“If you’re going to San Francisco, be sure to wear some flowers in your hair. If you’re going to San Francisco, you’re gonna meet some gentle people there.” [“San Francisco” written by John Phillips, of The Mamas and the Papas fame.]
I’ve had that song playing in my head for a few weeks now. Here it is and it can be your earworm as well just by clicking here. I liked seeing the fashions in the video too.
It all began when fellow blogger Joni wrote a post about Summer beach reads and reviewed Erin Hilderbrand’s novel “The Summer of 1969”. Joni’s review referenced music, circa 1969, and we chatted back and forth about music and discussed this popular song from the late 60s. This song was a big part of the counter-culture movement, in an era of hippies, and phrases like “make peace not war” and “flower power” and, while I may not have remembered the Woodstock event, I sure remember those phrases and this song.
So, the 60s was the era of flower power.
Though I was not wont to sport a ring of flowers on my mousey brown hair back in the late 60s, about as “rad” as I dared to be was signing my name with a fleurish, er … flowerish, er … make that a “flourish” okay? You see my parents weren’t about to let me do my own thing, much as I tried to persuade them about the cool fads of the day, so I had to find another way to be creative. Back in the late 60s, if you had a name that included the letter “i” … well you were in luck, as instead of the dot over the “i” you’d make a little flower, a simple daisy with petals and that was how you signed your name. Yes, small things amused small minds back in the day (they still do sometimes to be honest).
I originally intended to visit a sunflower farm today and had my heart set on it, but early morning thunderstorms, and the threat of funky weather throughout the day, not to mention all the heat and humidity, had me scurrying out the door to Council Point Park and then hunkering down to peruse my picture folder. I’ve amassed a ton of photos the last six weeks and hobbled by my hectic work schedule and household mishaps, I’ve not had a chance to use them.
So, this bloomin’ post is about a trip to Lake Erie Metropark taken on Saturday, August 3rd. I already shared the pics of the groundhog, fawn and a beautiful butterfly on the actual day I made the trek. It was a hot Saturday and I was a little disappointed how much lakeshore flooding had encroached into the walking paths. It was disheartening to walk, then have to turn back countless times due to mud or flooding and the red vinyl boots are not made for walking long distances.
I thought of just leaving, then noticed a paved path where I’d never strayed before. I kept walking and in the distance, I could see something yellow. If you squint, perhaps you can see it in the distance.
Eager to explore that area, I kept on going, though I’d been walking for several hours already and by now it was the heat of the day. The temps were searing and the humidity was high. (I would return home with a sunburn and enough fly and mosquito bites from the swampy areas along the way that I could have played connect the dots on my arms and legs.)
I could tell the golden yellow area was quite far, but I thought maybe it was a sunflower field, so that bright yellow drew me like a beacon and became my mecca. I was still feeling fairly perky as I began in that direction.
There were so many wildflowers along the way, and the bees and butterflies were enjoying them, just like me. I could only identify a handful of these pretty blooms. I grew up thinking Queen Anne’s Lace was a weed, though many embrace it as a wildflower.
Finally I was getting closer to this bright-yellow patch of flowers …
… and then I was there. I learned it was a “Grow Zone” geared to promote a natural habitat.
A variety of wildflowers were nestled between the predominantly Black-eyed Susans.
After I meandered around the area and took a slew of pictures, I knew I had to head back to the car which was on the other side of Lake Erie Metropark at Cove Point. By then I was feeling just as wilted and bedraggled as these poor flowers.
I made it back to the car and turned on the A/C full blast, glad to sit down since my trek was seven miles (11 kilometers) altogether – whew, but what a wildflower extravaganza it was!
Linda Schaub
WALKIN', WRITIN', WIT & WHIMSY 
Great time of year for flowers!
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Yes! I was bummed not to see the sunflowers. I’ll try again another time but I understood they were at their peak this week. Years ago, Ford Motor Company owned a huge piece of empty property in nearby Dearborn, Michigan (Dearborn being the home of Henry Ford) and they planted thousands of sunflowers there. It was just gorgeous … you’d pass by and people were pulled to the side of the expressway service drive taking pictures. It was before people had smartphones and automatically had a camera with them. I drove by all the time as I went to community college down the road – never thought to take a single picture. Then I wanted to take pictures, and they had plowed the entire field up and it is slated for a Ford building. Oh well – I’ll try this place instead. This Summer’s heat, humidity and all the rain sure have made the flowers bloom like crazy and these wildflowers are not coddled in any way and grow like weeds.
