A PRICE TAG OF THORNS

CREEPING PHLOX IN OLD CEMETERY

NANNYBERRY AT HWY 39 REST STOP

BLACK LOCUST TTREES IN BLOOM

BLACK LOCUST FLOWERS

Sunday, 8:30 AM. Delafield, WI.  63 degrees F, wind NNE, calm.  The sky is partly cloudy and hazzy but the morning is nice.  The barometer stands at 32" and the humidity is 72%.  Joan is attending a wedding shower for niece Jennifer today and Buddy and I will just hang out.  We had a pleasant and uneventful trip yesterday and stayed at a LaQuinta Inn last night, which accepts dogs as guests at no extra charge, so Buddy got to stay with us rather than in the truck.  We all ate pizza and had a fine time.

   There is an old cemetery on Hwy. 2, just several miles east of Hurley, WI that has a wonderful spring display of creeping phlox, with some other things like pussytoes and violets mixed in with them.  This is the best of all lawns, which can only be attained through poor, sandy soils,  much neglect and a lot luck.

   We saw a few deer on the way down, other than that no significant wildlife. We did see two large bald eagles perched with great gravitas in a large tree a ways off the freeway.  Upon closer inspection one had its wings up in the air.  Held perfectly motionless.  Since no bird would sit there like that indefinitely, we concluded they were fake.  Quite an elaborate hoax. 

   There was evidence of Gypsy moth activity here and there throughout the central part of the state but nothing that most folks would even notice.

   We came across a gorgeous nannbyerry, Viburnum dentatum, at a rest stop south of Stevens Point.  I have begun using them as small street trees.

   The most significant blooms seen from the truck were those of the black locust, huge numbers of them on hillsides and along fencerows from mid-state south.  Robinia pseudoacacia is a legume, a member of the pea family, and very floriferous.  It is native further south but was spread everywhere by settlers because its wood doesn't rot and makes fine fence posts.  Unfortunately it is also extremely invasive and thorny to boot and you don't want it spreading into your  farm fields and gardens.  

   Like the rose, its beauty comes with a price tag of thorns.