Summer Nature Walk

This summer has been so incredibly rainy.  I have no problem with thunderstorms; in fact, there is nothing I love more than sitting on the back deck and watching the dark clouds roll in across an otherwise bright sky.  Mmm, that dark bank of clouds that shrouds the world in darkness, then flash . . . KABOOM! and the heavens open up.  But if it's just a piddling little rain shower, I get antsy and claustrophobic, especially if there are so many days in a row of them.

That's why, when the sun comes out, I get outside.  It doesn't matter if there's just a tiny hole punched in a cloud with the barest flirt of blue sky shining through; as long as there is a sunbeam nearby, I go outside.

On the 17th, we had a nice little thundershower followed by a bright burst of sunshine. (Note.  All these pictures were taken then, as I had intended to write this blog post on that day.  Here we are, nine days later, and I have just now gotten around to writing this dang thing.  This should give you a glimpse into the incredible procrastination that is my life right now.)  I had been stuck in the office all day so I immediately ran outside, determined to go on a nature walk.

Remember in spring, when I said that a naturalist will probably say whatever season they're in is their favorite season?  Nope.  I very much disliked summer on this day.  Why? you might ask?

Mosquitos.

I had completely discounted the fact that mosquitos will swarm anything that moves right after a rainfall.  So I ended up putting my shirt over my face in an attempt to ward off those mini hell beasts.

Not perfect, but not getting eaten!

The place that I went walking has a nice enclosed and wooded pathway with plenty of standing water puddles for those bloodsuckers to breed in.  They still swarmed, but I only ended up with three bites.  Hooray!! (I also had the foresight to wear jeans that day, hooray!)

This box elder maple tree already has its seeds formed!  Maple trees have a double "helicopter" seed, which is why, even though this tree has a compound leaf that looks nothing like a maple, it's still in the maple family.

I can't wait for fall to come so I can start tossing them into the air.  Whee!

Do you see the background, how it's so much more lush and full than it was in spring?  No off-roading for me today, unfortunately.  Not without a severe threat of poison ivy.

Then I saw the horse chestnut tree (or is it a buckeye?).  Remember the pink cone-shaped flowers?  This is the nut that they produce!  The inside of the spiny shell is a buckeye nut.  No, you can't eat it, and no, it doesn't taste like peanut butter and chocolate.  Those are candy, this is a real nut.  They will probably be ripe come August.

Horse chestnuts!

I will have to remember to pick some of these in the fall to show everyone, because they're pretty cool.

Queen Anne's Lace is out in abundance at this time of the year.  Also known as wild carrot, this flower sports a long taproot that can be eaten.  Just be wary; it can easily be confused with poison hemlock, which is what a lot of settlers died from.

Queen Anne's Lace

 You can really see how the green plants are taking over the underbrush.  This happens every year around this time, which is the second reason I like spring better; I can go off the path and gallivant around in the woods without worrying that I've wandered into a deadly bog of mosquitoes.

I do like summer though.  Sometimes I like to pretend that I am wandering through a jungle.  An hour after rainfall and it's probably not far from what a real jungle would feel like; air so humid it's thick as soup, the threat of malaria, an orangutan demanding the secret of fire.

The "Jungle"

Well, okay, there was no orangutan this time, but I did see two fawns with spots still on their butts crash through the undergrowth.  I tried to catch them on camera but was too distracted the first time and not expecting the second one.  Sigh.  This is why I like plants so much; they don't really move!


 Speaking of wild edibles, I found this delightful plant snagging at my jeans as I hurried on my desperate-to-be-free-from-mosquitoes way.  I felt hungry, and I wanted to pop some of these refreshing-looking berries into my mouth.  Leaves of three, let it be?  Pshaw, you're too timid.

As you should be!  Never, ever, ever eat anything that you're not 100% sure what it is.  Poison ivy does indeed have leaves of three, and it also has red berries.  However, it does not have thorns, and these leaves are too serrated to be poison ivy.  This is black raspberry (their stems are square, whereas blackberry is round and has a whitish powder over top) and is perfectly safe to eat.  But I like to leave some food for wildlife, so I left it be.  Besides, the berries weren't ripe yet and would have been awfully bitter.

Then I found my favorite plant.  I know, I probably have about twenty favorite plants.  But this one is my most favorite out of all of them.  Not only does it have some medicinal qualities, it has the best seeds ever.

Spotted touch-me-not

Jewelweed!  Also known as touch-me-not, this little plant packs a great punch against poison ivy.  Its sap contains miracle juice that helps to relieve itchy bug bites or poison ivy rashes.  You just have to be careful when picking it because it grows in the same places as poison ivy (Ay, there's the rub).  The seeds are tightly packed explosion packets in the fall; one touch can send the seeds ricocheting in any direction.  I love to find this plant in the fall and yell "boing!" whenever I release the seed capsules.  Hours of entertainment.

No seeds were there for me this time, and a miasma of mosquitoes flew out at me from where the jewelweed sat, so I hurried away, hoped that the heat of the sun would chase the little buggers off.

No such luck.  So instead, I turned my attention back to the plants, and found this interesting little bug happily sunning himself on a stand of milkweed.

Isn't he a cutie?  I have no idea what he is; probably one of the 40-something species of specialized milkweed eaters.  He's the same color as a monarch butterfly though, did you notice that? (there are a couple of different colored beetles in the flowers . . . and they're doing it.  Shhh, you'll embarrass them!)

Milkweed is so named because of the milky sap that flows out when you break a leaf off.  I have read that it is edible, however, the same toxins that make monarch butterflies taste yucky to predators will eventually make you sick, so I don't recommend eating it.  Once it hardens in the fall, the fibrous material inside can be harvested and made into rope.

There, you're one step ahead of your neighbor should the zombie apocalypse hit us.

As I was leaving the park, ushered out by my brand new mosquito BFFs, I saw a bird fly into a tree.  Since I missed out on catching the fawns on camera, I decided to try to catch this bad boy.
 

I'm not even mad that he decided to show me his butt.  I got a picture of a songbird, something I've been trying to do all year.  Unfortunately, he did not come and save me from my mosquito friends, so I had to flee to the relative safety of my car.

Still, it was a pretty good summer nature walk.