![Mycelium]()
by elizabeth5047 | Apr 29, 2011 | Flora, Uncategorized |
I have found several bird nests in the woods this spring, each made from different materials. One is tiny and full of paper birch bark and moss, another full of wide grass blades and bark from a grape vine. The most recent one I found is made from an outer layer of the mycelium in this photo. The lining is made of white pine needles. This photo above shows the dried, branching hyphae of a fungus that was decomposing the log on which it was growing. The mycelium made a sturdy net of tiny black threads that acted like a basket for other nest material. After a winter with lots of heavy snow, the nest is falling apart and was probably blown from whereever it was...
![Gossamer and glumes]()
by elizabeth5047 | Nov 15, 2010 | Flora, Uncategorized |
The outing of outings today with the reconvened Champlain Valley Botany Class that Jerry Jenkins taught in June at Black Kettle Farm. Sheri Amsel is pictured examining the dried capsules of Willowweed (Epilobium sp. ) on the outskirts of the Webb Royce Swamp after a morning of discussion about meristems and winnowing and umbels and glumes and gossamer. John Davis introduced me to the concept of an aerial ecosystem populated by all the spiders that I thought were suspended from the sky. Who knew...
![Lovely Halloween]()
by elizabeth5047 | Nov 1, 2010 | Flora, Uncategorized |
The forest was beautiful again today–big toothed aspen leaves that looked like giant, serrated polka-dots all over the forest floor. Interspersed were little mushrooms and other treasures. Felt the first snowflakes of the season that were big enough to stick on my...
![First frost and then what…]()
by elizabeth5047 | Oct 27, 2010 | Flora, Uncategorized |
I love the first frost on the leaves in the garden. The patterns on this lamb’s ear is crisp and soft at the same time. I brought in the last tomatoes and zucchini just across the path from the lamb’s ear the evening before this frost. I lost the basil, gambling that I’d have one more night. And though we’ve all been expecting snowflakes, it was in the 70’s and sunny today. Great for a sunny warm soccer practice this...
![Raspberries!]()
by elizabeth5047 | Oct 17, 2010 | Flora, Uncategorized |
This afternoon I went with some friends and family to harvest sweet potatoes at Harvest Hill Farm, Mike and Laurie Davis’s farm in Willsboro. On the way we were waylaid by the sight of late season raspberries that we could not resist. Seeing them at this time of year, and seeing my almost-5-year-old friend Arden eating them with such joy, made me wonder why they are not planted in every school yard in the North Country. Eating raspberries right off the cane can make a farmer (or a fresh food, farmers’ market consumer) out of anyone. There’s also the benefit of seeing berries as the fruit of a plant, not an expensive commodity paid for with money at the grocery store. The juicy red sensation that melts over your tongue and colors your lips could not be a more affordable and healthy luxury for children who have access to fresh raspberries in...
