Jomegat's Weblog

Today Beth and I took Penny down to Sandogardy Pond right after breakfast. When we got to the pond, we came across a flower I did not recognize. I haven’t yet tried to identify it, so if you know what it is, please tell! Looks like it’s probably a Bur Marigold (Bidens cernua).

Next we saw some Wild Mint (Mentha arvensis). Some people are crazy about this stuff. I’ve nibbled it, and yes, it does taste minty, but I would not ever be likely to go out of my way to get some.

Then we saw this New England Aster (Aster novae-angliae). They’ve been in bloom for a while, but I thought this was an especially nice specimen.

There were lots of water lobelias (Lobelia dortmanna) growing at the edge of the pond, mostly in the water. We haven’t had a lot of rain here lately, even when you factor in Hurricane (err… Tropical storm) Earl, so the pond is shrinking back from its normal water line, stranding these. That did allow me to get a nice shot without getting my feet wet though.

Growing right among the lobelia was some Bladderwort (Utricularia inflata). This is one I had never noticed until this year. It’s carnivorous which makes it cool by default.

We left the pond and headed down the trail along the stream to check out the Jack-in-the-pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum) I had found last week. Peterson says you can eat the root (a corm), so I dug one up. I have to let it dry out before I eat it though. It cleaned up nicely after I got it home.

After harvesting the corm, Beth said she wanted to take a hike (which is what we were already doing in my opinion). I took that to mean she wanted a longer hike, and I was up for that. So we crossed the stream and walked up the dirt road that runs along the other side of the pond. There are several houses there. A couple of years ago when we were walking on this road we met a lady who lives in one of those houses. She has a huge garden. And now she has a nifty four-legged scarecrow.

We walked all the way until the road reaches Route 132 and then turned around. When we got home I rinsed the dirt out of Penny’s leash, and Beth came out with my camera. “There’s a moth you would like to take a picture of, so I brought you your camera.” She was right! It was a cool moth.

Again, I have not made any attempt at identification, so if you know what it is, I’d like to hear about it!