Entry Seven · June 27, 2026
Wildflower Heavy
Mallow, butter-and-eggs, chicory, sweet pea, and a woodpecker that refused to be photographed.
Musk mallow
Pale pink, papery petals with a deeper rose-and-white throat, set against soft, scalloped sage-green leaves. A relative of hollyhocks and hibiscus, in the same family as okra and cotton.
The shy woodpecker
Just a sliver of black-and-white visible against the bark — this one worked the trunk high overhead, tapping out something close to a "shave and a haircut" rhythm, and never once gave a clean look.
The shy woodpecker, a little closer
Same bird, same trunk, still mostly hidden behind a maple leaf — about as good a look as the day allowed.
Butter-and-eggs
Snapdragon-shaped blooms in two-tone yellow and orange, beaded with rain. A wild toadflax, named for its buttery pale petals and egg-yolk orange centers.
Butter-and-eggs, a wider view
The same spike of blooms settled into the tall grass, bedstraw blooming pale and starry just beside it.
Milo, on the move
Settling into the underbrush at the woods' edge, leash trailing behind — nose clearly leading the way again.
The meadow, with a steeple
Golden seed heads in the foreground, a white church steeple catching the eye in the distance — an overcast sky overhead.
Chicory
That same unmistakable sky-blue, several blooms together this time, petals still dotted with morning rain.
Perennial sweet pea
Rich magenta-pink blooms, rain-beaded and glossy, tangled in their own curling tendrils.
A pale mallow, with company
Soft white-and-blush blooms on tall, hairy stems — rose mallow or a close cousin — with the church-steeple meadow stretching out behind.
Milo, investigating
Nose down right beside those same pale mallow blooms, tongue out, thoroughly unbothered by the drizzle.
Marsh hedgenettle
Tall spikes of pale lilac, hooded blooms rising above nettle-like leaves — a mint-family plant despite the prickly look-alike foliage, growing thick through this stretch of meadow.
Gone to seed
Small lavender blooms holding on among a tangle of drying grass, spent seed pods, and the first yellow clover of the season.
Daylily
A rain-soaked orange daylily, deep red throat and golden center, dark anthers on full display.
Entry Seven — your words
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Entry Six · June 26, 2026
A Backyard Visitor
An unbothered box turtle, a suspicious patch of dirt by the garden, and a wait-and-see date now on the calendar.
Eastern box turtle
Dark, high-domed shell patterned with bold orange-yellow blotches, tucked into the grass near the garden. Unbothered by an audience of two humans and one very large dog.
A suspicious patch of dirt
Freshly turned soil right by the garden bed — the kind of disturbed ground a female box turtle leaves behind after digging a nest. The working theory: eggs, somewhere under there.
Milo, unimpressed and unbothered
Front and center as always, with Shawn settled into a camp chair in the background — the whole turtle visit happening calmly right under Milo's nose, and him not minding a bit.
Entry Six — your words
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Entry Five · June 25, 2026
Morning Glories and a Mystery Solved
Bindweed by the telephone pole, a roadside mystery flower, and a tree swallow who wasn't worried at all.
Field bindweed
The wild morning glory relative growing at the base of the telephone pole across from Rick and Celice's. Pale pink-and-white trumpet flowers, arrowhead-shaped leaves, twining low along the ground.
Field bindweed
A closer look at the same patch — one bloom open, one just beginning to unfurl, one already spent and curling closed.
Moth mullein, white form
A mystery solved: white papery petals with a deep maroon-purple eye at the center, growing right out of the gravel roadside. Not a hollyhock relative at all — it's in the figwort family, and its fuzzy purple stamens are said to resemble a moth's antennae, which is where the name comes from.
Smartweed at the river's edge
Dense green growth with pale bottlebrush flower spikes, right where the bank meets the water.
The river, wide view
Blue sky, a low dam in the distance, little floating islands of green near the bank.
Tree swallow on the wire
Clean white belly, dark blue-black back — a tree swallow taking a break above the water, completely unbothered by being watched.
The same swallow, zoomed in
What the eye saw clearly in the moment, the camera caught a little softer — a funny reminder of how differently our eyes and lenses work.
Horse nettle
A repeat appearance from Entry One — the same star-shaped white-lavender petals and bright yellow anther cone, spiny lobed leaves below.
Entry Five — your words
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Entry Four · June 24, 2026
A Quick Walk, Full Speed Ahead
Running late, sunny morning, Milo on a mission, and butterflies in the clover.
Milo, full speed ahead
Sunny morning, nose down, no time for the usual nosey mosey — something good was on the wind today.
Orange sulphur butterfly
Perched on a red clover bloom, wings closed. That faint orange-gold cast and dark wing spots point to an orange sulphur rather than its near-identical cousin, the clouded sulphur.
Orange sulphur butterfly
A slightly different angle on the same clover, same butterfly, still holding still just long enough.
Orange sulphur butterfly, wings open
A rare glimpse of the upper wings — sulphurs almost never sit like this. The orange and gold tones and dark borders are clearer here, and a good confirming look for the ID.
Entry Four — your words
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Entry Three · June 23, 2026
Back to the Meadow
An overcast morning walk with Milo, plus the dawn chorus caught on Merlin.
Milo, leading the way
Heading down the mowed path through tall grass gone to seed, under a heavy grey sky.
Goat's beard, in bloom
This is the flowering stage of the same plant whose seed head becomes that giant “dandelion on steroids” — narrow yellow rays, visited by a tiny hoverfly.
Goat's beard, in bloom
A second look at the same flower, slightly different angle, same hoverfly nearby.
Spotted knapweed
More frilly purple-pink blooms scattered through the grass at the woods' edge.