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OK…you started it! How about, “They call me Mellow Yellow?”
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Oh, now why didn’t I think of that Fred? I’ll borrow that song for next time … how’s that?
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Just listened to this song – geez, I remembered all the words for goodness sake and watched the video. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a picture of Donovan before – it’s nice to watch videos of singers through the years that I liked but never saw them in concert and never bought their albums, so had not a clue about them. I never bought “Rolling Stone” magazine. I always wished I’d seen the original Eagles in concert – I always liked them. Glenn Frey was a hometown boy, grew up in Royal Oak, Michigan. His son has taken over for him in the “new Eagles” since his passing, with some help from Vince Gill on occasion.
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What a great wild flower day you had!
If the weather holds here, I may have one sunflower blooming in my yard this year. The birds must have brought in the seed.
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Yes, those wildflowers were beautiful Margy, much better than I could have captured in a photo from afar or up close. I had a few sunflowers one year – the back porch pots did okay, and I had some goldfinch nibbling on those sunflower seeds as they ripened, but I had one very tall Russian Mammoth sunflower. I could hardly wait for it to fully ripen as I imagined the cardinals and blue jays feasting on it. Instead, the weight of the sunflower’s “pan” was so great, it bent the sunflower to the ground and I went out to water one morning and found a group of squirrels feasting on the almost-ripe seeds. So much for that idea.
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Well if you do eventually get to go on your sunflower tour, you can call the post Mellow-Yellow!
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Now there’s an idea Joni – I like it! I hope those sunflowers aren’t wilted from the heat or bedraggled looking from all the rain pounding their petals.
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We had rain from midnight to 4am, often torrential, but the ground was so dry, it all soaked in, and there’s not even a puddle around to show for it.
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First I apologize for not coming back last night and not responding this morning. We had several bouts of unstable weather yesterday and I shut down and pulled the plug multiple times. I thought I’d never get the art post written. Got it posted and it started rumbling again so ended up shutting down earlier than intended – I wish I could give you our rain. We had 1 1/2 inches of rain in a very short period. I have looked outside on occasion during teeming rain and the water has come up to the curb as it can’t go down sewer grates fast enough. We have another storm tomorrow evening and hopefully it does not turn out to be severe.
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Don’t worry about not responding Linda.
I know you are swamped with work and stuff. I just sent in my art submission, after spending 15 hours on it, and then the files wouldn’t send because they were too big, so I had to split them up, so I am behind on here too. We had enough rain over the past two days that I won’t have to water for a week. But it did really soak into the ground, so we must have really needed it.
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I finally caught up in Reader last night except for two or three posts because I wanted to do a short post this morning, which I did, and we have a stormy night and maybe even afternoon today – the weather is tropical out there right now and the heat, humidity and stormy weather is really getting old. Glad you finished your submission project and can relax a little and also get a break from watering … too bad it is too hot to sit out on the deck and enjoy outdoors. I am still busy at work and have not finished what I’m working on and have been working on since Thursday, hopefully I can before the storms arrive.
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I was glad to finally send the art submission in, heard back, they will not be making a decision until Sept, which is okay, and expected, as usually it’s a committee who decides. Weather is horrible, yesterday and today, so humid – worst day of the summer.
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Well at least you finished the submission that was hanging over your head to get it done … now with the renovation done, the submission in, and maybe you’re having four nice weather days like us, you can get outside and enjoy yourself a little. Our weather is the same – we are having a storm tonight which is supposed to bring in a cold front and break the heat – good! I went out this morning and it was 80 degrees and high humidity and dew points. I’m ready for Fall.
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PS. Thanks for the shout-out Linda!
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You’re welcome Joni!
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I’m melting just thinking about the heat! I remember leaving my AC on high during the day so that when I came in super hot a cold wave engulfed me when I opened the door! Best dam thing I’ve ever bought at garage sale for $25!
