FIELDS OF GOLD, WHITE BEACH PEAS, AND OUR PAL PUTIN

FIELDS OF GOLD (MULLEIN)

A WHITE VARIANT...

...OF BEACH PEA

Friday, 8:45 AM.  63 degrees F, wind N, light to moderate with stronger gusts.  The sky is a deep blue and cloudless, the air sparkling clear from the rainstorm that sped through last night leaving less than a quarter inch of rain.  The humidity is 81% and the barometer stands at 29.89".  It is a "perfect ten" morning.

  I have fallen so far behind in keeping up my own landscape that much of the last few days (when not playing Grandpa) has been spent whacking back overgrown trees and shrubs.  I may have violated a few pruning rules in the process but it was an emergency of sorts, and sometimes the best time to prune is when you have the  saw in hand.

   I have written quite a bit about the wild beach pea, Lathyrus japonica, the flowers of which are normally pink when young, becoming lavender or blue-violet at maturity.  Use the blog search engine for more general information.  The pure white blossoms above are a variation I have not seen before, and are only on one plant, at the intersection of Ninth Street and Old Military Road.  Gray's Manual lists a form candida as having white blossoms and perhaps that is what I have found.

   The orchard and pasture fields are suddenly golden-yellow again with the blossoms of the common mullein, Verbascum thapsus.  These beautiful, tall, strong-flowering biennials are field and pasture weeds that are very striking in the landscape.  From what I can tell, horses and cattle find them unpalatable, which is why they are so prevalent in old pastures.  Daughter-in-law Leslie informs me that goats will eat the fuzzy leaves. Woodpeckers and chickadees love the hard, little black seeds.  Again, for more photos and other previously offered information use the blog search engine.

   President Obama and his administration are throwing a hissy fit about the Russians granting  (leaker? traitor?) Edward Snowdon asylum.  If any of them had lived through fifty years of the Cold War they wouldn't be so surprised.  Or maybe they have been asleep, like Rip Van Winkle.  Did they really think Putin was their pal?