Snow On The Mountain

wasp

Snow On the Mountain

As we headed toward the white clumps in the pasture behind our house, I just knew we were going to have great success with this week's outdoor challenge: Queen Anne's Lace.  However, upon our arrival, I was briefly disappointed to discover that the clumps were not Queen Anne's Lace.  I quickly recovered my excitement observing the beauty of what we HAD found, and decided it would make a fine substitute.

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Butterfly

Bee?

At home, we discovered our plant to be Bishop's Weed, or as we prefer, Snow On The Mountain.  Apparently, it is a highly sought after ground cover for flower gardens.  Just think, people pay good money for this stuff and we have thousands growing wild as weeds in our pasture!  I noticed them in the spring.  The variegated leaves are much more impressive than the tiny white flowers.  Together, they are quite a sight.  Especially covering an otherwise barren hillside as this picture shows.

bee

We could detect no scent from the flowers.  We observed three different kinds of bees and a wasp frequenting the blossoms.  The stem feels smooth, but is covered with tiny fine hairs.  The thick leaves point upwards alternating as they climb towards the end of the stem.  The topmost leaves have the "snow." 

Our arrangement

We read that these make excellent cut flowers for arrangements, and will last a long time if the stems are dipped in boiling water.  So, we tried it.  We discovered that white milk bleeds out when the stem is cut or the leaves are removed.  It is a little sticky.

Claire's watercolor painting
of Bishop's Weed

Most of the plants we saw were about 2 feet tall.  They grew mostly along the edges of the field near the fence row.  As there were hundreds of them, we didn't feel the least bit guilty clipping all we could carry.

Pokeberry Paint

Indian War Paint?

While playing outside on this beautiful, unseasonably cool morning, the children discovered a Pokeberry bush.  I don't imagine that it took them long to discover the best use for this find.  I had warned them to never eat Pokeberries, (thankfully).

Green Eggs!

Green Eggs but no ham

Finally, blue-green eggs!  Our Americauna chicks finally begin laying today.  We found these two small eggs in the nesting box.  I photographed them beside the larger brown eggs which came from our 3 year old hens; a Barred-Rock and a Buff Orpington; to highlight the difference in size and color.  We should be getting 8-9 a day soon!

Another milestone

It may seem insignificant to others, but Claire independently placed her first phone call.  I simply told her the Grandma's phone number.  She wrote it down, dialed it properly, reached Grandma, stated her business, (is it alright if Licorice comes with us today?), and passed the information on to me.  What a big girl!

Off with the training wheels

Milestone: Cody rode his bike today without training wheels for the first time. He only rode for about 5 minutes, then he asked that the training wheels be replaced. He didn't much care for mom jogging behind him holding him up by his shirt tail. At this time, he perceives no training wheels as a loss of independence rather than a gain so I don't think he is going to be very excited about conquering this milestone.

A Secret

We have a secret, just we three,

The robin and I and the sweet cherry tree;

The bird told the tree, and the tree told me,

And nobody knows it but just us three.

But of course the robin knows it best,

Because she built the ---- I shan't tell the rest,

And laid the four little --- somethings in it---

I'm afraid I shall tell it every minute.

Cody's Catfish

Big Catch

While Claire and I were having girls' night out at scrapbooking club, the boys decided to go fishing.  They couldn't wait to show me these pictures of the enormous catfish caught by Cody.