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I’m really ready for Fall to arrive Wayne. Please don’t remind me I said this when I whine about the never-ending cold, ice and snow in January and February next year. The heat and humidity arrived last Thursday and won’t exit ’til this coming Wednesday and we have severe weather potential today. When does it all end? The AC must be one of the best inventions ever, right?
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Your weather cannot be shot and buried quick enough Linda and yes AC best invention ever!
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Here in SE Michigan, Fall 2018 came early, as did Winter 2018 with snow in early November. Then I thought Spring would never get here and we had snow, ice and cold thru late April. There is no rhyme or reason to the seasons … hmm, I kind of like that for a blog title. I am afraid to wish for Fall – we had a hard freeze the last week of September last year and I was scrambling to shut off the water and get the hose in the garage. Fans, once our best shot at keeping cool, don’t cut it anymore.
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Mother Nature has a bone to pick with you all down there!
She doesn’t fool around….she’s all business!
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Wonderful wildflower shots, Linda! 🙂
I was out taking pictures yesterday and was out in the heat and hot sun too long. With getting older, i have to watch it. I took photos by Riverside Hospital (along the river) but the wildflowers north of the hospital grounds had wildflowers that were far more impressive than the hospital’s domestic flowers. Nature wins!
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Thanks Tom! I have to learn my wildflowers by next Summer so I can identify them like you do. I found the same thing at this park – they have landscaped areas and their pale pink hydrangeas were pretty, but a little blah next to the colorful wildflowers, plus they were swarming with wasps. I really stayed out in the sun way too long on this day and if I didn’t turn around and go out the following day, and it was equally hot, and do the same thing again adding more pink to my existing sunburn. But, this Summer has been so iffy as to the weather, so I end up just seizing the day and rolling with the heat and humidity because who knows when we have a sunny day again? We have potentially severe weather coming in today, but it will not break the heat – it continues through Wednesday. Ugh!
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Yes, i’m a bit worried about the oncoming heat because i have aquarium plants coming in the mail. With getting older, the heat gets to me quicker than it used to.
Don’t worry about identifying wildflowers or wild plants. Just take their pictures and share; that’s plenty good enough. 🙂 Too many of us get hooked on labeling things (and it really isn’t making the world a much better place).
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It’s been pretty hot this weekend Tom and we’ve had a storm come through already, and just barely rained when they called for potentially severe weather, but we have another storm this evening and another Tuesday. I hope your plants arrive safely and aren’t sitting on a postal truck for too long. I think the humidity is so bad it saps your strength – last weekend we had a great Summer weekend, little humidity and I walked around outside, taking pictures, and went to three different places – 8 miles altogether, but a day like this, you feel wrung out, even if you set out early in the morning.
Okay, I will just enjoy their beauty then, as well as the butterflies and bees who were eager to partake in those blossoms as well.
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I can’t ID all of the flowers in your photos but I see Black-eyed Susan’s, Purple cone flowers (also known as echinacea), Queen Anne’s Lace and wild aster. Those are all pretty common and you probably recognize them. One that you may not recognize, the white one that attracts the butterflies and bees, looks like Mountain Mint. Two years ago I went on a quest to identify this plant. Here is my post about it https://donteatitsoap.com/2017/08/11/mystery-solved-thank-you-lisa/ .
Love the photos and The Mamas and the Papas. 🙂
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Hi Ruth – I think there must be wild Black-eyed Susans too? I had them in my yard until the first Polar Vortex wiped them out – it was surprising as I’d had them for years. They had bigger heads and were always full of seeds. In fact, I never thinned them out as once the petals fell off and they were no longer blooming, the seeds that remained in the “head” portion would just fall to the ground and reseed themselves naturally. I was devastated when they died off after having them since the mid-80s. They came from a neighbor’s yard … he dug up and divided his and they bloomed like crazy every year til Labor Day. My coneflowers, purple and cream-colored, also bit the dust during that Polar Vortex in 2014. I never replaced them. In fact my whole butterfly garden was wiped out that Winter. The bees were plentiful amongst all those wildflowers at the park. I enjoyed reading your post – thanks for sending it to me.
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Great post 🙂
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Thank you!
