MEADOW SWEET, AND A WEAK ARGUMENT

SIOUX RIVER BEACH

MEADOW SWEET FLOWERS...

...SHRUB

Monday, 8:00 AM. 77 degrees F, wind W, light with moderate gusts.  The humidity is 70%, the sky clear with some haze on the eastern  horizon.  The barometer is way down.  It is a nice morning but it will be a hot day unless the wind changes to the north and clouds move in.  Last evening there was a clealy defined  front stalled over the  Bayfield peninsula, heavy clouds to the north, clear skies to the south of the front line.
    This morning will be spent with the tree board, watering the new city trees.  A number of our young trees are suffering from the drought, and we may well lose some.  It appalls me that a resident can see a young city tree dieing from lack of water in front of their house, leaves drooping and curling, and not give it a drink.  Fortunately this is the exception, not the rule, but we have to check on all the young trees today.  It does not help that the city water wagon, an old fire truck, has a hole in the tank that has not been repaired and we have to carry water by hand.
    On our trip to the beach yesterday we discovered a very pretty native shrub in bloom.  It is meadow sweet, Spirea alba, probably variety latifolia, in the rose family.  It is native to the northeastern US and Canada.  It is not rare but not that often seen either, unless one frequents damp shores and other wet areas. This one was growing right on the crest of the dune, where the beach grass ends and the tree and shrub line begins.
    Old world spirea species were much used in wines,  beers, tea and as strewing herbs, and our native spireas were used by northern Indian tribes for various medicinal purposes.  I will collect some leaves and flowers and use them to flavor tea and let you know how it tastes.
    One fallout from the Colorado massacre will be more calls for anti-gun legislation. Sorry, weak argument, as a can of gasoline and a match would have done worse, and Jack the Ripper terrorized Victorian London with a knife. True evil always finds a way.