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UltravioletPhotography

High Summer in the North


Andrea B.

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It is High Summer here in my part of the Northern Hemisphere. Everything is green and lush with the huge rains we have had all summer. And it is a bit noisy as only High Summer can be. The locusts, crickets and tree frogs hold raucous rock concerts every night. Fuzzy fledgling birdies are trying to learn how to use the sunflower feeders while still hollering "Feed me! Feed me!" to the long-suffering parent birds who are quite ready to see them go now. The little guys were so loud yesterday that I went outdoors thinking I needed to chase off a hawk or some predatory neighbor cat. The neighbor kids are splashing and screeching trying to get in a bit more pool time before school starts.

 

The weeds have been extraordinarily prolific this summer. In particular, I have been amazed at the number of Acalypha rhomboidea (Three-seeded Mercury) and Erechtites hieraciifolius which spring up all around the yard no matter how vigorously I pull them out. They just don't stop! I haven't quite seen anything like this before, even with the spring crop of Alliaria petiolata which can often be over-abundant.

 

Those two weeds are not particularly photographic - either visually or ultraviolet-ly - although they are quite fascinating as flowers. The Acalypha is a type of spurge with the usual unusual reproductive structures and tiny, tiny little flowers. The Erechtites is rayless and doesn't do much besides make little puffball mops. It does grow quite tall though. There is one in the herb garden that we think is now between 9-10 feet tall (2.7 - 3 meters). I had to leave at least one of them growing for the sake of botanical curiosity. A common name for the Erechtites is Pilewort. The old herbalists were very practical about plant names. No guessing needed for how Pilewort was used.

 

The part of the Three-seeded Mercury flower which holds the 3 seeds.

810_3365pn.jpg

 

Two tiny white florets.

810_3350pn.jpg

 

 

 

There is the slightest hint that Autumn is on the way even though we have another month of very warm to very hot days. The fennel seeds are becoming harvestable. We add 3 or 4 of them (out of a harvest of thousands!) to marinara sauce. And I'm going to try to save some seeds from the Penstemon digitalis (below) which bloomed so prolifically after its rescue from the path of a bulldozer that was leveling the old cow pasture for new homes to be built. I miss those cows. They were those cool, shaggy, red-blond, long-horned Scottish Highland types.

 

Purple-streaked white Penstemon flower. Version 1.

penstemonDigitalis_vis_ambient_20180608wf_10311pnStack.jpg

 

Purple-streaked white Penstemon flower. Version 2.

Which version looks best on your screen? (Thank you in advance for your reply.)

penstemonDigitalis_vis_ambient_20180608wf_10311pnStackV2.jpg

 

 

 

The Great Potato Mystery (GPM) has still not been solved. I found 4 little potatoes in the back yard. They seemed to have been pushed into the dirt and had taken root and sprouted a nice dark-green vine. Did the grey squirrels decide to start a potato farm? Did a racoon steal them from somebody's garbage can and bring them to my backyard to devour only to find them inedible for some reason? Did my house/pet/garden caretaker somehow misplace the potatoes she was packin' during her rounds? Excuse me Kim, you know those potatoes you lost? I think I found them. Do you want them back? I may never have an answer to this GPM.

 

****

 

 

I'll be gone for a while during the next couple of weeks. Take care of one another, comment on the posts, add some of your UV or IR work and, above all, be well.

 

Written from UVP World Headquarters Western Division on the Eastern Coast of North America

Cheers -

Andrea B.

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