It was one of those hot but overcast days when for the most part the sunlight was muted enough that shadow detail can be made out without resorting to HDR techniques.
Rebuilt the bonfie in a tepee shape, making sure of access to a place to light it from. Couldn't mow over the tall grass here due to too many branches tangled there. took care of them when finishing up.
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Right on schedule the neighbours to the south set off a bunch of much more impressive fireworks than the cell phone captured.
this spider was on one of the cinder blocks from the old burn pit. Got moved to the front yard, was still alive when I put the block down. very distinct and bright dots on the top, which turns into a red bar when seen from behind.
this spider was on one of the cinder blocks from the old burn pit. Got moved to the front yard, was still alive when I put the block down. very distinct and bright dots on the top, which turns into a red bar when seen from behind.
I've let the bald cypress on the left spread it's branches where it wants to toward the east and south. Makes an excellent place for a hammock.
Growing in shade in little oak grove
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Carya ovata, shagbark hickory Full view through gigapan at http://www.gigapan.com/gigapans/175661 info from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carya_ovata common hickory in the eastern United States and southeast Canada. It is a large, deciduous tree, growing well over 100 ft (30 m) tall, and will live over 350[1] years. The tallest measured Shagbark, located in Savage Gulf, TN, is over 150 ft (46 m) tall. Mature shagbarks are easy to recognize because, as their name implies, they have shaggy bark. This characteristic is, however, only found on mature trees; young specimens have smooth bark. The shagbark hickory's nut is edible and has a very sweet taste. [..] The word hickory is an aphetic form from earlier pohickory, short for even earlier pokahickory, borrowed from the Virginia Algonquian word pawcohiccora, referring to a milky drink made from ground hickory nuts. Shagbark hickory nuts were a significant food source for the Algonquins. Red squirrels, gray squirrels, raccoons, chipmunks, and mice are consumers of hickory nuts.[5] Other consumers include black bears, gray and red foxes, rabbits, and bird species such as mallards, wood ducks, bobwhites, and wild turkey. ... Uses The nuts are edible with an excellent flavor, and are a popular food among people and squirrels alike. They are unsuitable to commercial or orchard production due to the long time it takes for a tree to produce sizable crops and unpredictable output from year to year. Shagbark hickories can grow to enormous sizes but are unreliable bearers. The nuts can be used as a substitute for the pecan in colder climates and have nearly the same culinary function. C. ovata begins producing seeds at about 10 years of age, but large quantities are not produced until 40 years and will continue for at least 100. Nut production is erratic, with good crops every 3 to 5 years, in between which few or none appear and the entire crop may be lost to animal predation. Andrew Jackson, the seventh president of the United States, was popularly nicknamed Old Hickory, a play on the toughness of hickory wood. In 1830, he began planning the construction of his tomb at The Hermitage, his plantation in Tennessee. The grave site was surrounded by a variety of trees, including six shagbark hickories. They stood there for 168 years until a storm in 1998 demolished over 1,200 trees at the site. Work on replanting them remains an ongoing project. In modern times, shagbark hickory is rarely used as an ornamental due to its large size, slow growth, difficulty of transplanting (all Juglandacaea species have large taproots) and nut litter. "Hickory" is derived from pawcohiccora, an Algonquian Indian word for the tree's oily nutmeat. [3] The nuts were a food source for Native Americans.[11] Shagbark hickory wood is used for smoking meat and for making the bows of Native Americans of the northern area. The lumber is heavy, hard, and tough, weighing 63 lb/ cu ft when air-dried,[12] and has been employed for implements and tools that require strength. These include axles, axe handles, ploughs, skis, and drum sticks. [13] The bark of the shagbark hickory is also used to flavor a bitter maple-style syrup. [did not use a tripod, I took 6 images, but only used only four of them to create the pano.]
Lots of these growing in the lower pond/swamp
Thanks for the ID from Jeff Nelson as American Germander, Teucrium canadense. Likes high water and it's in the swamp. Can be invasive, but jewel weed is not bothered by it. Not edible, but certainly is pretty. Wikipedia doesn't have much about the species. The following quote from http://webstu.onu.edu/garden/node/69 indicates that there are herbal uses -- external only. It also indicates that they don't often get as tall as this one. It's growing in a swamp/wetland in a bowl surrounded by tall trees. "Uses/Pharmacology The first known medicinal use for germander was by Native Americans that dried and ground the leaves to make a tea to induce sweating and urination(4). All aerial parts of the plant can also be used as an antiseptic poultice wound dressing or into a tincture gargle to treat bad breath and kill germs in the mouth(4). The plant has recently come to the attention of the public as an extract tea marketed for use as a weight loss aid as well as for management of diabetes and high cholesterol(6). Dosing/Recipes Contraindications/Interactions/Adverse Reactions Current guidelines on botanical safety, however, place germander in safety class 3. This means the plant is considered unsafe and should only be used under the supervision of an expert qualified in appropriate use of the substance due to reported hepatotoxicity, hepatitis, and even death from several cases of incorrect use of the plant6,5. External use as an antiseptic would dressing or antiseptic gargle may still be a safer option, as long as no part of the plant is ingested."
This appears to be yet another kind of grass, but there doesn't seem to be very many of them.
Maybe 5% of the grass is this kind
This is the most abundant type of grass in the open fields.
Ended up using mounting blocks that keeps the railing out far enough that the fingers can pass between the rail and the studs.