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No problem 🙂 check out my blog when you get the chance 😄
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Hi Ruth – I think there must be wild Black-eyed Susans too? I had them in my yard until the first Polar Vortex wiped them out – it was surprising as I’d had them for years. They had bigger heads and were always full of seeds. In fact, I never thinned them out as once the petals fell off and they were no longer blooming, the seeds that remained in the “head” portion would just fall to the ground and reseed themselves naturally. I was devastated when they died off after having them since the mid-80s. They came from a neighbor’s yard … he dug up and divided his and they bloomed like crazy every year til Labor Day. My coneflowers, purple and cream-colored, also bit the dust during that Polar Vortex in 2014. I never replaced them. In fact my whole butterfly garden was wiped out that Winter. The bees were plentiful amongst all those wildflowers at the park. I enjoyed reading your post – thanks for sending it to me.
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Loved your wildflower walk and talk. I have heard that song, in the 1980s while I was in Medical school- no video of course- no one had the video those days. ANd it is a catchy tune that goes round and round one’s head. There’s another one of the same era perhaps- hotel California. Have you listened to the Carpenters’ songs? I am sorry I don’t know Woodstock- I thought you were talking about the cartoon character- in Charlie Brown maybe ?
The lavender colored flowers that look like lazy Susans are there all over Yale too- is that a wildflower? Who knew? There are plenty of milkweed of the type you included in your post too. In some parts the colour of the leaves were turning red.
It was not so hot when I left and Boston was actually quite chilly at 19 degrees.
Loved your post but was left wishing for at least one picture of Parker.
Susie
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Hi Susie – I don’t remember much of Woodstock as I really was not listening to those artists at that time and was not here in U.S. when Woodstock took place. I do remember this song though and I liked the video because is showed images of how people did dress back in that era. How they wore their hair.
I remember all that stuff. I liked that song. I remember the Carpenters and I liked their music – had some of their songs. Then Karen Carpenter died of anorexia and he never got another partner to replace his sister. She had a beautiful voice. I liked the Eagles and liked the song “Hotel California” – the lead singer of the Eagles, Glenn Frey, was from Royal Oak, Michigan which is about 20 miles from where I live. His son has replaced his father in the band since his death a few years ago.
I don’t know all the wildflowers, just the Black-eyed Susans (yellow with the brown centers) and the Coneflowers (lavender with the high centers and they droop down making them resemble a cone). I had them in the butterfly garden out back before the Polar Vortex wiped them out.
Better pack yourself some warm clothes before you head back to school Susie – you are in for some cold Winters, lots of snow, some ice. Hope you already have some of those items on hand and don’t need to buy them.
I’m doing a Parker post very soon. 🙂
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I don’t have any, warm clothes, Linda. I am hoping that as I live in the dorm which has heaters and study at the library which has heaters too, that would be enough- OMG if I need to get heavy clothes, what will I do? Do you think there are places we can rent them out from?
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Susie, are you in a complex of buildings, like dorm to library and never walking out in the elements? Just going building to building?
You will need to go out for groceries unless you subscribe to a grocery store service that delivers food or paper goods, toiletries, etc. to your dorm room. Where I shop, Meijer does that and it is $99.00/year for that nicety, but you put in a shopping list to them online, pick delivery time and then they deliver it to you – other stores likely do that too – I’ve never tried it, but Amazon would deliver some items too. The name of the service is Shipt – I see Shipt shoppers all the time at Meijer – they have bags with the logo on and they are shopping for people. Here is a link and you put in your zip code and see if there is one near you. I don’t know if you could rent winter clothes – maybe a resale shop? You would not need a lot of clothes Susie, but a warm winter clothes, gloves/mitts and boots … it will be pretty there with the snow and you might like to take walks there around campus and the City. Thinking it would be a good idea to get some warmer clothes or have lots of layers. Also, what if there was an issue with your heat at the dorm, i.e. a power outage … you’d need some warm clothes to keep warm.
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how very gorgeous Linda. U got a new camera? Shots are lookign great
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Thanks Michael – I treated myself to a DSLR and it has a long “kit” lens, so it’s been fun trying to learn how to use it rather than relying on the the digital compact which I use everyday. I’m more apt to use automatic to be honest. Years ago when I traveled I used a 35 mm and took lessons, but used it on automatic too. Thank you for noticing!
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Great work! Defo a great investment!