Into the trees
A narrow path disappearing into a stand of young trees — no flower here, just the quiet of the woods.
Perennial sweet pea
Vivid magenta-pink blooms with that classic pea-flower shape — a broad banner petal over a keel. Not native, but a longtime garden escapee now naturalized along roadsides and meadows.
This morning's birdsong, by ear
Merlin's read on the dawn chorus: Northern Cardinal, Brown-headed Cowbird, Red-eyed Vireo, Brown Thrasher, American Robin, Indigo Bunting, Field Sparrow, and Gray Catbird — all confirmed.
Entry Three — your words
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Entry Two · June 22, 2026
An Impromptu River Adventure
A deer in the stream on the way home from dinner, along the Conodoguinet.
A doe in the river
Spotted across the water, mostly hidden behind a thick bank of riverside greenery, ears up and alert.
A doe in the river
A little closer this time — you can just make out a second shape near her, maybe a fawn close behind.
Resting on the bank
Settled into the green, ears swiveled back, taking in the river sounds.
Resting on the bank
Same spot, a beat later — still completely unbothered by the current rushing past.
On the move
Stepped along the bank, staying right at the water's edge — that green mass beside her is a floating mat of aquatic plants, possibly water hyacinth, though it's hard to be certain from a distance.
Reaching up
Stretching toward something just out of frame — maybe low leaves or a branch tip, still in the shallow water at the bank.
Walking on
Continuing along the Conodoguinet's edge, ears swept forward, mid-step, never leaving the water.
The river view
Looking out across the Conodoguinet from beneath the maple — this is the vantage point for the whole sighting.
Still going
Same walk along the water, a few steps further down the bank.
A heron joins the scene
And then — the same great blue heron from the water steps further into view nearby, tall and still, completely unconcerned by the deer.
Deer and heron together
Both animals sharing the same stretch of bank and shallow water, each going about their own business.
Deer and heron together
A slightly different angle on the same unlikely pair.
Heron, neck extended
That long S-curve of a neck on full display — great blue herons hunt by standing motionless like this for long stretches.
Heron and deer, parting ways
The heron's neck stretched out one direction, the deer moving off in the other.
Lizard's tail
Heart-shaped leaves and nodding white bottlebrush spikes right at the river's edge — a plant you don't see nearly as often as the meadow regulars. Citrus-scented if you get close.
Daisy fleabane
Dozens of thread-thin white-to-lavender petals around a yellow center, beaded with dew.
Daisy fleabane
Another angle on the same dewy patch, glowing a little in the early light.
Japanese honeysuckle
Paired tubular blooms fading from white to cream, rain-soaked, tucked into the hedge.
Entry Two — your words
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Entry One · June 22, 2026
The Meadow by the School
Overcast start, light rain rolled in partway through. Milo on leash, nose down.
Yellow sweet clover
Tall yellow flower spikes — once grown as livestock forage and dried for its faint vanilla scent.
Common yarrow
Feathery leaves, flat white clusters. Nicknamed “soldier’s woundwort” — used for centuries to help stop bleeding.
Oxeye daisy
The classic white-petaled, yellow-centered daisy. A favorite of pollinators.
Milo, meadow ahead
Nose down, doing what Milo does best.
Wild basil
Whorled purple-pink blooms stacked up the stem. Not a true basil — it's mint-family, with edible, fragrant leaves traditionally brewed as tea.
Wild basil
Same plant, closer in — those fuzzy calyxes around each whorl.
Goat's beard, gone to seed
The giant “dandelion” — same seed-head structure as a dandelion, just much larger.
Bedstraw
Tiny white star-shaped flowers in loose sprays. Once used to stuff mattresses, hence the name.
Deptford pink
A small bright pink, five-petaled flower with white speckles — easy to miss in the grass.
Common yarrow
Another stand, gone slightly past peak bloom.
Crown vetch with blueweed
Pink-purple crown vetch sprawling beneath a tall blueweed spike.
Common milkweed, budding
The single most important plant here for monarch butterflies — their only larval host.
Red clover
Rounded magenta-pink blooms, a beetle resting nearby.
Clover patch
Pink and white clover mixed together, going to seed.
Clover patch
A second look at the same patch, an ant making its way across a blade of grass.
Crown vetch, in bloom
A full sweep of pink-purple, with seed-heads from earlier blooms scattered through.
Hop clover and white clover
Tiny yellow pom-poms mixed in with white clover and spent blooms gone rust-brown.
Blueweed / viper's bugloss
That improbable blue-purple spike, covered in small tubular flowers.
Milo in the meadow
Heading toward the treeline under a grey sky.
Bladder campion with spotted knapweed
Pale papery calyxes and a single purple knapweed bud opening.
Spotted knapweed
A single bloom, still mostly surrounded by clover and grass.
Red clover
Round pink-purple blooms on their characteristic three-leaflet leaves, with a spent clover head fading to rust-brown in the background.
The meadow, wide view
Grey sky, golden grass gone to seed, treeline in the distance.
Spotted knapweed, in bloom
A full stand of frilly purple-pink blooms, milkweed leaves visible at the edge of the frame.
Horse nettle
White-to-lavender star-shaped petals curling back from a cone of bright yellow anthers, on a spiny, toothy-leaved stem. A nightshade relative — not a true nettle at all, and one you don't see often out here.
The wide meadow, rain starting
Mist visible in the air — this is right when the rain rolled in.
Chicory
That clean sky-blue color, unmistakable — the root has been roasted as a coffee substitute since ancient Egypt.
Soggy and happy
Post-walk, hair still wet, Milo close by.
Entry One — your words
Write whatever this walk actually felt like.