interestingly.

That’s all I have for today! I hold in my highest esteem the few readers who actually waded through my nerding all the way to the end, good grief. XD I do hope this was somewhat fun or interesting to read, and I like to think that someone learned something? Please go outside, dears, even if you’ve got a tenth of an acre of plain grass. I promise you’ll find something, even if that something seems quite small and mundane at first. There’s beauty in it all, sometimes you just have to look extra hard to find it. <3

Goodbye for now, my dears, my ramble-readers! Feel free to chat for a bit in the comments, as always!

-Alayna