Sunday Morning

a towhee calls

followed by

three robins and a woodpecker

one bluejay

will not be ignored

meanwhile

back on ground level

a spider web waits

only yesterday

a snakeroot seed photo

was altered

just

in play

Last Saturday in September

Foggy morning

14 km run

3 hr yard work

Tired !

Carpenter's Square

     

        Carpenter's Square or Figwort is the name of a rather strange plant. It has a very square stem which apparently gave it one of its names. The Latin and French names are similar with the Latin being Scrophularia marilandica and the French being Scofulaire du Maryland. I have been puzzled over the name of this plant for years and found more information this evening at the following site:

http://www.henriettesherbal.com/eclectic/dmna/scrophularia.html

        Given that it is 15 pages long, I am not going to quote from it but simply give the address above so you may look if you wish. (I also found that I had blogged about it before, quite some time ago.)

http://ontariowanderer.blogspot.ca/2006/08/carpenters-square.html

        Here is today's photo looking strange as I took it from a "head-on" angle and difficult to understand but interesting to look at in my opinion.

Frost Aster

        What I call a "Frost Aster,"  like most flowers, has many common names. Some of them are Awl Aster, Frostweed, Hairy White Old Field Aster, Hairy Aster, and White Heath Aster. The accepted name currently is "Old Field Aster" in English and Aster poilu in French. The Latin too has changes recently. The correct name is now Symphyotrichum pilosum.

        Whatever one calls it, it is blooming now. I think it is a bit late this year but perhaps it will bloom later too, to make up for the slow start.

September Days Grow Shorter

        Finally, today, the night is longer than the day. I used to think that happened at the autumn equinox, but found out a few years ago that it is not exactly the case at our latitude. We lag a few days behind the sun's apparent crossing of the equator.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equinox]

        As the days get shorter, many flowers start moving on toward their seed stage but there are always a few holdouts that try to extend the season. Most of our Elecampane plants (Inule aulnée in French and Inula helenium in Latin) finished blooming  a couple of weeks ago but we have one still in bloom even though neighbours have stopped blooming and even let their leaves change colours by now.

        Meanwhile, back in the barn, I just managed to clean out the chicken coop and put in fresh bedding so later this evening I will collect our remaining two chickens and move them from the summer coop to the winter location where there is a light on a timer to keep them on a steady schedule for laying eggs.