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Beautiful blooms, Linda! It has to get cooler soon (I hope!).
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Thanks Rebecca – I hope so too as the weather has been jungle-like the last week or so … we had storms all day yesterday and I spent more time off the computer than on and torrential rain which I am sure caused flooding issues for some. I am ready for Fall and cooler temps.
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I’m ready for cooler temps and for the mosquitoes to die! 🙂
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Oh me too Rebecca – I hate the heat and humidity. We are promised a cool and sunny weekend. I am keeping my fingers crossed. We had 1 1/2 inches of rain in a very short time yesterday – torrential rain and it was pounding down like the end of the world. All our larger parks continue to have lakeshore flooding and soggy grounds since back in May – this will mean more flooding on the walking paths and a fresh new crop of mosquitoes!
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I love the title and all the flowers – they make me so happy to see! Thank you for taking the heat to get such great shots!
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Glad you liked them Shelley – it sure was a hot day but along the way I got to see that cute fawn (actually a pair of fawns, but one stayed hidden most of the time). I love the sunny-looking yellow ones the best.
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Aw…yesterday, Mr. and I saw a momma and two fawns while we were walking. Neither one of us had a camera, it was just fun to watch and admire them doing their own little walk.
I love the yellow flowers too!
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Ah, that’s nice – I enjoyed the pair of fawns, one was too shy to stay out in the open. It made that day very special.
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Great wildflower photos, Linda! I love the Black-eyed Susans! They are loved by so many insects and in the fall the finches snack on the seeds. Hopefully your weather settles down. Humidity is hard to deal with.
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Thanks Sabine – glad you liked them. There were wildflowers everywhere along the path and it made for a wonderful walk. I used to have the Black-eyed Susans years ago, then lost them and the Coneflowers after the Polar Vortex in 2014. In the beginning of gardening, I got a few Black-eyed Susans from a neighbor and they bloomed like crazy and after the petals fell off, I’d see finches too and the heads full of seeds would just reseed itself and kept the plants growing bigger every year. It added so much color to the yard. I never replanted them after I lost them which was a pity.
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Linda, I vote for you replanting a few Black-eyed Susans! I have lots of them and also the echinacea. They’re so easy and give you a spot of color and then finches in the fall!
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I may do it when retired and have more time to tend to them Sabine. Back then we had neighbors who had perennials for years and we used to divide and share them. I got all the Black-eyed Susans from my neighbor Jim and a lot of Coneflowers from the neighbor across the street. I had some ivory-colored Coneflowers too. I traded all my irises for them – I got rid of the irises as they only bloomed for a short time, took them out and planted rosebushes instead. All that has survived are the Twist-and-Shout Hydrangeas, some roses and Forget-me-Nots after last year’s brutal -45 windchill.
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Trading plants with fellow gardeners is fun! I’ve gotten some fun plants that way and also shared many of my own. Irises are one of my favorite flowers and I have lots of them. But I really love most flowers, except for carnations.
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Our local newspaper has a perennial exchange in its parking lot in Spring and Fall and they always show how many people showed up and exchanged perennials. I have nothing more to share so I wouldn’t be a good candidate. But back in the day – it was fun.
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I’ve never gone to a formal plant exchange. Usually friends and neighbors pass them along. Maybe when you retire you’ll have a chance to grow some flowers!
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I’ve never done a formal plant exchange either Sabine because all the neighbors who’d divide and share their perennials, sometimes just bringing them over on a shovel or in a bucket to a hole I’d already dug, are long gone, some have passed away or others have retired and moved away,
Once my plants were established I could reciprocate and I did offload all my irises in exchange for perennials initially. I kind of miss those days – nothing is the same, and I would like to try again but I’ll see how this weather plays out as well. The Winter of 2018-2019 was pretty bad. I worried about losing power and the pipes freezing when the windchill was -45 degrees. Then we had a natural gas explosion at one of the natural gas storage areas and we were asked to lower our thermostats for 24-36 hours until they could build up a reserve – many big factories closed the next day to conserve energy. We, as consumers, were told there was a danger of running out of natural gas on the coldest few days of the year (-45 windchill and an air temp way below zero is not the norm here at all). I do not have a fireplace – those who had fireplaces turned the heat down very low. I am reluctant to plant and risk losing everything as I once done. I’m going to put together a slideshow when I get a chance, perhaps in the Wintertime, to show my little paradise back in the day – I loved the butterfly garden as I catered to the birds with feeders and baths – it was very peaceful.
