Flowering 2012

A belated look at the many wonderful flowers this relatively rainy spring.

violets

buttercups

purple vetch

above; bull thistle foliage

wildflowers in our front yard are below

mullein; below is 1st year rosette

the early less shady flowering time of spring

Flowering post at Raleigh Nature

Garden Spider Goes Quadruple!

A garden spider, Argiope aurantia, set up shop in our kitchen window and had a wonderful summer and fall. Still productive (with some feeding help from us) in late November, it amazed us by laying its 4th egg sac.

egg sacs

weaving number four

count 'em - one, two, three four!

Raleigh Nature post on this garden spider

Mushroom Madness

Sporadic but heavy rains have brought a plethora of mushrooms to Raleigh!

Marsh Creek Park mushrooms

Milburnie landfill meadow mushrooms

Decayed faerie ring at the Capitol

Ancient shelf shroom at Sadlacks (NE parking lot)

Baby shelf shrooms on my tomatillo cage

Cedar Hills Park

Below is a monster from my school, TFA.

Lots of mushrooms after sporadic but heavy rains this summer.

Marsh Creek Park Expansion

Off New Hope Road is Marsh Creek Park, which has recently added a recreational center and skate park.
The setting is typical Piedmont farmland after 50-60 years - upland pines and chestnut oaks with a slope down to water - though not Marsh Creek. the park is named for Marsh Creek Road, which begins just across New Hope.
The skate park is impressive and quite popular.

Just below the skate park is a rain garden with a beautiful stand of Joe-Pye-weed as seen below.

The new center has a large meadow beside it and its large parking areas have nice ecotone areas, though stilt grass is fast invading.

The microstegia - stilt grass or bamboo grass, is in the center.

This is a lower field, and through the trees are headwaters and a nice small pond.

Marsh Creek post on Raleigh Nature

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