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I look forward to a slideshow of your garden from the past! It sounds beautiful! We can only hope that the coming winter will be kinder to everyone. I couldn’t deal with those temperatures and storms!
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I use Shutterfly to store all my pictures and for years you could just launch a slideshow from the particular album and send the link to someone. They have modified how to do it during the years. I will see if I an figure it out – I believe it is now called a “Share Album”. Hopefully Shutterfly does not bother you to try them out. My friend sends “Share Albums” from Shutterfly but since I use it anyway, they don’t send “welcomes” to me. I hope Winter is kinder. Today is the last day of this horrid heat and humidity and we have one more storm and that’s this evening and then four beautiful and cooler days. I am looking forward to it. Walking in such high humidity and high temps is not fun at all and the squirrels and birds stay up in their trees as the heat wears them out.
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Shutterfly is handy for photo projects. I make calendars for gifts every Christmas and photo books. But I don’t use it as storage. I use an old-fashioned external drive and also use a service in the cloud. The last time I tried to send links for a photo book it didn’t work and even customer service was baffled. I find that they used to be better and now I often find things don’t work as well as before.
It’s raining a little here today! Be well Linda! 🙋
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Interesting that your Shutterfly experiences are disappointing these days also. Their customer service staff are very nice when I’ve had to reach out to them in the past – I’ve done a few Christmas ornaments for gifts too – one time I sent an ornament to a little boy who had cancer and on Facebook they asked for people to give him an early Christmas that he would remember. So, three times they mailed it out, three times it got lost. Finally they Fed Exed it to the hospital. Unfortunately it was too late, but his parents were pleased – it was a picture of Jacob embedded into the ornament. I tried several times sending an album to myself at work to practice and it never arrived. They retooled their site last Summer and I’ve found it difficult to navigate around at times. I used to create fun gifts for my neighbor and she especially loved the calendars, photo books and mugs. I had several photo books that were free from purchasing the camera. I will try again. I use a flash drive if I have a lot of photos and store the rest in my old laptop for easy access when doing posts at a later date from when the photos were taken. I have stored all the albums I scanned in at Thanksgiving 2017 onto a flash drive and separated them on Shutterfly into various albums as well so they are handy for using in blog posts. Plus the house and garden are there too. I never used to take that many pictures until the last four years after I got the digital camera with 12X zoom, then many more photos were taken and used in the blog. We have some rumbling out there so I’m listening with one ear as to whether I will shut the computer off.
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Customer service people were nice, but it left me wondering if I need to look for another place. Costco does a lot of the same stuff, the quality is excellent and they always make things right without hassling customers. Too bad your ornament order got messed up and delayed!
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I’ve not dealt with Costco Sabine. There are none around where I live. Well the customer service people were great (after three times not arriving) and the Fed Ex was a nice touch, but I told them about this little boy and his family’s plea to celebrate Christmas early and asking people to send him cards as he has an inoperable brain tumor. So Shutterfly has a Facebook site and they told followers that they could each pick one card for free and Shutterfly would send Jacob the card and sign your name. That was nice – you were only charged for mailing. I didn’t do that as I’d already ordered the ornament. But when I got the camera last year I got a voucher for $25.00 but when I asked for how to redeem it as no voucher came with the camera, they said it had to be used in installments. Didn’t much care for that and you couldn’t use on a sale and all kinds of restrictions.
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Their coupons and free offers rarely tempt me since there always seem to be strings attached! I will definitely look around! And lastly, they should have owned up to their mess-up and paid for the postage of those cards! Just my opinion!
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The only things I’ve gotten for myself has been the free cards. I got Christmas cards and made my own design. Most of the items I got was for others and it was my understanding that they want you to buy at least one thing per year. Their freebies are great but the shipping/handling is off the charts. I have never looked into cloud storage. I have kept each of my posts, narrative and photos, archiving up to the last 3-6 months on flash drives. At this point though, since I’ve done so many posts, I don’t know if I would want to have to recreate the blog if WordPress went out of business and no one took over for them.
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You’re right about the cost of shipping! I’ve done photo-books and calendars. The quality is great, but I wish they were more organized. For your digital stuff you can get an external drive and back up everything in one place. I’ve never thought about WordPress going out of business! I’d think that the chances for that are small.
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It is outrageous for shipping charges! I really didn’t like what they did with my $25.00 voucher. Dividing it into chunks, thus making me order multiple times/orders made me mad. I’ve been pleased with their Christmas cards. I used to get my Christmas cards from charitable organizations, mostly wildlife organizations or Guiding Eyes for the Blind (really sweet all-occasion cards and Chrisdtmas cards), but I was accumulating too many, so now get them from Shutterfly – I have enough to last the rest of my life. I send only about a dozen Christmas cards. I don’t think WordPress will go out of business – in fact they just acquired another smaller blogging platform a week or so ago but I always had it in the back of mind … but to recreate the blog would be a formidable task. I should think about backing up to the cloud. I just do flash drives but have not been as dutiful doing that this Summer and my other laptop has the disk issue so still need to deal with that – lots of posts in Word and the pictures, all labeled by date are at that laptop. Lots of commotion at the house this Summer and being busy plus trying to keep up here … before I know it, the day and/or weekend or any free time is over!
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Oh, yes, I. Read that WP bought Tumblr! Enjoy the rest of summer and your walks, Linda! 🙂
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Thanks Sabine – I did seven miles yesterday and am headed out in a few minutes – we have beautiful and cool weather today, same as yesterday.
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oh my goodness is this a wonderful flower post. I went back through it twice – and smiling at how rad you were to sign your name with the flourish/fleurish…
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I felt pretty lucky to have an “i” in my day – I was eager to sign my name as much as I could. 🙂
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Even though I have an i in my name, I did not sign it with a daisy over the i in the 60s. What a wasted opportunity! Great photos of wildflowers, Linda. It is hot here in Boston too. I was wilting today.
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I guess it is too late to start now Laurie – perhaps the young girls were not so daring in PA as in MI back in the late 60s? I know I got raised eyebrows from my parents with my flowery signature. Glad you liked the wildflowers – they were everywhere and I had fun walking along. We had a horribly hot and humid day here too and a potentially severe storm is coming in about 1/2 hour. I’ll mention you are wilting in Boston to fellow blogger Susie. She is on break from med school at Harvard right now – she’ll be glad to not be wilting away. I must ask if they have air-conditioned classrooms. She just started there the beginning of July. We never had A/C in our classrooms and it got pretty hot come May or in early September. Hope the heat does not hamper your running and/or walking regimen which has already taken a hit as you told us about in your recent post.
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The flower power is REAL in this post! Gorgeous photos!
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Glad you enjoyed this post Mackenzie – so many wildflowers that day. I could not name all the varieties along the pathway and in the patch of flowers at the end of my journey. Yesterday I went on a very long walk, inside the woods – I saw some wildflowers but interesting to me were all the trees that were decaying where they fell, some mushrooms in them, a lot of moss – the moss colors are incredible. I wanted to look at my pics last night and I got back late from this excursion, came on here and kept falling asleep – we had a beautiful weather day and I kept hiking and hiking …. another beautiful weather day today and am soon off. Am behind in Reader but with our weather we have to seize the day!
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I loveee the beauty of moss!! It adds a “fairytale” like feel to nature. I bet it was even more so with the wild mushrooms!
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You are exactly right about that Mackenzie – it was so smooth and emerald-green colored and it made it look velvet. I haven’t finished the post about the walking (I just published the sketching part of the trek – I had to do two posts or it would have been extremely long) but the flash did a good job capturing that bright green moss considering it was in the middle of the woods.
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A couple of these pictures are amazing. The bringing out of some of the flowers whilst the rest is blurred.
We used to do hearts for dots.
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Thank you Ellie – I was trying to be creative there by blurring the background. I am glad you liked them. Those photos were taken the same day as the post I did a few weeks ago that had the fawn and the groundhog and butterfly. It was a great day, even if it was scorching hot and I got a sunburn. You were lucky – you could do Ellie or Eliza and still be creative with the “i” … now hearts would have been neater than flowers I think. 🙂
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